TV - Movies
Playing Ted
Bundy Took A Toll
On Zac Efron
By CHARLES SWITZER
In 2019's "Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile," Zac Efron completely switched gears in his acting career to portray a person that incarnates the very notion of evil — American serial killer Ted Bundy. The mental anguish he endured in embodying Ted Bundy became a struggle to maintain his own mental health in such a dark headspace.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the actor was asked about his process for creating Bundy's look and replied, "I lost a lot of weight for the role. On all the footage I could see Ted was always, not emaciated, but was kind of a '70s sinewy-buff." Zac Efron's commitment to imbuing mental life into Ted Bundy was another challenging obstacle.
When speaking to metro.co.uk, he said, "I've never played a role in which I have to separate myself. It was almost impossible." When asked if the movie and his performance glamorize the psychopath, he stated, "I wasn't interested in playing a serial killer. [...] But there is something unique about the way going into the psyche of Ted and his longtime girlfriend Liz."