Fans are defending Zac Efron after he was called ‘unrecognisable’ in a new interview.
The 36-year-old actor is busy promoting his new film The Iron Claw, and he recently appeared in an Entertainment Weekly video along with his co-stars Jeremy Allen White and Harris Dickinson.
After watching the clip, which was shared on Tuesday (7 November), trolls took to the comments to make cruel remarks about his appearance. One social media user wrote: "Damn his face doesn’t even move now."
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Other online gawkers assumed that his appearance was due to plastic surgery or ‘growth hormones’.
Amidst the backlash, Zac’s devoted fans came to his defence by reminding others about his horrific jaw injury.
"Before everyone comments about it Z said that his jaw shattered in an accident and he had to get it restructured which is supposedly why it looks different now," someone wrote.
Previously speaking to Men's Health, the actor said he shattered his jaw while running in the house.
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He said he fell while wearing slippery socks and hit his chin against a granite corner of a fountain, knocking himself out in the process.
After waking up, he said he realised his 'chin bone was hanging off his face'.
"The masseters just grew. They just got really, really big," he recalled.
This isn’t the first time Zac’s appearance has been cruelly ridiculed online. In 2021, he appeared in a video to promote Bill Nye's Earth Day! The Musical.
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Zac is only in the video for a matter of seconds but that didn't stop thousands of fans from scrutinising and obsessing over his jawline. Even doctors on social media tried to 'explain' to concerned fans why Zac looks the way he does.
Despite High School Musical coming out almost two decades ago, and after an awful injury, some people still think Zac should look exactly the same.
Zac has been praised for his new role in The Iron Claw, which follows 'the true story of the inseparable Von Erich brothers, who make history in the intensely competitive world of professional wrestling in the early 1980s'.
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"Through tragedy and triumph, under the shadow of their domineering father and coach, the brothers seek larger-than-life immortality on the biggest stage in sports," the synopsis reads.
The Hairspray actor will play Kevin Von Erich in The Iron Claw and is joined on screen by Jeremy Allen White, who plays brother Kerry Von Erich, Harris Dickinson who is cast as fellow brother David Von Erich, and Stanley Simons as brother Mike Von Erich.
Featured Image Credit: Entertainment Weekly/YouTube/Walter McBride/Corbis via Getty ImagesTopics: High School Musical, Celebrity, Zac Efron, TV And Film