ET spoke to Efron at the Toronto International Film Festival, where he was promoting his new film, 'The Greatest Beer Run Ever.'
Zac Efron is getting real about the incident that shattered his jaw and almost killed him. ET's Rachel Smith spoke to Efron at the Toronto International Film Festival Tuesday, ahead of his new movie, The Greatest Beer Run Ever, where he spoke about the painful accident, and put those plastic surgery rumors to rest.
"My mom told me. I don't really read the internet, so, I don’t really give a f**k," Efron said about rumors that he altered his face with surgery.
In 2013, Efron shattered his jaw and had to have his mouth wired shut. The incident occurred after he reportedly slipped in a puddle of water that he didn't see near the entrance of his home. He also sustained a gash in the fall that required stitches.
While Efron called the plastic surgery rumors "funny," he said the accident almost killed him.
"It was funny," he admitted. "It sucks. I almost died, but we're good."
Things also get brutal in Efron's new film. The High School Musical alum plays John "Chickie" Donohue, who leaves New York in 1967 to bring beer to his childhood buddies in the Army while they are fighting in Vietnam. After making it to the frontlines, Chickie gets a first-hand look at the good and the bad parts of the war that he didn’t see at home.
While Efron said there wasn't one particular thing about the based-on-a-true-story film that drew him to it, it simply checked all the boxes for the 34-year-old actor.
"All of it, the fact that this was a true story -- it seems so crazy dangerous and yet, as the character progresses and goes through the Vietnam War, he's really changed," Efron explained. "It's also woven really beautifully with this underlying humor, that is just Pete [Farrelly's] style, and I knew he was really gonna make this something special."
"It had everything in my mind that I wanna do," he added.
The film also boasts a star-studded cast. In addition to Efron, The Greatest Beer Run Ever features Bill Murray and Russell Crowe -- both of whom he said were a "dream come true" to work with.
"Working with Bill Murray and Russell Crowe, it's a dream come true," Efron gushed. "When you meet somebody like that, and you're filming a movie, and you're sort of in the process already, you just start working together, and there's something that really great actors do that Bill and Russell did, that was just -- they are so present and care so much about this craft, that they've mastered so many different aspects of filmmaking. They become more than your co-star."
He continued, "They help you through tapes, they have ideas -- they're very aware of their presence on camera, characters and story. It's so fun to work with those people, like you said, sort of absorb some of the magic, you just feel like, 'That’s what I want to be when I grow up.'"
The Greatest Beer Run Ever premieres on Apple TV+ Sept. 30.
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