That was so adorable.

-I spies what looks like scripts? and a book on his desk-

If I had to guess I'd say this was most likely the desk of his agent or something. I get the feeling it wasn't his desk/office this video was filmed in.

Awwww this is too cute for words.

Damn you Zac, stop being perfect. I really was nice of him to reply to this and send a video out.

Aww that's so nice of him, but I can I not be referred to as a ninja or "Zacattacker". I think I'm a bit too old for that now, I'll just stick with being a simple fan lol

Be a "sweetheart" haha.

lol ikr? I cannot with the fan names. I'm too old for that shit, I'm not 12.

Yeah, me too. Kinda like I'm too old to say/write "OMG, like, you are the bestest, koolest guy ever. I <3 u. Lyke, if you were my bf, I'd b so happy." (Then again, I never talked like that - ever.)

What would be funny as hell is a cougar video like that, especially if they talked like teens.

It was very nice. He is adorable. :)

The girls have put a lot of effort into this and it's nice that Zac watched it and said thanks but I personally think they/he could have just replied if he wanted to acknowledge it instead of tweeting it to everyone. I'm not sure how many of his followers (esp the non-hardcore fans) find the fanvideo equally endearing.

Now even more than before everyone will be coming up with crazy stuff for attention and where is the limit? It's like when Mila Kunis first agreed to that ball invite, then everyone else was flooded with similar things and people got angry when they were ignored.

It's nice of him to acknowledge his fans who got him where he is... but as shown during the last promo, Zac is eager to grow up and be taken serious. And advertising this type of video, which is a very t(w)een heartthrob thing, seem to send the wrong message in light of his upcoming movies. Perhaps it's time for Zac's Twitter to grow up too.

Why always such a debbie-downer?

I think Zac's twitter is very 'for the fans'. Good or bad, whatever you feel about it, that's the way it's being run, and so this makes sense. He seems to like seeing this sort of thing and that seems to be the way it is atm.

I hope it doesn't go overboard but this was nice for him to do.

I do think it was nice of him to do, just that they didn't have to retweet the original video.

But his twitter is not only read by real fans. And whatever happens on there will impact his public image overall, if he wants it or not.

And it is contradicting all the stuff he has been feeding us during promo. They used to manage his image so carefully but now it's all over the place. He says he wants to grow up and make cool movies (and he does have some very mature movies coming up) but this is just the opposite.

I wish he could have it both ways but if he wants to be taken serious by adults and guys? Then this isn't helping at all. He needs to be consistent in his message and actions. And I'm not saying he should shun his younger fanbase, just not showcasing the most t(w)een-y things.

I don't think it's contradictory though. He's showing what he's always done, that he's a nice guy that cares about his fans. From what I could hear in that video, the girls weren't saying OMG YOU'RE SO HOT BLAH BLAH, they were talking about how talented he is. Half of what he has going for him is his reputation as a hard worker and a stand up guy.

Now if this starts happening every other day yes, I will be annoyed and upset. But once? Not a big deal imo. I understand what you want for him, I want it too, but he's not going to make that transition the way you want him to imo. For better or worse.

I agree 100% with this. I don't really think anyone was wrong with it. If it kept happening then yes.

Yeah he's kinda known for being a hard worker and someone who keeps himself in check and is down to earth. I think him doing this video for the fans shows that.

He is the one not making the transition the way he wants - that's all over his promo interviews, only between the lines though. Although once he even said that he didn't want to offend his fans with his movie choices in the past iirc. And that he hasn't come further yet, is partly his own fault.

Him being a nice guy is great but he could have just said thank you. That would have been sweet enough and confirmed that he is a stand up guy. It would have shown he is caring but minimilized the portrayal of him as tween heartthrob and not have been so self-congratulatory again. The hardcore fans would have seen it and looked at what he responded but the vast majority of his followers wouldn't have been encouraged to watch a video which puts him on a pedestal and praises him as the perfect guy.

And this is not the first and only time this type of teen heartthrob type tweet happening on his twitter. It was really bad in the beginning, then it got better but now we seem to be descending into the childish tweets again. It's not the first (re)tweet which I personally thought would have been better not tweeted.

It is his own fault, for whatever reason he's choosing not to go after that transition as fully. I'm not saying I like the way he's doing it, or that it's the right way to do it, it's just the way it is right now.

We're just going to have to agree to disagree on this one. I don't see this particular instance as a problem. It didn't come off as self-congratulatory to me. Some of the past ones, sure. His social media person obviously has very little clue what she's doing and I hope it changes. I hope by the time Paperboy promo rolls around there's a different tone. I hope this is the last movie he does that's shit. But I'm not going to get upset over this one and get all rallied up calling for a major overhaul.

I'm happy to agree to disagree.

I want to add one more thing though...

His social media person obviously has very little clue what she's doing and I hope it changes. I hope by the time Paperboy promo rolls around there's a different tone.

To me, the thing is that she seemed to be getting a bit better hang of it. My issue is that with all the hanging out with Zac personally and Gina during promo, you would think she figured out that Zac is transitioning, where he wants to go and what's required to get him there. After all she's a "specialist."

But now, that Zac is not giving her a new interview/talkshow/premiere to tweet about every day, she seem to be descending into the silly stuff again. Which at this point seems pretty unnecessary since TLO is basically out of the door, all his upcoming movies are targeted towards adults and Cannes starts in 2 weeks (admittedly not full promo but all his pr surrounding it surely should have a more grown up tone).

It just seemed like a trend and a specific example I didn't like in this context and hence I said so. Nothing more and nothing less.

I wish/hope they'd come up with some sort of specific plan as to how to handle his twitter during off seasons and not just letting her do whatever she wants. It's frustrating because it really seems like she doesn't seem like she gets how to help get him from point a (right now) to point b (where he wants to be). That does irritate me quite a bit but I try not to think about it as it just raises my blood pressure lol.

Maybe its just me, but why won't his media person just not tweet when he doesn't have anything to promote? I mean after all there IS nothing to post. That way people know the twitter is 100% used for him when he's working. Not just to post random shit.

I'll be honest - I don't know how PR/social media people get their jobs in Hollywood. Some of them have the social intuition of a lightbulb.

I don't know how people in PR/social media get their jobs in Hollywood, but some of them are as clueless as a lightbulb. With some professional marketing courses and a few years in marketing managment from IBM, I could do better (and my product line was microprocessors.) In short, that's really pathetic.

lol i can't even begin to imagine how paperboy or bahrani will go. they are so the opposite of the sparks stuff she is used to hocking. i'm legit terrified.

personally just to chime in, i wish she hadn't retweeted the original video. him saying thanks would've been enough. then yeah people vaguely interested would've just seen he was an awesome guy. and people more obsessed would've watched the video. i think it would've been a better balance.

is it that one tweet the end of the world no? but it his overall twitter image does matter.

Edited at 2012-05-02 04:13 pm (UTC)

Not sure how a nice gesture turned into a contradiction. He's always done little things like this for fans, even before HSM. Yeah, he's getting into more mature movies and getting older, but that doesn't mean he has to completely change his attitude towards being *generous to fans (A lot of celebrities could care less).

I understand constructive criticism of his team and how they run his twitter, fb, etc, but always making something negative when something isn't done EXACTLY how people think it should be is a little overboard.

There's been a mix of fun stuff, promo stuff, and serious stuff (Cannes and Paperboy mentions) on his twitter and facebook. I think all of that should be taken into account. If it was all serious, then there would still be people complaining about how "oh, zac is no fun. blah, blah, blah" I guess the point is you can't make everyone 100% happy all the time.

And I probably sound like an immature little fanagirl right now. So none of this will probably be taken seriously nor will anyone care.

Idk where you see in my comment that I said he shouldn't do things for his fans? I said I would have preferred him to not retweet the fan video but just reply to it. Because people following his twitter (which consists to a vast majority out of non-hardcore fans) are interested in Zac, not his fans tbh.

And I don't say something every time I don't like a thing on his twitter.... in that case I would be saying something WAY more often (including comment on all the grammar and spelling mistakes which I think are pretty embarrassing). I say something when I think that it's heading strategically in a wrong direction. And my comments are almost all the time about overall handling/strategy and use individual tweets just as trigger/example.

And I haven't said anywhere that Zac can't be fun on his twitter. Just that I think this is not the right one.

Like back around the 2004/2006 era, Zac would do little things like this to thank his fans on the zefron forum. Same thing now, just on a larger scale. I will agree that most people who follow his twitter are interested in Zac and not his fans. Part of being the nice guy Zac has always been means thanking fans ever so often. Part of what separates Zac from other actors is the amount that he cares about his fans.

The grammar and spelling mistakes tend to come from whoever runs his twitter. Whenever Zac tweets, it's always punctuated correctly with proper grammar and spelling. just saying.

Tom Cruise's twitter is pretty much run the exact same way as Zac's, so if it's good enough for Tom Cruise, it's good enough for Zac. A couple fan retweets, tweets is hardly anything bad.

It's disconcerning for me that I feel like I have to almost ~defend Zac for doing something nice.

I did not even once imply that Zac was doing anything wrong? Everything I said was directed towards the way his twitter is run by his people (strategy and execution). So, I don't understand why you would have to defend Zac when nothing which was said was about him personally? I guess I accidentally said "he retweeted" which should have been "they retweeted" - sorry for that.

And it's not the fact that there are a few fan/follower retweets... it's what's retweeted.

And the big difference between him doing something on zefron to his twitter is that zefron are fans only (most of them fairly dedicated) while his twitter has mostly casual fans and/or non-fans. And that needs to be taken into account imo. Of course he can still do things for his fans and I want him to do that but just in an appropriate and smart way for the medium and his transition process.

Edited at 2012-05-02 05:57 am (UTC)

"Like back around the 2004/2006 era, Zac would do little things like this to thank his fans on the zefron forum. Same thing now, just on a larger scale."

That's the point. It's not 2004-06 anymore, and retweeting this fan video perpetuates that era and suggests he is still in the teen heartthrob business.

"...if it's good enough for Tom Cruise, it's good enough for Zac."

Not the standard I would apply. Zac is a unique individual and it would be fantastic if his social media persona reflected all that Zaciness, but I suppose he the only one who could do it and he's got other things to do.

I kinda get where your coming from
but I'm failing to see where it's a contradiction of
what he's been saying in recent promo. If he were
to take a role in HSM 4 then I would totally agree
with you, but according to him his whole growing
up process really has to do with his role choices.
Him becoming some overly pretentious actor is
the most unattractive thing he could do, and to
be frank retweeting a fan video isn't going to be the
breaking point of his career, even if he does it
again. All in all what he did was sweet, and
probably made TLO another million. Zac has to make his transition in a way that gains him respect and a older female audience (he'll never have a non-gay male following) while still keeping the younger girls who gave him the chance to even think about becoming a respected actor and currently he has a nice balance of achieving both.

Edited at 2012-05-02 02:12 am (UTC)

The contradiction in my eyes comes from the fact that you can't really separate movie roles and public image entirely. He made some mature choices now (not talking about TLO but his upcoming movies) and if he wants to be believable in those and be taken serious from the audience overall, his public image needs to reflect this. And his twitter is contributing to that image if he likes this or not.

Said that, it's not what Zac is doing (on his twitter or off) where I have my concerns - he is doing a way better job on his twitter than the pros. Nor do I think he needs or should become pretentious; he can stay the way he is. It's that his team is not helping him with the transition by making him look like a teen heartthrob when they tweet for him like with this video. Neither did I say this tweet was a breaking point in his career, only that I think it's not helping and I didn't like it. I do believe though that it would have a negative impact if they keep doing it repeatedly.

he'll never have a non-gay male following

Tbf, if he's not capable to doing that in the future, he will not be able to get the majority of movies in development made or do the movies he's been hinting at wanting to do. Or, have a long-term career. Good thing I believe he totally can. Well, if his people stop making him look like he's only acceptable for girls...

Let me explain that non-gay following comment better. I'm not saying that straight guys will never support a film he's in, I'm saying that there will probably never come a day when they attach his name to a film and attract a 70% male audience based solely off his name, there will defiantly have to be a critical (or comical) appeal to it to even imagine him packing in men on that level. However I think there can come a day when he has a Brad Pitt type respect with male audiences, but honestly I can't see it being on a Al
Pacino/Sylvester Stallone type level just because of who Zac is as a person. The heartthrob label never quite goes away, and Zac's boyish qualities just won't go away because it's embedded in his personality, so men will tend to hate him, but will see a good movie with him in it anyway.

I Agree I'm A Male and I saw 17again and Charlie St Cloud and started liking Zac's Actor and I'm so Proud and Honored to be a Male Fan. I think he has a long and Amazing Career a hard of him, But I think there are Non Gay Fans who like Zac but don't won't to say anything and have people start Judging them for Liking Zac Efron.

I Know when I want to see the Lucky One their where a lot of new Male Fans that Liked Zac Efron and Older female audience and also Older Male audience who actually Liked Zac But I see where you coming for Haha. I really don't follow all the haters comments about Zac I'm doing what any type of fan would do Support the Career of a Actor who's My Idol.

Did you watch the video? Sure some of the things the girls said were very tween/heartthrob like but most of what they said was very sweet and wasn't all like "OMG you're hot I want to birth your children" and shit. I don't think growing up means he has to forgot his fans. I 100% understand he wants to grow up (and he has) but he DOES still have fans who are kinda on the younger side. And when I say young I mean like most of those girls in that video (mid-late teens).

I think it was very nice of him to reply to them and make a video for them. Will he be doing this a lot? Nope, I don't think so. I bet we won't see him doing this again tbh. I could understand if this kept happening, but I truly don't think it will.

Edited at 2012-05-02 01:15 am (UTC)

Yes, I did. And I don't have a problem with the video or his reponse per se, only that they retweeted the original video for all 430k followers to watch. The followers are interested in Zac not his fans. The fanvideo might be cute to watch for some hardcore fans but I've seen plenty of people rolling their eyes at it and I don't even want to know what people think who are not fans.

And I said something because while that specific case might be the first time, they just did tweet a video montage asking fans to spot themselves in it a day earlier and starting again more empty retweets. So, I saw it as the beginning of a trend, plus knowing what's going to happen that they now retweeted this is going to be similar to earlier days when everyone went nuts doing similar things to get his account's attention after they retweeted some quotes/stills from TLO.

I'd just like to add that I'm pretty sure all 430k didn't bother to watch the video (like me), because I'm sure they had better things to do lol. Now with The Paperboy coming up I'm sure they'll run his social media accordingly with the film, because honestly with TLO they ran it accordingly with the tone/elements of that film. It was aimed at young woman and they played into that well with the pictures, videos, etc. Also this is Twitter were talking about, a site that really isn't know for it's high standards on any level, in retrospect Zac account is one of the better ones.

Thing is that TLO is basically out of the door, so why not gradually shift the tone towards something more appropriate for Paperboy which is launching in only 2 weeks instead of falling back into pre-TLO behavior? This doesn't really give me a lot of confidence that they will/are able to adjust.

Also this is Twitter were talking about, a site that really isn't know for it's high standards on any level,

To me, this is absolutely no excuse whatsoever. His account is not some private person's twitter but professionally run (well, run by a "specialist"). And it should be treated with the same professionalism as traditional media platforms. Personally, I don't agree that it's one of the better ones either (non-Zac parts... Zac is surprisingly good at it considering how little experience he has).

I don't read his Twitter, tbh, because its full of fluff and stuff. Colton Haynes' is more interesting to me, probably because he tweets himself and it's always either job related, funny, philosophical or even ethical ("It gets better" for instance). I know Zac has a intriguing personality, so if he were tweeting it would be more interesting as well.

I, for one, understand what you are saying and I totally agree. If this were part of a conscious strategy, I would expect that the next time I'm at the supermarket and pass the magazine display, I'll see Zeffy on the cover of Tiger Beat again.

If he goes to Cannes, I hope he can avoid the usual lines of squealing girls. The dissonance of showing up for the screening of a serious adult movie like The Paperboy with a screeching mob of fangirls around the entrance will be stupifying and won't impress some of the important people in the international movie business.

Unfortunately Jeezbees, we have selective reading on this site.

I understand that you oppose the playing of the tweenie video in Zac's thanks, and I agree with you that the playing of the tweenie video was unnecessary; it even made me roll my eyes.

I agree with you, fwiw.

Edited at 2012-05-02 11:33 am (UTC)

Awwww this is too cute for words. I'm So Proud and Honored to be a Male Fan of His Can't wait to see other Future Projects

I gotta admit when I first saw the re-tweet of the video, I went 'Oh no not the re-tweeting of fans again.'

But I do think it's a very nice gesture for him to respond. Like others have said, it just confirms what his fans already know...that he's a nice guy whose appreciates the support. I don't think it presents any sort of contradiction and honestly, even if it did, I'm sure Zac and his team know the importance of acknowledging the fans every once in awhile with a special treat. I think that's what this was. Now if they start re-tweeting and responding to all the other fan vids they will undoubtedly get sent then I might change my tune but I'd rather he be one of those celebs that takes the time to acknowledge/connect with the fans that one of those who doesn't bother.

I really like the way he and his team seem to have found a balance in getting him engaged with fans via the occasional tweet...makes it seem more 'real' if you will. Whether that continues we'll see, but I hope so.

lol i'm even getting people twittering at me asking me to help them get attention on their videos to zac. ftr (to anyone reading this), i will not retweet anything like that, sorry.

like whatever issues i have with whether it is good for his image or not to retweet a video that is 100% teen heartthrob material (regardless of what was said in it, that is what this video is), RT one just makes the clamoring for his attention all the more desperate. give 'em an inch, they'll take a mile. and i guess i hope they do okay, but idk if i trust them to be moderate in choosing how or how much to engage this.

I watched and thought this was adorkable. He really seems genuinely pleased as punch and delighted by this very sweet feedback.

Totes rad.

Off-topic, but I don't think these were posted, so...

John Cusack on The Paperboy and Zac:
http://www.vulture.com/2012/04/john-cusack-on-his-zombie-survival-plan.html

Recent Brittany Snow interview where she says Zac is her dream love interest on-screen:
http://www.nextmovie.com/blog/brittany-snow-interview-96-minutes/

Aw at Brittany talking about Zac again (':

I had seen the Vulture thing but I totally forgot to include/rt it yet, whoops lol. It's such a nice mention too. But I hadn't seen the Brittany thing, thanks.

I ~heart John Cusack.

"Zac Efron plays a reporter in the film. Did you guys ever talk about how he can be taken seriously as an adult actor?
Well, I mean my thing on him was he was going to do just fine because he had a certain mind-set that I thought, That’s the way a winner is. He didn’t walk around trying to prove what he knew. He was just totally open to wanting to really work hard and was just really honest about what he didn’t know, which I always think is a smart thing to hear from somebody. It makes you take them seriously because they’re not really pretending."

Word.

so much second-hand embarrassment for those girls