The world may have a complicated relationship with serial killer content, but no one has quite as complex a connection to murderer and rapist Ted Bundy as the man portraying him onscreen. According to a new interview with The Daily Mail, Zac Efron had a very hard time separating himself from the real person he plays in upcoming Netflix film Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile.
Speaking to The Daily Mail at the London premiere for the film, which drops on Netflix May 3, Efron said:
"I’ve never played a role in which I really have to separate myself from when I go home at night and it was almost impossible...I’d like to say that I did it successfully but I couldn't."
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Exactly what that means is unclear, but let's hope that Efron was able to get those wicked thoughts out of his head long enough to sleep.
He's not the only person who had a challenging time filming the movie, which is told from the perspective of Bundy's one-time girlfriend Elizabeth Kloepfer, played by Lily Collins. Collins also claimed that she couldn't quite shake the subject matter.
"I actually had an awful time in prep for it," she told Variety of the movie. "I woke up every single night at 3 or 4 a.m. for a month. I was woken up with visions of destruction around rooms, logs, and broken glass."
Efron may have struggled with the role, but director Joe Berlinger told The Daily Mail that he was ultimately perfect for it — in part because of how good-looking and popular Efron, the actor, is.
"[Zac is] a wonderful guy, but nobody really knows who he is in real life, and that’s the hold Bundy had over people," said the Extremely Wicked director. "Because he was charming, because he was good looking he was able to manipulate his victims, he was able to lead them to their death."
Efron may have been the perfect choice for Bundy, but let's hope that he's eventually able to let this role go. A serial killer is not the person you want hanging out in your head.
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