Zac Efron references his shocking real-life jaw injury in his new rom-com A Family Affair.
The 36-year-old American actor has returned to screens as the male lead in the Netflix film, with Nicole Kidman playing his love interest.
He plays fictional, shallow and vain movie star Chris Cole, while Nicole plays writer Brook Harwood, the mother of his long-suffering assistant Zara (Joey King).
In one scene, romance begins to blossom between Chris and Brook as they cozy up on a couch and share stories about their injuries over the years.
Chris tells Brook how he had his chin operated on after a fall, a direct reference to Zac’s real-life jaw injury.
Chris says, “I did have surgery though. I fell on set and some glass broke,” before lifting his head to show Brooke the scar on the bottom of his chin.
The story bears a striking resemblance to Zac’s real-life accident, when he broke his jaw when he crashed his chin into a fountain while slipping at his home.
Viewers also took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to comment on Zac’s changed appearance in the film, after the nasty accident left him with a fuller, squarer jaw.
Zac Efron references his shocking real-life jaw injury in his new romantic comedy A Family Affair (pictured left in 2007 and right in the film)
Many are unaware of the reason for his change in appearance and one person wondered: “What happened to Zac Efron’s face? Did he get a lot of filler?”
Another said: ‘Watching A Family Affair. What happened to Zac Efron’s face?’
A third commented: “Zac Efron’s face looks really stiff but he’s still cute,” and a fourth wrote: “Why does Zac Efron’s face look different? Did something happen?”
Another added: “I just watched A Family Affair on Netflix and what happened to Zac Efron’s face? Or did he have surgery? Or did he wear makeup for the movie?”
In 2022, Zac detailed the terrifying accident that led to him breaking his jaw after being hit with plastic surgery rumors.
In 2022, Zac detailed the accident in which he broke his jaw after being hit with plastic surgery rumors due to his more prominent chin (left in 2019 and right in the film).
Zac told Men’s Health magazine that he slipped in a puddle of water while running in his socks at home and hit his chin on a granite fountain.
He recalled how he lost consciousness and woke up with his chin “hanging off his face” after the nasty 2013 accident.
Zac explained how the masseter muscles inside his face and jaw “compensated” for his injury and grew in size, causing a change in the shape of his jaw.
“The masseters just grew. They got really, really big,” she shared about the shocking accident.
Zac later told Entertainment Tonight that he almost died after the freak injury, explaining: “It was fun. It sucks. I almost died, but we’re okay.”
Zac stars alongside Nicole Kidman and Joey King in A Family Affair, and viewers have laughed at his change in appearance following the shocking injury.
The High School Musical star claimed she didn’t know her transformation had gone viral on social media until her mother told her about the plastic surgery rumors.
“My mother told me that. I never read the Internet much, so I don’t care,” he admitted.
At the time, Zac’s friend Kyle Sandilands also debunked rumors that the Baywatch star had undergone plastic surgery.
“I’d like to know if she’d had any plastic surgery,” Australian radio host Kyle told The Kyle And Jackie O Show.