What happened to Zac Efron’s jaw? The Iron Claw actor just set the internet alight again for his ‘big’ face – even after putting plastic surgery rumours to rest last year
Zac Efron has undergone multiple transformations in the public eye since he shot to fame in the early 2000s.
First he was a teen heartthrob in Disney’s High School Musical franchise. Then he got jacked for his stint playing a lifeguard on Baywatch. But his latest reveal hasn’t been met with as much enthusiasm – in 2021, he went viral for suddenly appearing in public with a “big” face and strangely puffy jawline – a markedly different look from his previously lean, boyish facial structure. It also kicked off a slew of plastic surgery rumours, which Efron has denied.
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This month, Efron began trending yet again due to his changing face shape. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly promoting his upcoming film The Iron Claw starring Jeremy Allen White, fans were reportedly “shocked” after watching a video of the 36-year-old actor.
Comments like “Why does David Hasselhoff look like Zac Efron?” and “He looks like Thanos now” appeared on the publication’s Instagram video featuring the 17 Again star. Others were quick to defend the actor, writing that they still find him “hot” and “beautiful inside and outside”.
So, let’s get to the bottom of this – what happened to Zac Efron’s face?
The jaw in question
In 2021, Efron surprised netizens when pictures of him surfaced with a noticeably larger jaw, which immediately sparked cosmetic surgery rumours.
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Was it surgery – or fillers?
Some internet users mentioned that it could’ve been the result of growth hormones, fillers gone wrong, or plastic surgery.
What has Zac Efron said about it all?
Efron debunked these rumours in 2022 in an interview with Men’s Health.
The Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile star said that he’d gone through a horrific accident at home after slipping on a pair of socks while running back in 2013. The incident caused him to smash his chin on the corner of a granite fountain. The Hollywood actor said the injury had caused the masseter muscles, used for chewing, in his mouth and jaw to grow. “The masseters just grew. They just got really, really big,” he explained.
“If I valued what other people thought of me to the extent that they may think I do,” he told the publication, “I definitely wouldn’t be able to do this work.”
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What have other people said about “jawgate”?
Efron’s friend Kyle Sandilands also spoke up for the actor on The Kyle and Jackie O Show, stating “I would know if he’d had any plastic surgery,” before adding, “‘It’s like getting a Picasso and having a kid finger paint all over it. Why bother?”
But some fans still aren’t convinced by Efron’s rebuttals. “False narrative once again”, wrote one netizen recently. “His accident was in 2013! Please learn the facts or stop making excuses for him lol.”
- Many fans were shocked when they saw Efron’s latest interview promoting new film The Iron Claw with Jeremy Allen White – with many still accusing the High School Musical alum of lying about surgery
- The former Disney star has denied going under the knife though, saying his face looks the way it does because he accidentally smashed his jaw on a granite fountain, but not everyone is convinced