Catching Up with Zac Efron

Zac Efron recently sat down for an interview with Elle Magazine. Here's what he had to say:

TELL ME ABOUT A TIME YOU REALIZED YOUR PARENTS WERE HUMAN.

"My parents love me in very different ways. But they checked every box. My dad always taught me to be driven. I was always the shortest kid at school. Always the worst kid on the team. I'd come home after practice and my dad would build a basketball hoop. Then we'd go out and shoot 100 free throws. Pretty soon every time I got fouled I would make my free throws."

HOW HAS BEING SOBER CHANGED YOUR LIFE?

"What I found is structure. That led me to a balance of opposites: You get out of life what you put in. There was a moment when my morning routine was, like, Get up and Google yourself. But that stopped, dramatically and instantly, probably three years ago. I realized that viewing yourself through other people's pictures is not living your own life. I wasn't really being myself. A lot of my hobbies had gone out the window. I couldn't skateboard or surf for fear of being followed. Crossing the line of fear is what leads to greatness."

WHEN DID YOU CROSS THAT LINE?

"I was in Hawaii recently, and I went shark diving with some researchers. I came face to face with a shark. I could either turn and try to beat the shark to the boat, or I could look it in the eyes and let it know I'm present and I'm not afraid. It went right past me, and I put my hand out and I actually rode the shark for 10 or 15 seconds."

WAIT, WHAT?

"After that it came back and it swam under my legs and I just kind of touched it from the nose all the way to the tail. The researchers said that's a sign of respect. It goes back to that Bruce Lee quote, 'Be like water…If you pour water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put it into a teapot, it becomes the teapot.'"