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Zac Efron wore an unexpected accessory during his Today appearance on Wednesday morning.
The actor, 36, rocked sunglasses while chatting with his Iron Claw castmates and anchor Craig Melvin, who began by saying, “Zac Efron is a legitimate bonafide Hollywood superstar but that is not the reason he is in shades right now."
The High School Musical alum then apologized, and explained his decision to don the shades — and it wasn’t for fashion.
“No, I’m sorry man," Efron told Melvin. "I feel weird being in shades."
“I just have a bit of an eye infection,” he continued. “But I really wanted to be here. It’s such a good movie, and I want to come see you guys and tell everyone about it.”
This is not the first time Efron has had to explain a change in his appearance due to a health issue.
Last year, rampant online speculation that the star got plastic surgery on his jaw — which Men's Health dubbed "jaw-gate” — prompted him to disclose a bit about his medical history.
While speaking with the outlet, Efron acknowledged that his looks had changed in recent years. He explained that this occurred after he fell over at his home and broke his jaw in November 2013, making his face and jaw muscles have to work extra hard.
While a person's masseter (the muscles used for chewing) and other face muscles should operate "like a symphony,” this was no longer the case after his injury, he told Men's Health.
Today Show
Efron also revealed that he was seeing a physical therapist to help, but he briefly stopped while filming his Netflix series, Down to Earth, in Australia in 2021. And this also caused his jaw muscles to change.
"The masseters just grew," he said. "They just got really, really big."
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More recently, Efron underwent a lot of intended physical changes to prepare for his role in The Iron Claw, in which he dons “tiny spandex” briefs to portray one of the Von Erich brothers — key figures in early '80s pro wrestling — alongside Jeremy Allen White and Harris Dickinson.
Elsewhere in his 2022 interview with Men's Health — which was published before his role as the real-life pro wrestler was known — Efron explained that he approached bulking up for the part differently than he did for 2017’s Baywatch.
Leon Bennett/Getty
The actor said he "fell into a pretty bad depression, for a long time" while recovering from the rigorous training he underwent for the film.
"That Baywatch look, I don't know if that's really attainable," he said at the time. "There's just too little water in the skin. Like, it's fake; it looks CGI'd. And that required Lasix, powerful diuretics, to achieve. So I don't need to do that."
Efron added, “I much prefer to have an extra, you know, two to three percent body fat.”
The Iron Claw is in theaters Dec. 22.
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