Zac Efron shared his congratulations for Jeremy Allen White after the latter star took home his second Golden Globe Award on Sunday, January 7.
“Yes chef!” Efron, 36, wrote via his Instagram Story on Monday, January 8, after White, 32, took home the trophy for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy for his work in The Bear. “Huge congrats on the W.”
Efron’s post included a still from The Iron Claw, in which he and White play real-life brothers Kevin Von Erich and Kerry Von Erich. In the snap, Kevin massaged Kerry’s shoulders as he prepared for a wrestling match.
White and Efron — and their costars Harris Dickinson and Stanley Simons — seemingly became fast friends on the set of The Iron Claw, which hit theaters last month. Efron recently revealed that Simons went so far as to tease him by playing High School Musical songs while filming a scene where the Von Erich brothers were Simons’ character’s band play at a party.
“People like to [bring up High School Musical] to mess with me. It’s pretty funny. We had a scene where we show up to a party where Stanley, I think, is singing a song,” Efron recalled during an interview with W magazine published on Wednesday, January 3. “He performed it live, and then they just continued to move on to another song and it was something from High School Musical.”
In response, Efron tried valiantly to remain unbothered. “I had to stay in character while that was going on, and everybody else was just losing it,” he explained. “The camera was on me, and I was just trying to stay in character. I felt very uncomfortable.”
White, meanwhile, has said that he’s never seen any of the High School Musical films, which were released between 2006 and 2008. “Sorry, Zac. I will watch them. I will,” White said during a December 2023 episode of the “Just for Variety” podcast. He went on to joke that he would watch the Disney movies “only if Zac holds my hand through them.”
In a separate interview, White quipped that Efron was “annoying” because of his impressive body transformation for The Iron Claw. “I had been training for months, lifting, doing this and doing that and eating more and I showed up and I saw him and I’m like, ‘What is this even for? Why do I even try?’” White told Variety at a December 2023 screening of the film.
White then gushed about his costar, calling him the “captain of the ship” on set. “He was a great motivator with his preparation physically, all the preparation he did emotionally and mentally,” White said. “I look up to that guy.”
Sunday was a big night for White’s The Bear, which won Best Television Series in the musical or comedy category. White’s costar Ayo Edebiri also took home the trophy for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy for her turn as Sydney Adamu.
