Zac Efron ‘struggles’ to separate himself from serial killer Ted Bundy character off screen

Zac Efron, who plays the notorious American serial killer Ted Bundy in Joe Berlinger’s Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile revealed a concerning news post his Bundy onscreen persona. Shedding off his happy-go-lucky onscreen characters, Efron impressed fans with his news take as a serial killer, rapist, murderer character. While his Ted Bundy avatar has been termed ‘savagely convincing’ and ‘authentic’, Efron opened up about how he apparently couldn’t break free from his serial killer character offscreen.

Talking to a group of reporters at the film’s premiere, Efron told Metro, “I’ve never played a role in which I really have to separate myself from when I go home at night and it was almost impossible. I’d like to say that I did it successfully but I couldn’t.”

Efron, who, initially was sceptical about his Ted Bundy onscreen persona went on to add,  “I really wasn’t interested in playing a serial killer. I’m not in the business of glamourising a horrendous person or his acts, but there is something unique about the way we went into the psyche of Ted, and his longtime girlfriend Liz,” he said.

“It’s a different perspective and not your run-of-the-mill serial killer, cliche, bodycount gets higher and higher and ‘Oh the guy you always knew did it’ (film). It was what it was like to be there on the day,” Efron added.

The biopic reportedly told from the perspective of Bundy’s ex-girlfriend Elizabeth “Liz” Kloepfer, portrayed by Lily Collins in the film despite the impactful performances received a lot of backlash from the audiences who felt that the biopic glamourises the killer by portraying him as a suave, handsome and desirable figure.

The movie stars Zac Efron as Ted Bundy, Lily Collins as Bundy's girlfriend, Liz Kloepfer, The Big Bang Theory star, Jim Parsons, James Helfield among others.