At this point in his career, Zac Efron can take on pretty much any film role, endorsement, reading of the phone book, etc., and his die-hard fans will line up to see him. With such enthusiastic supporters, it could be easy to take them for granted and sign on to whatever project suits his fancy. When MTV News caught up with the teen heartthrob, however, we learned that this is not the case. When asked why he took on his role in “Charlie St. Cloud,” out this Friday, instead of another musical, for example, Efron revealed that he puts a lot of thought into his fans’ wishes.

“I was trying to figure that out for so long,” Efron admitted. “What do the fans want to see? I could do another musical. I could stick to my guns and try to do more of that. Try and do another cool musical and try to stick with that genre. Is that really what the fans want to see? I mean everyone is like, ‘How can you make that transition? How are you going to get the fans to follow you into this new kind of stuff?’”

Efron said he doesn’t think it’s the responsibility of his fans to follow him, rather it’s his responsibility to stay relevant. “The only way that I know how to do that is to stay a little bit ahead of the audience. Experience life, make movies about those experiences, and by the time the audience catches up, and maybe realizes that life isn’t always like ‘High School Musical,’ maybe they will have a movie that helps them through that next challenge that they face in life.”

The forward-thinking 22-year-old added that he’d prefer his career to be based in that kind of relevance, rather than what he thinks is fun. “I don’t want to look back and say I just made movies because it was fun, you know? I want to make movies because it’s challenging and it’s an opportunity to help people. Otherwise it’s just, you know, kind of selfish, I think.” [Source]