Zac Efron: Being adored can be frustrating

The 22-year-old American heartthrob shot to fame by starring in the High School Musical film franchise, which is loved by many adolescents across the world.

Now the young actor attracts hysterical young women following him everywhere he goes, holding banners and chanting his name.

But he is confused about how his screaming teenage fan base makes him feel.

“It’s a strange thing to talk about because I don’t know how to quantify it. It’s nothing that’s tangible to me,” he told the BBC Breakfast programme. “Every time I let those feelings get to me I kinda go to a negative place about it.”

But the blue-eyed pin-up is also stoical about the situation, and realises that he is in a very lucky position in comparison to most other young men his age.

He has developed a coping strategy for whenever he feels himself getting down in the dumps.

 “The easiest thing to do for me is just to take a step back and look at the big picture and realise that I have been given so much with these opportunities – there is no reason and no excuse for getting sad about it,” he added.

Zac’s new film Charlie St. Cloud centres around the tragic death of his character’s younger brother, and how he moves on after the event.

The California-born star said that he couldn’t draw on personal experience of loss to help him play the part, but he could reminisce on his relationship with his own younger brother Dylan to pull the role off authentically.

“For me the more valuable information that I had was just all the great memories that I have from my real younger brother,” he gushed. “I just imagined what it would be like without my younger brother.”