Zac Efron and Joey King Reveal Their Craziest Assistant Requests

Zac Efron and Joey King star with Nicole Kidman in Netflix’s A Family Affair, the streamer’s new rom-com about a young woman named Zara (King), whose high-maintenance movie-star boss, Chris Cole (Efron), begins a romance with her mother, Brooke (Kidman).

The film, directed by P.S. I Love You‘s Richard Lagravenese, was a reunion for Efron and Kidman, who previously shared the screen in 2012’s The Paperboy. Getting to work with the Academy Award winner is “really special” to the High School Musical alum. 

“We look up to [Nicole] in so many ways,” Efron told Parade in an exclusive interview with his co-star King. “You look back at her career and she’s one of the most versatile actors ever.”

“She’s magical and still curious, [and] so leading with love in this. It’s truly motivational and inspirational,” he added. “I just constantly think, I want to do it how Nicole does it. She’s somebody to model your life after.”

King also sung Kidman’s praises, dubbing the Moulin Rouge star “an angel” and an “amazing person.” The Kissing Booth actress gushed to Parade, “She’s so kind to everybody. She’s so lovely to be around. She’s so talented. Her career is just so inspiring. There’s a reason she is who she is because she’s so lovely. And she deserves everything that she has because she’s the best.”

Efron and King’s new movie with Kidman premieres June 28 on Netflix. Continue reading for more from Parade‘s exclusive interview with the co-stars about their rom-com, plus their craziest assistant requests and what Efron had to say about winning a championship basketball game in a certain movie…a.k.a. High School Musical.  

What kind of conversations do you hope A Family Affair will spark about love and identity?

King: One thing that is so special about our movie is Nicole’s character. She’s still grieving the loss of a spouse from 11 years ago, but she’s kind of in her second coming of age. She’s starting to want to date again, starting to feel like her writing is going somewhere again, like it is a rebirth for this character. And I think that’s a really beautiful thing. The way it’s written, the way it’s directed, the way it’s acted by Nicole, it feels exciting and sexy and graceful, and I hope people feel like they can have that for themselves.

Efron: I think all the characters are going through a moment in their life where they’re a bit confused and scared about what the future may hold. I guess a message would be, like, it’s never too late to find your happiness. 

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Can you guys kind of relate to that…being scared of what the future holds, or a new chapter, rebirth for yourselves?

King: Of course. But I think that through that discomfort, most of the time, good change can happen. 

Efron: Amen. 

Have the two of you ever struggled with people thinking they know you, like Chris said, when in reality they don’t know who you actually are?

Efron: Yeah. Maybe a little bit…I think that’s just a part of being—

King: Well-known.

Efron: —In entertainment or something like that. It’s weird. I don’t want to think about it too much [laughs]. Like most of it comes from a very genuine place. We had our premiere last night and it’s so fun to see fans, especially in that environment when you’re ready for it, and how happy they are. And I feel like I already know them. It goes both ways. It’s beautiful.  

Zac, you’re playing a movie star in the film, something you know a thing or two about. Were there any elements about this character that you related to, or none whatsoever? 

Efron: It’s kind of a mix. I think there are feelings that he’s experiencing that I’ve definitely felt myself at times, but I just kind of amplified some of the ways that I guess he’s more afraid of things. Unfortunately, when you’re going through some of those emotions, you can tend to take it out on the people closest to you, which he does to Zara. She’s probably his best friend and there’s nobody he can really be himself in front of, and I think that shines a light on how wonderful their relationship is. It’s tumultuous at times, but Zara is always there for Chris and I think by the end of the movie, you see that Chris really has Zara’s back and it’s really special. Did that answer the question [laughs]?

King: Not really [laughs].  

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Chris had some crazy requests for [his assistant] Zara. If you’re willing to reveal, what’s one crazy thing that you’ve requested before?

Efron: An ice bath [laughs].

King: That’s not crazy though. I think that’s nice. Also, that ice bath was cool. It was mobile. 

Efron: Yeah, it was great. I still have it.

King: Stand by that. You shouldn’t feel like that’s weird. That’s cool. I had an assistant who worked with me on We Were the Lucky Ones. I adopted a dog in Romania while I was there, and I needed to get her back to the states, and she helped me with that insane process. And she was so amazing about it. We were so in the thick of it and it was so stressful because I just wanted to make sure everything was gonna happen correctly and right. We were talking constantly about the paperwork, all this stuff. And then in hindsight, I was like, “I can’t believe you did that for me. Like that is top-tier human being status. You’re the best” and that was really cool.

Efron: Assistants are the real heroes in our film. We hope we’re celebrating assistants in this.

[Both of you and Nicole] have shown off your vocal skills [in the past]…Was there any singing on the set of A Family Affair?

King: I don’t know if you saw his performance of Cher in the car in the beginning of the movie, but lots of singing. Lots of it.

Efron: We did some off camera, too. Quite a bit. You’ve got a voice on you. 

King: Oh please. Don’t get me started. I’m the songbird of my generation.

Chris in the film says that he’s done all this stuff in movies, but very little in real life… What’s something you’ve done in a project that you haven’t done in real life that you want to do/check off?

King: I [have] never won a Dance Dance Revolution championship. In Kissing Booth 2 there was the whole $50,000 prize that my character won to go to college. I did train for weeks to do the Dance Dance Revolution stuff because there were like 17 different dances. In the same movie we did a flash mob. I’ve never been part of a flash mob before.

Efron: Yeah. I’ve never won a championship basketball game. I think I did that in a movie. Yeah.

Troy Bolton.

King: Um, you did. Quite well, might I add.

Efron: That was fun. That was like a dream come true. That was real for me, man. I was living that up.

King: Fake right and break left.

Efron: [Laughs] Yeah. That was pretty fun. That’s the highlight.  

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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