Zac Efron Looks Unrecognizable in Gritty Teaser for New Role

Zac Efron has come a long way since singing in the hallways of East High.

A new teaser for the Australian survival thriller film, Gold, dropped Jan. 31, featuring a rough, gritty version of the High School Musical alum. In the clip, the 34-year-old actor is barely recognizable as he’s seen covered in dirt and injuries and sporting a scruffy beard and tattered clothes, surrounded by a vast desert landscape.

Efron posted the teaser on his Instagram and got candid about his time on set.

“Filming this was brutal— but I love this [s–t],” he wrote. “So proud of everyone involved and thank you to everyone who has watched so far.”

According to the film’s synopsis on IMDB, Efron plays a desert drifter who stumbles across a giant gold nugget, As his partner agrees to leave to find excavation equipment, his character stays to guard the gold and in doing so, endures a series of hardships which test his mental and physical endurance.