Zac Efron - H 2015
AP Images/InvisionZac Efron spun details about what he learned from DJs like Alesso and Dillon Francis at the We Are Your Friends premiere Thursday night at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. The actor joined castmembers Emily Ratajkowski, Wes Bentley, Shiloh Fernandez, Jonny Weston and Alex Shaffer on the red carpet for the DJ-centric film directed and co-written by Catfish co-host Max Joseph.
The Warner Bros. film follows the journey of a 23-year-old aspiring disc jockey (Efron) who falls in love with the girlfriend and personal assistant (Ratajkowski) of his mentor (Bentley), testing the young DJ professionally and personally.
“The best advice that I got [about spinning] actually was the simplest advice: Just have fun, and enjoy yourself when you’re on the decks,” Efron told The Hollywood Reporter. “Once you learn the basics of transitioning and adding effects, they said, ‘Now just get into it. Live with it.’ That’s what Alesso taught me. That’s what Dillon Francis taught me.”
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Given the massive success of electronic music during the past few years, Joseph sees his movie as a modern coming-of-age music film.
“Some of my favorite movies are music films, but music films are often coming-of-age films that are set against the music of that era,” Joseph told THR. “I think because electronic music has exploded and has started to cross over to the mainstream in the last five years or so, it’s apt that a coming-of-age movie that’s set in today’s world would have electronic music as the backdrop.”
Notably present on the red carpet was MTV star Nev Schulman, who came out to support his Catfish co-host and who even has a cameo in the film.
Los Angeles is the seventh city in the film’s promotional tour (dubbed the WAYF Tour), which includes a screening with the cast and an afterparty featuring DJs from the film’s soundtrack. With so much time on the road, Ratajkowski said she now feels like a real touring artist.
“I feel like we should start a band. I’m asking people for suggestions! Like Max, Zac, Emily — the trio. What should our band name be?” Ratajkowski playfully asked Efron, who stood a few feet away from her.
Efron referred to the eight-city international tour as a “whirlwind” after jokingly asking his publicist, “Are we in L.A.?” When asked what his reaction was to the thousands of screaming fans he’s encountered while on tour, the actor grinned and replied, “Everyone has been nuts.”
We Are Your Friends hits theaters Aug. 28.
