Zac Efron

High School Musical’s leading man chats with CosmoGirl about his thoughts on his final HSM, his own senior year, and the best way to ask someone to prom. (Any volunteers?)

WHAT’S BEEN THE MOST STANDOUT MOMENT FROM THE ENTIRE HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL EXPERIENCE FOR YOU?

I think that one of the moments that we all look back on as pretty amazing was in the first movie, when we filmed “We’re All in This Together.” We were all in our elements in that moment. It was the time of our lives and that was the beginning of it all. Another standout moment for the whole cast — I know it was for me — was the finale of the third movie, the very last thing we shot. It was very surreal to look at how far we had come.

SO, WHAT’S IT LIKE KNOWING THAT THIS IS THE END OF THE ROAD FOR THIS ADVENTURE?

It’s crazy. We’ve been a team for three years now, and we’ve built such strong friendships up to this point. It’s amazing to work in an environment in which you have such strong support from your peers and your friends. It’s kind of a safety net, having these kids around you. They’re all so talented and really fun to film with. I just hope that we can keep that alive outside of filming.

ARE THERE ANY SIMILARITIES BETWEEN HSM’S SENIOR YEAR AND YOUR REAL-LIFE SENIOR YEAR?

I think Troy dealt with a lot of the same decisions that I did in high school. He’s got several loves in his life and he needs to decide which one is the most important to him and which one he wants to pursue — and that can be extremely difficult. There are two things every senior must do. I think every senior has to, like, just bomb a test. Completely just not know a single answer and get the worst grade possible because it’s really humanizing. I can’t talk about my senior pranks! Senior prank is a fun thing to do before you graduate. Yeah, just take part in a senior prank, whatever it may be. The good ones always get remembered. You know, I think they’re still talking about us at that school.

WHAT DO YOU THINK TROY WOULD SIGN IN GABRIELLA’S YEARBOOK?

He’d probably draw some big, cool picture, maybe of something they did in the past.

WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO ASK SOMEONE OUT TO PROM?

In person — not by text message! I’d say, jump out of a cake — just kidding. I think I just knew who I was going to prom with. There was no down-on-one-knee and asking or anything like that.