| Articles
Matt on Zac Efron, Miley Cyrus, and HSM4 By: Kristen Dunleavy He’s BFF with Zac Efron, on a first-name basis with Miley Cyrus and had a role in the hottest teen movie of 2008 – but there’s a good chance you’ve never heard his name before. Matt Prokop moved to L.A. from Texas to pursue acting when he was sixteen, and shortly after he scored parts in Hannah Montana and The Office. Although the self-proclaimed class clown always had dreams of making it on the big screen, he nearly passed up his breakout role in High School Musical 3: Senior Year. “My agent gave me call saying I had an audition for HSM3, and I told him I really didn’t want to do it because I wasn’t a singer or a dancer,” he said. “When I got the role, I thought Disney was joking.” The swoopy-haired actor won over audiences with as troublemaker Jimmie “Rocketman” Zara, but he and his co-stars were known for their antics on the set of the movie as well. “We got in trouble about six times for skateboarding around [where we filmed in] Salt Lake,” Prokop said. “There was a night when me, Corbin, Chris, and Ryne all longboarded to 7-11 after we got off work. It was like midnight in Salt Lake and there were literally no cars out and we were just skateboarding down the street. It was awesome.” You’d think having a role in a huge movie like HSM3 would change a person, but not Matt- and apparently, not his cast mates either. Unlike the rest of the earth’s population, the prospect of working with a megastar like Zac Efron didn’t faze him at all, and to this day the two remain close friends. “Zac’s a huge ping-pong player – I’m talking obsessed with ping-pong,” Matt said. “We have these crazy ping-pong tournaments at his house. We’re just regular guys doing regular things. We play video games and listen to old music to the 90’s. I hate the perception that he has in the public eye. Everyone thinks he’s gonna be mean, but he’s a great guy.” Zac Efron isn’t Matt’s only superstar friend. His first job as a working actor was a role in Hannah Montana, where he got to know Miley Cyrus and the gang. “I hung out with Miley, Emily and Mitchell every day, and to this day Mitchell and I are great friends,” Matt said. “Miley is like the class clown on the Hannah set. She’s constantly cracking jokes and keeping everyone in a good mood.” So what’s next for the Rocketman? Right now, he and his friends are working on a few comedy scripts for a teen audience, and their goal is to make a Seth Rogan-esque movie for an even younger generation. But the real buzz these days is all about HSM4, and whether or not the rumored flick will actually go into production. “I’ve honestly heard so many rumors that I don’t even know what’s true anymore,” said Matt. “I talked to Zac about it, and he said after HSM1 Disney wanted a second one so fast they had hardly any notice, and they were in Salt Lake shooting the movie a week later. So hopefully we will be shooting HSM4 soon.” We hope so too! Source: myYearbook.com (link) |