Zac Efron's Wild Beach Bum Facial Hair Was Inspired By A Panini

The Beach Bum premiered at SXSW just a few days ago and cast members and director Harmony Korine came out to talk a little bit about the movie. One of the most interesting and compelling details to come out about the upcoming Matthew McConaughey, Martin Lawrence, Isla Fisher and Zac Efron starrer is the fact that Efron’s wild look in the movie was modeled after a panini. No, really.

Actually, if you’ve seen the trailer for the movie and know what Zac Efron's facial hair looks like, it’s a pretty apt description. Take a closer look at Efron’s facial hair below.

Zac Efron's panini hairstyle in the beach bum

I know it can be pretty easy to get bogged down by Matthew McConaughey’s also-wild locks, but the concise cut of Zac Efron’s beard trim does really make him look like a sandwich. The news comes per Lauren Liebowitz on Twitter, who confirmed the director said the look was based on a panini. She wrote:

Harmony Korine said the inspiration behind Zac Efron’s Beach Bum facial grooming was “a panini.”

The entire premise of The Beach Bum seems to be about wildness and excess, so it would make sense that the hairstyles in the upcoming movie would follow the same trend. In fact, the movie is about a poet named Moondog who is living a life of leisure when he should really be working. In between he smokes pot, plays the bongos naked and spends a lot of time near water. Still, hearing The Beach Bum director and Zac Efron were inspired by a panini is still pretty surprising.

Be sure to check out the red band trailer for the r-rated flick if you haven’t caught it yet.

Zac Efron isn’t exactly a chameleon, but he’s shown a willingness to change his look for movie roles before. He previously got wildly into shape while filming the 2017 movie Baywatch, although he doesn't recommend training the way he did for that movie. More recently, he also changed his hair and look a lot to play Ted Bundy in the period drama Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile. His gig as Bundy has actually gotten him some flack for playing a “hot Ted Bundy” ahead of the movie's Netflix release.

Fans of Harmony Korine’s previous work, which includes 2012’s Spring Breakers will not have to wait too long to catch the new movie. The Beach Bum officially hits theaters on March 22. To see all of the other fun, wild and emotional flicks coming in the next year, be sure to take a look at our full movies schedule.

Jessica Rawden
Managing Editor

Jessica Rawden is Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. She’s been kicking out news stories since 2007 and joined the full-time staff in 2014. She oversees news content, hiring and training for the site, and her areas of expertise include theme parks, rom-coms, Hallmark (particularly Christmas movie season), reality TV, celebrity interviews and primetime. She loves a good animated movie. Jessica has a Masters in Library Science degree from Indiana University, and used to be found behind a reference desk most definitely not shushing people. She now uses those skills in researching and tracking down information in very different ways.