Constant flashes from cameras, reading scripts left and right, and fans running up to them; the life of a movie star can be very stressful. Unfortunately, some of these movie stars don’t handle the pressure well and resort to drugs and alcohol as an escape. For movie star, Zac Efron, this is what happened except in his case, led to addiction.

Efron, best known for his role in High School Musical, went to rehab in 2013 for undisclosed reasons. There were speculations he was seeking treatment for drug and alcohol use, but no one knew for sure. Recently, he opened up in an interview to The Hollywood Reporter about his reasons for rehab and the rumors were true. Efron talked about his struggle with addiction to alcohol and drugs. The issues really began when he was trying to leave his career as a young teen star to start playing more adult roles, such as his role in The Lucky One.

“I had done films back-to-back-to-back. I was burnt out,” said Efron. “There was something lacking, some sort of hole that I couldn’t really fill up. I was just so deep into my work, it was really the only thing I had.” He then followed up by saying he felt isolated in this period of his life.

Sophomore Ashley Rice has been a long time fan of Efron’s and has watched his movies starting from High School Musical. Although his actions are inexcusable, Rice speculates why Efron would do this.

“I think they [movie stars] are under a lot of pressure to please everyone, which causes a lot of stress resulting in drug use,” said Rice. Unfortunately for famous people, they are constantly under the spotlight with people watching every action of theirs. Some people believe that they need to live up to a higher standard because of the influence they have on people, especially kids. There are thousands of people every year that go to rehab but the moment Efron went it caught everyone’s attentions.

“I don’t think it’s fair that celebrities are sanctioned more than a regular person because they are just expected to be perfect when in reality they are only human and humans make mistakes. [However,] Celebrities should be extra cautious of their actions because everyone is watching them,” said Rice. Even though life seemed to be going great for Efron after starring in movies in frequently, freshman Olivia Miller claims she saw something like this coming.

“This honestly doesn’t surprise me, it happens to a lot of famous people who start out young and grow up under the spotlight. Just look at Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus, same thing,” said Miller. Although these three movie stars’ actions have left many people flabbergasted, one thing remains true, all three are very successful and it doesn’t look like Efron’s success is going to end anytime soon. After releasing his new movie, Neighbors, Efron has fans going wild.

“This [incident] won’t affect his career at all! He is starring in movies constantly and Neighbors [Efron’s most recent movie] just released. I think he will still remain an actor who is loved by many people, especially the girls,” said Miller.