Zac Efron seems to be successfully transitioning from his early Disney roles to more mature films.
The High School Musical actor is currently in Toronto for the film festival for Peter Landesman's Parkland, USA Today reports.
He last starred in the low budget, sex and violence filled flick The Paperboy where he was alongside Nicole Kidman and the movie "was raw and dirty," Efron says. "That movie was really unafraid to go certain places."
He credits the Lee Daniels' movie for potentially drawing the eye of Landesman for a role in Parkland. "I think that's part of the reason that I was maybe thought of for this."
The film also put him alongside high profile actors such as Paul Giamatti and Colin Hanks. "It's really a surreal experience for me to be involved with these actors, with (Parkland's) story," he said.
Parkland revolves around the day John F. Kennedy died, making TIFF full of history films, USA Today notes.
Giamatti plays Abraham Zapruder who accidentally filmed the JFK assassination. Hanks said the focus of Parkland was to "tell the stories of those people that were on the outer edges of the story that were greatly affected, but are not necessarily the first people you think about when you tell the story."
Parkland is out in theaters Oct. 4.
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