Drew Seeley Dishes On Working With Zac Efron & The ‘HSM’ Cast

Despite the two contributing to Troy Bolton, the actors were not very close, and Seeley says he barely saw Efron when on set.

Despite providing the singing voice for Troy Bolton in the first ‘High School Musical’ movie, the actor said he spent the least amount of time with Efron when on set.

“I’ve met Zac [Efron] a few times at parties and whatnot,” Seeley told E! News. “But I spent, by far, the least amount of time with Zac compared to any other cast member in ‘High School Musical’ because I was really only brought in when he was unavailable or not around.”

He made it clear that there was no beef or drama between the two, and Efron has “always been very cordial.”

Rumors swirled that Efron’s singing voice was not mature enough for Disney’s vision of the movie, but Seeley claims the reason behind the decision remains unknown.

“I was never told by Disney why they ended up using my voice and not Zac’s,” he added. “That’s always been a mystery to me.”

“In all honesty, I think they were entirely caught off guard with how big it became,” he later added of the movie’s popularity. “They probably expected it to be successful, but not like the juggernaut that it was. So maybe at that point, they’re like, ‘We got an actor and a singer—what do we do? What do we say?’ I think the story for a while was that our voices were blended. Let’s call it what it was: I sang in the first film, Zac sang in the second and third films.”

If Drew Seeley had provided his singing voice for Troy Bolton in ‘High School Musical,’ why wouldn’t he have taken on the entire role instead of splitting duties with Zac Efron? Well, he says it boiled down to age.

“I was a good five, six years older than Vanessa [Hudgens],” the actor told the outlet. “So in my mind, that had something to do with it. I probably didn’t look right with the lineup of everybody else. And also, Zac [Efron] is a very talented actor and was great in the role. So, I think they did it right.”

Funny enough, Seeley forgot about the role until the movie debuted on Disney Channel. “I forgot about it until the movie came out,” he recalled. “I was working at P. F. Chang’s when the movie came out. I was watching ‘High School Musical’ on the bar-top TVs trying to tell my coworkers, ‘Hey, that’s my voice.’ Nobody believed me.”

“In all honesty, I’ve seen it once,” he added. “I’ve never gone back and watched it again. I have listened to the music a lot because I’ve performed the songs out in the world and want to make sure I know the lyrics.”

36-year-old Zac Efron previously addressed the collaboration he and Seeley had on Troy Bolton.

“In the first movie, after everything was recorded, my voice was not on them,” Efron told The Orlando Sentinel in 2017. “I was not really given an explanation. It just kind of happened that way. Unfortunately, it put me in an awkward position. It’s not something I expected to be addressed.”

He added, “Then, ‘High School Musical’ blew up. I’m very fortunate that Drew has gotten proper credit and also that I’ve gotten the opportunity to come back [in the second and third films, respectively] and try it again with my own voice.”

“Obviously, I became famous for ‘High School Musical,’” she told Allure. “And my character is Gabriella Montez, so everyone automatically assumed that I was Latina, and most people still do. And when I tell them I’m Filipino, they’re like, ‘What?!’ You haven’t met my mother. I think that I’m quite ambiguous so people don’t really know. But I am doing everything that I can to let people know because I am proud.”

She added what the role has meant to her. “The most incredible thing is when I have these girls come up to me, and they’re like, ‘You were the first person that I saw that looks like me on TV.’ I want to cry. It’s just really beautiful to be able to be an identifying person that helps allow others to feel seen,” she told the outlet.

‘High School Musical’ is streaming on Disney+.