Zac Efron Is the Funniest He’s Ever Been in Netflix’s ‘A Family Affair’

Zac Efron absolutely kills in A Family Affair , his new romantic comedy with Nicole Kidman that began streaming on Netflix today. Anyone who’s seen him as a tortured frat boy in the Neighbors movies knows, of course, that Efron has the capacity to be laugh-out-loud funny. But if you need the reminder, simply hit play on A Family Affair , and let Efron’s impeccable delivery of ridiculous dialogue tickle your funny bone. In fact, A Family Affair may just be the funniest Zac Efron’s ever been.

Directed by Richard LaGravenese, and written by Carrie Solomon, A Family Affair stars Efron as stars as a stereotypical, narcissistic, and fictional movie star named Chris Cole, best known for his Transformers -esque action franchise based on the myth of Icarus. Chris’s life changes when falls for the mother (Kidman) of his long-suffering personal assistant, Zara (Joey King)—much to Zara’s chagrin.

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Chris is an objectively terrible—and, at times—abusive boss to Zara. He tasks her with ridiculous, inappropriate jobs, like collecting his clothes from his ex-girlfriend’s house. He screams at her for perceived mistakes, like putting his favorite shirt in a bag with his sneakers. (“It was a gift from a Tibetan monk I met in Santa Barbara!”) And he constantly threatens to fire her, but, of course, never actually does it.

And yet, you don’t hate him. Why? Because he also belts out the lyrics to Cher with a completely straight face. He earnestly asks Joey King to pick him something “cool or interesting that I might like” from the grocery store. And he huffily objects when Zara accuses her mother of sleeping with a celebrity: “She didn’t sleep with a celebrity, that’s derogatory! I’m a movie star. She slept with a movie star.”

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In other words, Efron as Chris is hilarious, and, therefore, his character is impossible to hate. In a recent interview with Decider, director Richard LaGravenese said, “Zac understood this from the word, ‘Go.’ He understood that the character was funny in the dryness, and in the sincerity of what he was saying. He never winked. He never commented on the character, or the audience. You feel this duality of him. Yes, he is self-absorbed, and he is a narcissist. But also, inside, there’s this very vulnerable, very insecure, scared guy who is famous in spite of himself, and doesn’t quite know how to handle it.”

LaGravenese added that Efron improved quite a few lines in the film himself—including, ironically, the line about winning an improv championship as a kid, when he’s riding in the car with Joey King. “He was an incredible improv-er and contributor to ideas,” the director said, adding at Efron’s improv is “all the way through the movie.”

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Part of Chris’s lovable natures, LaGravenese notes, comes from his childlike naiveté. “When people become famous very young, I think to myself, ‘I wonder if they freeze, growth wise?’ Everything comes easy, everybody around them is just saying yes to them. They get stunted. So here [Chris] is in his 30s, but he’s younger, emotionally.”

Perhaps the Efron’s funniest bit in the movie—though it’s hard to pick a favorite—comes when his character is on set filming the next installment of his Icarus franchise. Efron, wearing a platinum blonde wig that makes him look like Todd from Scott Pilgrim , mocks the French director of his movie. He’s convinced the director called him fat, and he demonstrates this to Joey King by reenacting the slight with an exaggerated (and yet pretty good!) French accent. “She went, ‘Oho, lunch time… you ungry?'”

As always, Efron delivers this without a hint of irony. You can’t help but laugh at Chris’s self-seriousness, and Efron, with his impeccably comedic instincts, knew that. After his display of incredible dramatic acting in The Iron Claw last year, and now this hilarious comedic performance in A Family Affair, is there anything Efron can’t do? He’s so charismatic!

“I never thought that he was going to be alienating, to the point that we wouldn’t be on his side in some way,” LaGravanese concluded. “I always knew that we were going to love his character.”

For more entertainment news and streaming recommendations, visit decider.com