Dave Franco explains how his crotch injured Zac Efron’s thumb in chaotic moment while filming Neighbors
Dave Franco broke down how an intense crotch-grabbing scene in Neighbors resulted in Zac Efron dislocating his thumb.
Yes, really. The duo starred in the 2014 American comedy alongside Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne.
The raunchy, R-rated movie centers around a young couple, Mac and Kelly Radner (Rogen and Byrne), who are adjusting to suburban life with their newborn baby. Their peaceful life is turned upside down when a rowdy college fraternity, led by Teddy Sanders and Pete Regazolli (Efron and Franco), moves in next door.
Franco appeared on Alex Cooper's Call Her Daddy podcast last week, where he set the record straight on Efron's crotch-related hand injury.
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It comes as his latest movie, Together - a body horror alongside wife Alison Brie - released in US theaters on July 30.
Anyway, former High School Musical alumnus Efron first shared details of the crotch-scene incident during a 2014 interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
And now, podcaster Cooper was curious as to exactly how such an incident could unfold.
Asking what happened during the scene where Efron 'grabs' Franco's penis, the actor clarified off the bat: "It definitely wasn’t because my penis was hard."
Franco cast his mind back, adding: "I’m trying to remember if I was wearing a cup and he came in just really strong.
"There’s a scene where I think we’re both grabbing each other’s crotches at the same time. And I just think he came in with enough force from the wrong angle."
Cooper jibed that plenty of people would believe Franco was just 'randomly hard on set', which seemed to jog the 40-year-old's memory.
At the risk of walking through the 'whole synopsis of Neighbors', Franco explained the scene in question: "[Efron] grabs my crotch and we’re both holding on like - who’s gonna let go first? And then my character actually, to get him to let go, I have a trick where I go 'zen' and I know how to get hard on cue.
"So, I do get hard in this hand. That’s what makes him let go."
Cooper then asked the question we're all thinking: "And can you do that in your real life?”
Franco answered bluntly: “No," with a laugh.
The actor also discussed starring in Together alongside Brie - which follows a co-dependent couple who become infected with a bug which makes them feel sick when they're apart.
When reading the script, Franco reminisced: "I feel like if me and Alison do this together, our real relationship will actually lend itself really well to this relationship in the movie - where when you're watching us, you will hopefully feel the weight of the relationship, because the characters in the movie have been together for over a decade.
"And so this was one where I was like, this feels right for us to do."
The couple have been together for over 13 years, first meeting in 2011 at Mardi Gras in New Orleans after a mutual friend introduced them.
After years of dating, Franco proposed with a vintage ring and a Zorro mask, and they went on to wed in a ceremony in 2017.
Since then, they’ve become one of Hollywood’s most low-key yet creative couples, teaming up on projects including The Rental, Somebody I Used to Know, and The Disaster Artist.
Together is available in US theaters now and releases to UK cinemas on August 15.
Topics: Film and TV, Podcast, Streaming, Zac Efron, Celebrity
Ellie Kemp