Just Jared Jr – August 21, 2009

Zac Efron was in way over his head when he heard that Claire Danes would be playing his love interest in Richard Linklater’s Me & Orson Welles.

The 21-year-old actor dishes to Blackbook mag, “I was intimidated, even just the name Claire Danes carries such weight with it. I needed to be a worthy love interest in the film and I didn’t know that I had any of the qualities necessary to woo a girl like her.”

Zac continued, “Claire and I were trapped on an island together with nowhere to go for four weeks, like a reality show. My character was supposed to fall in love, but she was also supposed to be out of his league. After meeting Claire, that was definitely the way it was supposed to be.”

Check out the full feature on Miss Claire Danes at BlackBookMag.com.

NY Times – September 10, 2009

Richard Linklater’s “Me and Orson Welles,” which premiered at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, will be released theatrically in the U.S. on November 25.

A coming-of-age drama that involves the legendary director’s 1937 staging of “Julius Caesar,” the film stars Zac Efron and Claire Danes and introduces Christian McKay as the young Orson Welles.

U.K. producer and financier Cinemanx has struck distribution deals with Freestyle Releasing, which will secure theaters, and Warner Bros. Home Video, which will handle the DVD release, and a number of other deals for publicity, sales and advertising.