Troye Sivan Was "In Love" With Zac Efron After Auditioning For A Movie With Him As A Child, And 26 Other Things We Learned On Zoom With Him

"I spend a lot of time laughing at really, really, really dumb stuff."

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Whether you know him as a musician, an actor, or an all-round social media star, Troye Sivan is one talented dude (to put it mildly). So we caught up with him ahead of the release of his new movie Three Months — where he plays a rebel teen, Caleb, who is exposed to HIV and has to wait through the summer to find out his results.

1. What's the first thing you do in the morning?

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"Unfortunately, look at my phone. I put it on the other side of the room so that I don't, but then I just get up and walk to it."

2. What's the last TV show you binge-watched?

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"I went through two phases — both are absolute trash, by the way. I'm working a lot at the moment, and I feel like I want to come home and switch my brain off and let it drip out of my ears. So I watched Too Hot to Handle on Netflix. I also fell down a rabbit hole of all of these, like, TLC shows, like My 600-lb Life, 1,000-lb Sisters, 90 Day Fiancé, all that stuff. That's been really, really pacifying me at night."

3. What’s your best fan story?

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"I believe we were in Denver. We finished the show, we're all backstage, having a couple beers or whatever. [I'm] talking to my bandmate's friend, loving life, we're drinking, it's all good! 

And then I went up to my bandmate, and I was like, 'Wait, what's your friend's name again?' And he was like, 'I thought that was your friend.' No one knows who this person is — this was before we brought security on tour. My drummer went up and was like, 'Hey, who do you know here?' and he was like, 'Oh, no, I just thought I'd come back in and chill. I loved the show!' And honestly? He did stay and chill, and he was a really nice guy. So I kind of made a friend that day. But I probably also shouldn't condone that."

4. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?

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"Probably, 'Be nice or I'll smack you' — from my mom. Just be polite, all the time. Legit, if I was to ever be an asshole, my mom's voice would just erupt in my head screaming at me: 'Who the bloody hell do you think you are?'" 

5. Who was the last celebrity to DM you on IG, and what was it about?

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"It was Lily Rose Depp. We're filming this thing at the moment together. So we're just chatting about all kinds of things." 

[Writer's note: "This thing" is the HBO Max show The Idol.]

6. Who have you been the most starstruck by?

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"I feel like if I have a second to prepare, mentally, I'm okay. Even if I'm starstruck, I'll be fine. I just get really quiet, don't speak to anyone unless I'm spoken to, that kind of thing. But then everyone's been friendly.

I remember I was really, really, really nervous the first time I met Nicole Kidman — and she's just the nicest person in the world. But it did take me a long time before I'm like, 'That is a human being.' Because otherwise every time I’m like, ‘Whoa, look at Nicole Kidman blowing her nose! Nicole Kidman just peed!’ Stuff like that, I really need to actively stop." 

7. What’s one thing that you miss about early YouTube?

Troye Sivan / Via youtube.com

"Oh my God, so much. I think how unassuming we all were. It felt like this crazy, crazy, crazy wave that we all were just so lucky to be riding. I remember, specifically, there was this one YouTube trip that we did to Italy — I think there was a YouTube convention in Italy — And then me and a bunch of friends that I made through YouTube went on a road trip throughout Italy. I just remember thinking, 'Wait, what is our actual job? Why are we here? And what are we doing?' It felt like an absolute fluke. It was so new and so exciting."

8. What’s your TikTok For You Page typically look like?

Troye Sivan / Via tiktok.com

"I haven't been on TikTok in a really long time — and I'm really proud of myself, to be honest. But normally when I'm on there, it's a bunch of stuff. There's heaps of hot guys, obviously. And then a lot of dogs, and then [the algorithm] gets fried at some point, and my sense of humor has become quite broken over time. I don't really understand how the algorithm knows me that well, but it does. So I spend a lot of time laughing at really, really, really dumb stuff."

9. What's one thing you hope to accomplish with your next music project?

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"I want it to be good — like really, really good. I want it to feel curated, no fat. I really like a short album. I don't know [if] this album that I've kind of already started making is going to be 10 tracks like Bloom was, but there's something about having a really strong sense of identity and really saying something in this very slim format that feels challenging to me in a way that I really like."

10. What inspired “Angel Baby”?

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"The first thing that grabbed me about it was the sonics of it. It felt so lush, schmaltzy, and huge, and that's something that I really love in music. That was the starting-off point for the inspiration. Ultimately, the song tells a story — you start off with this really broken person who's not sure that love exists anymore and then, like some cheesy rom-com, someone appears out of the blue on a rainy night. It just felt very camp, and I loved it."

11. Is there a song that you wrote that makes you emotional every time you sing it?

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"There's a few that I've written now, that aren't out yet, that I know are just gonna be absolute killers to sing live — just from having to bring up old stuff. I've only performed it live once, but 'Could Cry Just Thinkin About You' feels very different from any other song that I've made. I didn't make it in a studio or anything like that, my friend sent me that little guitar bit, and I wrote and recorded it at home. It feels on another level of real life — not about making something for anyone else other than myself. So that one is a tough one for me."

12. Can you name one of your dream musical collaborators?

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"I would love to do something with The Weeknd."

13. You’ve been cast in HBO Max show The Idol — What drew you to the role after reading the script?

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"So much! I mean, HBO, I was super stoked — [and] Sam Levinson, who created Euphoria. I'm super, super excited to be working with him. And, of course, my good friend Abel — The Weeknd. I know that I would be one of the first people to watch this show, if I wasn't on it. I'm so, so happy. I'm having the best time. It is so much fun. I'm actually quite sad at the moment, because the next time I'm filming is in a week."

14. What’s it been like working with The Weeknd so far?

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"It's really, really, really incredible. I feel like I can't say too much about the show — He's like, the best. He's so just kind and lovely. And super talented!"

15. What’s a role people would be surprised to find out you auditioned for, but didn’t get?

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"There was this movie called Charlie St. Cloud with Zac Efron in it — and there was a young boy. I flew to LA to do a chemistry read with Zac Efron — and keep in mind that he turned me gay. [Laughs] Legitimately! I was so young and I was in love with this man. And I didn't get the part."

BuzzFeed: "Did you ever meet Zac Efron again?"

Troye: "No, I haven't met him since."

16. Who was your childhood celebrity crush?

CTV

"Zac Efron was one of them. Other than that, I can never remember his name. But there was a really, really cute guy in Degrassi  —  he was cute and Jewish-looking and he was a photographer. I just remember melting."

[Writer's note: The character was likely Craig Manning].

17. What does an ideal date with you look like?

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"I really like just sitting and talking in a park. The honest truth, the less sexy answer, is my ideal date is 30 to 40 minutes long. I will wait until I have something and then organize the date for the 30-minute period prior, if it's a first date, so that you can suss out if it's worth going on a second date or not. And then I'm much more open and down to go sit in the park for hours and drink a bottle of wine."

18. The Met Gala was back on last year after a year off — Can you share your favorite memory from attending?

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"That was such a fun night. I'm trying to think, because I want to tell the story that I haven't told before. There was the moment where I was peeing in a dress and Rihanna asked Tom Daley to take a picture of me — cool moment, for sure. I think the thing that felt really cool for me this year was realizing that I know a couple people now! I remember, my first time going, I just felt so completely out of my depth. It doesn't feel like it, at least to me, but I've been doing this for a while now. And so at the very least, you've got mutual friends with someone."

19. What was the audition process like for making Three Months?

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"I actually already knew Jared, the director and writer, before — we had met at parties and stuff like that. So Jared was like, ‘Yeah, this is right for you’ — and I was the one who was like, ‘Should I audition? Are you sure?’

I'm just now starting to accept, mentally in my head, that I want to be an actor. Before this, I've always felt like a musician who every now and then [has] some random acting thing that comes up and I just do it for fun. But Jared had a lot of faith in me that I really, really appreciate. He definitely pushed me, and I'm so happy that he did. 

I was the nervous one who was like, 'I want to put something on tape, I want to audition. I want to prove to you, and also to myself, that I can do this. I opened Photobooth on my laptop — to be honest, I was already in Atlanta, about to start filming, so it was a bit late if I was going to be shit. But I did a scene and sent it to him, and I was like, 'Okay, like this is kind of where I see things going.' And he was really happy with it, so it was it all worked out!"

20. What’s one thing on your acting bucket list?

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"I really want to play a villain. I think, in general, my instinct is to try and make characters as endearing as possible. Naturally, I gravitate towards quite sweet [roles]. I think it would push me. That just sounds like a fun challenge to me: Trying to make a villain that feels like a real person." 

21. Three Months is your first movie in a hot minute — what inspired you to get back into acting?

Photo courtesy of MTV Entertainment Studios

"Honestly, it was the script. I read the script and literally was in a meeting with Jared, the director, and the producers within two or three days — being like, 'Please don't give this part to anyone else. Can I please do it?' Like, 'Are you sure I can do it?' Because I wasn't sure that I could do it, capability-wise. And then I just had so much fun, so now I want to keep going."

22. What was your favorite day on set?

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"The montage where Dara and Caleb are like running around the mini-mart having a party — that was such a fun day. But I also am immediately jarred with the memory that that was the last day before we shut down for COVID, so it was also really, super stressful. But it felt like a nice break, for a second, from the world melting down."

23. Did you have to actually eat all of the food in the mini-mart scene?

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"One bite and we did have spit buckets. But yeah, it was feral."

24. What was the most challenging part of making the movie?

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"One of my favorite things about this movie is that it takes something that is a really serious issue, but talks about it in a very human way — with levity and humor that I think is ultimately so, so important. 

Still, you show up to set and you're like, 'Okay, we're about to film a scene about Caleb finding out how one of his test results have come back. This is a really, really, really serious moment' — and then Caleb, like, cracks a joke. Which I understand, and I really, really appreciate about him as a character is his use of humor as a coping mechanism. But as an actor, it was really challenging because...you're pushed to find that real-life layer. All of that intensity is there, but this is the way that Caleb deals with it — through humor."

25. Did playing Caleb bring back any memories of you as a teen?

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"Definitely. I was 13 in 2011, and Caleb was a teen in 2011. Everything from the clothes, to the music, to just high school — everything about it was very, very nostalgic to me."

26. Are there any Easter Eggs or small details in Three Months that viewers might miss the first time round?

Photo courtesy of MTV Entertainment Studios

"I drew on the shoes that Caleb wears. So there would be a ton in there, if you ever pause the movie on a closeup of the shoe and zoom in."

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR THREE MONTHS IN THE FINAL QUESTION.

27. The ending of Three Months is ambiguous — how did you approach it as an actor?

"It becomes very, very clear that it's kind of irrelevant where Caleb ends up, because he's gonna be okay, no matter what. Even though, as a viewer, you're like, 'What? I really want to know!' — the movie does a great job of keeping that in check and reminding you that this is not a death sentence, with access to healthcare."

Thanks for talking to us, Troye! Three Months is now available to stream on Paramount+.