Zac Efron opened up about the possibility of 'real life' parenthood during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Wednesday.
The 34-year old's latest role sees him play a father for the first time in the film Firestarter, which hits UK cinemas on Friday.
The Hollywood star began the interview by telling host Ellen DeGeneres about his experience of working with a young on-screen daughter - played by Ryan Kiera Armstrong.
"I didn't think about it all that much," he said. "And then when we started filming the movie, I had a two-week quarantine … and when I got out of quarantine, we started filming that Monday, so it was a pretty quick intro to the film, and all of a sudden, I had this daughter in front of me.
"We had a pretty heavy dad-daughter scene right off the bat, and I realised I was drastically underprepared for this part. I didn't know what I was doing."
The actor described 12-year old Ryan - whose career began with a role in American Horror Story - as 'so sweet' and 'the coolest'.
When host Ellen asked the former High School Musical star if the role made him want to have kids of his own, he paused, before responding: "I think that was a healthy dose to put me off of it for as long as necessary. I have a little bit more growing to do, probably. I don't know. Not yet."
He did reveal, however, that he had a 'healthy respect' for all parents before shouting to his own mother, Starla Baskett in the audience that he 'loves her so much'.
Ellen, meanwhile, has revealed that her final guest on the show will be actress Jennifer Aniston.
The 53-year old Friends star was also the host's first ever guest, some 19 years ago. Her appearance later this month will be her twentieth.
The final episode of the long-running daytime series will air on May 26 and other guests reportedly include singers Pink and Billie Eilish.
Ellen announced in May last year that the show was ending after it came under fire with accusations of a toxic workplace environment.
The 64-year old host herself was allegedly at the centre of numerous complaints regarding her "mean" behaviour.
