Like Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears before her, Vanessa Hudgens has done a runner from the house-of-mouse. In an effort to smash her squeaky-clean image, the ”High School Musical” favourite is playing a kick-ass action heroine in Zack Snyder’s “Sucker Punch”. Moviehole caught up with Vanessa at the film’s press conference in San Diego.
Who do you play in this one?
I play Blondie. She’s in this whole crazy world as well. She starts off as kind of a follower. I feel like in a lot of the fight sequences she becomes a total badass, which is kind of funny because it’s a complete difference. As well as the whole Blondie thing.
How is it acting opposite CGI?
You can never imagine it to be as good as it is. There are scenes where I’m shooting at this dragon and Zack’s just like, “Shoot in the air and then go there and go down there and shoot there!” Shooting at the little balls on the green screen. And then seeing it today, my god.
Did you do any training for this film? I see you do some dancing in it!
Well, I enjoy it. I love it. I grew up dancing. I spent six years of my life in the dance studio just going every single day. As I grew up, I started to move around and stopped dancing. Dance studios in LA are pretty intimidating, so I haven’t gone back to it. Once i found out that were going to do a little bit in this movie, I was just so excited. It’s more of a themed dance in this. And it’s just so much fun, you know? It’s very theatrical. You just get to play.
You started with Disney. Is it hard to shake off the ‘Disney girl’ thing?
It was a bit of a challenge at the beginning, because I felt like a lot of people could only see me as the girl who randomly broke into song and dance. But I sort of loved this movie. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I auditioned for it several times and just tried to put the work in. I hope that people give me a chance and, once they see me in this, I won’t be the little showtune girl.
Do you still feel a connection to “High School Musical”?
Well, I see Zac [Efron] a lot (laughs). But I do feel different responsibilities. High School Musical was very much a part of my childhood and, as soon as it was finished, I thought, “Okay. It’s time to grow up and figure some things out.” But I’m enjoying myself. It gave me the chance to do things like this, which is just awesome.
Was it fun to wear those outfits and did you take anything home with you?
Absolutely not, but I did think about it.
Do you have any special gear or technology that you love?
I want to find the Call of Duty: Black Ops people here. I think they’re showing a little bit here and I love that game.
