FILM INTERVIEW: VANESSA HUDGENS

Little Miss 'High School' is Gearing Up to 'Sucker Punch' Some Serious Action

By: Izumi Hasegawa

August 8, 2010

Izumi Hasegawa: How has it been to move on from the Disney-oriented projects of your youth to take on more adult roles and films?

Vanessa Hudgens: It was kind of a challenge because I feel like a lot of people could only see me as a girl that randomly broke into song and dance. But I heard about this movie, and I thought it was the coolest thing ever, and it was. I auditioned for it several times and I think, as long as I try to put the work in, hopefully people will give me a chance. Once they see me in this, I won’t be the little showtune girl.

IH: How different was the dancing that you had to so in Sucker Punch, and what other sorts of preparation did you have to do for the role?

VH: I enjoy it, I love it. I grew up dancing and I spent, like, six years of my life in the dance studio going every single day, and as I grew up, I started to move around and then stopped dancing. But dance studios in L.A. are just so intimidating, so I haven’t gotten back to it. But once I found out that we were going to be able to do a little bit in this movie, I was so excited that I get to do more of a themed dance in this, and it’s just so much fun. Because it is very theatrical, it gives you so much room to play and just really make it your own. I had a great time.

IH: Do you have any technology or geek stuff that you’re really excited about or can’t live without?

VH: I want to find the Call of Duty: Black Ops [footage]. I think they’re showing a little bit of it here, and I love that game.

IH: How do you feel about your High School Musical experience in retrospect, and what does it mean to you now that you’re moving on to projects like this one?

VH: I see Zac [Efron] a lot. I think just not having as much responsibility… I feel like High School Musical was really a part of my childhood, and as soon as it was finished, I was like, okay, now it’s time to grow up and start to figure things out. It’s about just having less responsibility. But I’m enjoying growing up, and it got me to be able to do this, which has made me grow up a lot as well.

IH: Can you talk a little bit about your character?

VH: I play Blondie, and she’s a really fun character – and yes, [her name] is ironic. She is in a whole crazy world and she stars herself as kind of a follower, but it’s fun because I feel like, in a lot of the fight sequences, she becomes a total bad-ass, which is why it’s kind of funny.

IH: Having seen the footage for the first time at Comic-Con, how closely did it meet what you were imagining while filming?

VH: You could never imagine it to be as good, I think, as what we saw today. The scenes where I’m shooting at this dragon and Zack [Snyder] is like, “Just shoot there and it’s going to go up there, and so shoot there and then go down there and shoot there…” Just shooting and screaming at my little balls on the green screen, just seeing it today was like, my God! I feel like I could only expect it from Zack. It just blows me away.

Warner Brothers Pictures' 'Sucker Punch' is released on March 25, 2011.