You'd be surprised to know a 'High School Musical' star almost auditioned for 'American Idol', we sure were
Before Vanessa Hudgens got her big break with ‘High School Musical, ’ she almost auditioned for ‘American Idol.’ The multitalented star aspired to be on the singing competition show, but fate had other plans. During her appearance on ‘The Kelly Clarkson Show,’ Hudgens revealed that she wanted to follow the ‘Stronger’ singer’s footsteps and compete on the show. Clarkson was the first ‘American Idol’ winner and became an icon for every aspiring singer. “Let me love on you for a second,” Hudgens told the host. “I grew up doing theatre, and this has always been a passion of mine. You were on ‘American Idol’ and you won and I was like, that’s it, I’m going on ‘American Idol,’” she revealed.
However, the next week she got the ‘High School Musical’ audition, and that threw her ‘American Idol’ plans on the back burner. Although it worked out great for the ‘Tick Tick Boom’ actress, she credited Clarkson for being the “catalyst” in her journey. The latter reciprocated the love by praising Hudgen’s work, especially on the ‘Princess Switch’ movie series. “If I happen to scroll through something and I see you and I watch the whole thing even if I’ve seen it,” the host gushed. She admitted to having lost count on the number of times she watched the ‘Princess Switch’ movies with her daughter and alone.
Clarkson continued the ‘High School Musical’ discussion to get some behind-the-scenes insights. The beloved 2000s movie franchise was a cultural phenomenon and is cherished to this day. “I remember all the auditions. There were a lot of them,” Hudges revealed. “I remember meeting Zac for the first time,” she added, referring to her co-star Zac Efron. The duo famously began dating on the sets of the show and ended their high-profile relationship after 5 years. She further revealed that she and co-star Ashley Tisdale had already met on the sets of a random commercial nearly a month before ‘HSM.’
“But it’s wild. The time just keeps flying. I got decades under my belt now,” she added. Hudges played Gabriella Montez in all three ‘High School Musical’ movies, and it is to date one of her widely beloved characters. Despite soaring in her acting career, she didn’t leave behind her singing. She was part of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s ‘Tick Tick Boom’ alongside Andrew Garfield and performed musical numbers. Hudgens even appeared on The Masked Singer Season 11 as Goldfish and won the title. While accepting the trophy, she admitted that performing under a “cute” disguise allowed her to purely do something she loves, and that’s singing.
“It’s been so long since I’ve been able to do that. It makes me so emotional because I really do love it so much. It fills my soul,” she said. She thanked her mom for pushing her and taking her to dance and singing lessons. “I finally won like for my singing,” she gushed. ‘High School Musical’ had a renewal with a brand new and younger cast featuring Olivia Rodrigo as Gabriella. 'It's amazing seeing it continue to live on," Hudgens told E! Insider, reacting to the new 'HSM' series.