Vanessa Hudgens: The Gritty Roles Are Challenging

We’re still pretending Vanessa Hudgens didn’t leak her own nudes a few dozen at a time ahead of her movie premieres with embarrassing regularity for the same reason we’re pretending Blake Lively didn’t do the same. Because it worked. Which is the shortcut to shutting everyone up. Because it’s harder to make fun of that hustle when it translates to box office dollars, legitimacy, and giant pink diamond engagement rings. In any case, I guess Hudgens has run out of underage self-shots. At this point, she’d have to start posting photos on Twitter then deleting them 10-seconds later with a ‘Yeah, I did it,’ like that girl from The Newsroom. So, instead, she’s having to gain weight, shave her head, and learn how to act to get roles now, which must suck. She tells Untitled Magazine’s latest issue, she’s still struggling to get away from her Disney image which is probably a bad reason to spend the summer in her bikini filming Spring Breakers.

On how she’s choosing roles at this point in her career: ‘I didn’t know I would keep on doing this. I just knew I truly was passionate about it… I kind of let my heart rule me rather than my head and if something reaches out and grabs me, I start gravitating towards it and go for it!’
On breaking away from her Disney image: ‘For a while, I was kind of struggling and fighting for these roles that I just desperately wanted. It was hard and it was a struggle, but then again life is always a struggle. Definitely crossing over and being able to tackle these grittier parts was a challenge but I feel like I’ve done it! It’s a whole new chapter!’
On cutting her hair and gaining 15 lbs: She recalled telling a stylist on set, ’F*** it, give me the scissors’, and [I] took the scissors myself and started chopping off my own hair. You can’t recognize me in that movie. The way that I walk and talk… I’m just a different person. [It was] just incredible.’