Vanessa Hudgens Reminisces On Zac Efron Romance & Admits It ‘Stabilized’ Her While Filming ‘HSM’
It’s been nearly ten years since Vanessa Hudgens and Zac Efron split, and she dished all about how amazing it was to have him by her side during their ‘High School Musical’ days in a new interview.
Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens dated for five years from 2005-2010 after meeting on the set of High School Musical, and nearly ten years later, she still looks back on their time together fondly. “It started off really organically and I could not have been more grateful to have that relationship at that time,” Vanessa admitted on the Awards Chatter podcast on April 22. “We kind of blew up — it was this massive phenomenon and all eyes were on me and it’s just a really foreign, weird thing to go through — but by being in a relationship, I feel like it kind of kept me stabilized and grounded. I had someone to lean on who was going through it, as well.”
That didn’t mean there weren’t hard times, though. Yes, the two did fight on-set, but always did their best to not let it affect their work. “I remember one time we did have a fight and it was while we were at rehearsals,” Vanessa revealed. “I remember [director] Kenny Ortega coming round the corner with the most concerned look on his face, like…oh, no….is our movie going to fall apart now?! I pride myself on being professional, so I was like, that aside…we’re just going to move forward and do what we need to do. An we sorted it all out. I was so young, having that relationship really stabilized me.”
During the interview, Vanessa also admitted that she and Zac clicked right away during their audition. “For the first mix and match, there was probably five or six people there for each part,” she explained. “They would kind of run you through different people. I think I only got matched up with one other guy, and then I was matched with Zac the rest of the time. I was a baby, 15 years old. I was like…oh my God, this guy is so cute! So that definitely helped the chemistry. I feel like we kind of created a bond right from the start. We were like…we’re doing this. It’s us or nothing.”
High School Musical’s first movie premiered on Disney Channel in 2006, followed by a sequel in 2007. In 2008, the franchise moved onto the big screen with High School Musical 3: Senior Year. “It was the best time ever,” Vanessa reminisced, of her days on the Disney set. “You’re literally a kid running around, singing and dancing, hanging out with people that you really like, and you get to do what you love and document it. It was literally a dream.”