Breaking Free
Vanessa Hudgens charges on
What a difference a day makes. In early March, American actress and singer Vanessa Hudgens posted a selfie of herself dressed in a risqué metallic Saint Laurent bustier, paired with barely-there hot pants, big curls, and red haute lips. With a caption that read “That good good. No, it’s not Thursday”, one can only assume that she was referring to her weekly #ThirstyThursdays feel-good posts, a series of stylishly curated body-positive pin-ups that had become her personal “revenge-bod” indulgence since her high-profile break-up with actor, Austin Butler. It certainly didn’t take long for the picture to attract more than a million likes, breaking the Internet with hundreds of web articles from the likes of E! Online to The Daily Mail. “Thank you for blessing us with this,” commented Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina actress Kiernan Shipka, while Pretty Little Liars actress Ashley Benson declared her love to her fellow Spring Breakers co-star. Little did anyone realise, that the selfie was in fact a behind-the-scene outtake from this exclusive Harper’s BAZAAR Malaysia cover shoot in sunny Los Angeles, shot on location amid lush palm trees and clear blue skies. It was indeed a much simpler time then: malls were packed with countless shoppers, yoga centres were running at full capacity, and rush hour traffic in major cities would last for hours on end. But in a blink of an eye, the world changed overnight, and nothing else was ever the same.
Suddenly, social distancing and self-isolation became the new norm, and in a matter of days, we started to question our own health safety and sanity. Oddly enough, this conscious approach juxtaposed the resulting series of TikTok dance videos and Insta Live workouts as millions of subcribers were given carte blanche to become their own Insta celebrities.
For Vanessa, this translated into an IG Live video which saw the Disney actress voice her opinions on the worldwide pandemic, culminating in a social media frenzy which incited many to lash out against the The Princess Switch star. Of course, just as soon as she had realised her mistake, Vanessa released a statement on Twitter, apologising for her misstep of judgement. “I’m so sorry for the way I have offended anyone and everyone who has seen the clip from my Instagram Live yesterday,” she confessed. “I realise my words were insensitive and not at all appropriate for the situation our country and the world are in right now.”
“I think it’s important to remember that no one’s perfect,” Vanessa responded in our interview, barely days after her bold comment on the ’gram. “All we can do is learn from our mistakes ... so I keep charging on.” A testament to her unrelentless spirit, one which she had undoubtedly molded since her High School Musical era.
Indeed, the half-American and half-Filipina actress was 17 when she was cast as Gabriella Montez in the nowiconic Disney film. Within a year, her music recordings for the movie’s soundtrack went on to dominate the charts internationally, with “Breaking Free”, a duet with former on-screen/off-screen love interest Zac Efron, hitting #4 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and #9 in the United Kingdom. Through the years, the multi-talented actress released a number of solo albums, from V in 2006, and Identified in 2008, while also being inducted into Forbes’s “High Earners Under 30” list in 2008.
It isn’t just chick flicks and family specials that propelled her into superstardom. There’s another part of Vanessa that’s altogether badass and empowering, which shone through in less commercial yet thought-provoking projects, like the cult coming-of-age drama Thirteen by Catherine Hardwicke, and of course, Harmony Korine’s 2012 Spring Breakers, starring James Franco and Selena Gomez. Here, her seamless ability to go from fresh-faced girl-next-door, to a gun-wielding temptress stood out the most. Naturally, this