Reflecting on life as Sharpay Evans! Ashley Tisdale looked back at her High School Musical days while appearing on an episode of Dear Media’s “Not Skinny But Not Fat” podcast on Tuesday, November 1.
“For years I auditioned for Disney movies and I never got it. So, I finally was like, I’m not gonna audition for Disney for a while and then that’s when I started doing network stuff,” the actress shared, 37, on the podcast, noting that she eventually nabbed the role of Maddie Fitzpatrick on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. From there, she hoped to “do one of those Disney movies,” which eventually came to fruition.
“High School Musical was the movie they were doing that summer, and they were like, ‘Actually no, we have someone in mind.’ And I was like, ‘I’m not even gonna get to audition? That’s crazy.’ So, I was like telling my manager I have to audition,” and the rest, as they say is history.
Ashley played the role of Sharpay Evans for three films from 2006 to 2010, and her iconic character is still a fan-favorite among Disney Channel viewers.
“A lot of people weirdly loved Sharpay, which was really actually very interesting for Disney too,” the Being Frenshe founder shared. “She was a very popular character and they were like, ‘Wait, she’s mean.’ I remember they did like some testing with these kids and this 8-year-old was like, ‘I love Sharpay.’ And they’re like, ‘Why?’ And she was like,’ Because she knows what she wants and she gets it.'”
While she’s since moved on from the character — Ashley has shared multiple times that she has no plans to return to the role — the “Headstrong” songstress used to think that High School Musical put her career “in a box.” Now, however, she feels like she’s portraying her authentic self to the world.
“I’ve also just done like a lot of stuff since then,” the businesswoman shared. “Actually, I feel right now specifically, with what I’m doing with my with my line Being Frenshe and Frenshe, I feel like people are getting to know me for me rather than what they think I am or who I was or what they expect me to be, or who I was back in the day.”
Scroll through our gallery for more quotes from Ashley’s interview.
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