Disney Presents "Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure"
The Fabulous and Busy Life of Ashley Tisdale!
Ashley Tisdale is currently starring on the CW series “Hellcats” that just finished filming its first season in Vancouver. The Los Angeles-based actress can also be heard as the voice of “Candace Flynn” on the popular “Phineas and Ferb” cartoon series on The Disney Channel. She is most recognizable to young movie and television fans, however, as “Sharpay Evans” in the world-wide phenomenon known as “High School Musical.”
This month, it’s “Sharpay’s” turn to take a solo spin in the spotlight as “Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure” is released on Blu-ray and DVD. Ashley was thrilled to add one more to chapter to the character who brought so much attention to her career and landed her a spot in the hearts of loyal fans forever. We recently joined a group of reporters who had the opportunity to sit down with Ashley and see for ourselves just how smart, funny and cool the actress is in real life. This is what we found out for you!
It’s hard to believe that Ashley has actually been working in the entertainment industry for over twenty years! “I just ended up in the business,” she says matter-of-factly when asked about her start in the industry. “It was really just to get my grandma out of the house. She had just suffered a loss and so my Mom was like ‘Okay, you need to get out of the house.’ I was born in New Jersey. My manager saw me at a mall with my Mom shopping and he thought I was really cute. I was three. He gave my Mom the card. My Mom was just like, ‘Maybe we should take her on this audition. This guy gave me his card.’ So they brought me in to a JC Penny commercial and I booked it. Then I booked seven commercials after that. My parents were like ‘Well, I guess she’s meant to do it because she’s doing it, which is crazy!’”
“I think the plan was, my parents, like I said, really wanted me to have a normal life even though I was making money and doing all this stuff, they really wanted to make sure that I learned the value of a dollar and worked in clothing stores and did normal things. In high school, my sister was an actress too, but they’re [her parents] like ‘You know, you don’t have to do this. You can do other things if you want to do it.’ My sister did cheerleading through high school and college and for me, I always looked ahead. I always wanted to do this. So I was like ‘No! I’m not going to do cheerleading. I’ll be a cheerleader on TV.’”
“I guess my first plan was to get on a TV series, which was ‘Suite Life,’ she continues. “My next plan was to do movies. So it’s kind of like falling into place. I want to do more movies. Now, I want to produce tons of stuff.”
At nineteen, Ashley was cast in a new Disney Channel series called “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.” She would spend the next four years on the series that became such a huge hit with fans that it produced a spin-off series called “Suite Life on Deck.” By that time though, Ashley was too busy to participate on the new series. She was internationally known as “Sharpay Evans” from a little Disney Channel movie called “High School Musical” that would take the world by storm and make Vanessa Hudgens and Zac Efrom household names.
She does still keep in touch with her former cast mates though. “They came out to Vancouver to film their ‘Suite Life of Zack and Cody’ movie.” Ashley tells us. “So I took them out to dinner. They’re so much older! It’s CRAZY!” she laughs. “I called Dylan the other day and it’s like (in a really deep voice) ‘Hey Ash!’ The voices have changed drastically!”
Aside from acting and singing, Ashley is also making a name for herself behind the scenes as well. She has her own production company and served as Executive Producer on “Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure.” Ashley takes that role just as seriously as she does the one in front of the camera. “I’ve had my production company since 2008. This wasn’t through my production company though. This was just me as Executive Producer. It entails from early on, overseeing the script to casting to just making executive decisions like getting together with the President of the Disney Channel. I was really lucky to have Phil and Barry who were the producers of High School Musical. I felt like they helped me protect the character, obviously.”
“Michael Lembeck is a great director,” she continues. “Kenny Ortega was with us through all three movies. We had a way of me jumping into that character. Michael was so good though because he really trusted me and trusted that playing this for the fourth time… there were definitely things that I had strong opinions on about her. And then there were obviously some opinions he had that he got to bring to the table. We just kind of collaborated. It was just definitely if there was something wrong with this side of production then I just kind of had to deal with it and fix it too. It’s not something like ‘Oh, it’s just a title!’ No! It’s really like a lot of work.”
“I go in to meetings all the time for my production company with MTV, E, Bravo, all these different people, with Disney, and the fact that even though I’m young, they still respect my opinions and decisions. Disney really respected what I had to say about it. It was really cool.”
“I was the one who said ‘What about Austin Butler for Peyton?’ because I had worked with him before and I felt like he was a great guy and they hadn’t brought him in yet. I called him up and was like ‘Can you do me a favor? ‘Would you star in a movie with me?’ she laughs. “He was like ‘I don’t know. I’ll have my people call your people.’” They joked. “It’s fun being a producer because then you can produce things with your friends in it.”
Ashley credits her parents and family for the business sense that she possesses. “My Mom is especially business oriented. She went to Fashion College but she had a clothing store. Also, on that side, on my mom side, my grandpa was the promoter of the ginsu knives so they’re into infomercials, and they’re inventors. My great grandpa invented the plastic cheese graters,” she laughs. “That’s a really weird fact. I think it just comes from that business savvy thing. My Mom is a go-getter. My Dad has an amazing construction company. He built my house. He builds homes for producers and actors. I just get that, I think, from my parents.”
Being behind and in front of the camera is something Ashley recommends if that’s where your passion dictates. “I think that you should definitely follow your dreams, if you’re really passionate about it. I hate if there’s someone out there who is doing it, just because, they think doing multi different things is going to make you even more successful or something. I think you have to be really passionate about it.”
“Right now, everybody keeps saying, ‘Oh hey, when is your next album?’ But I’m not really in the album phase right now. I’m not really in my music phase. I’m in my acting thing right now and I just did the music. I love producing and that’s why I’m producing now. It’s something that I love to do. So I just say, ‘Follow your dreams. It comes with hard work but you’ve got to keep on going and believe in yourself.’”
Ashley loved stepping into the role of “Sharpay” one more time, even though she missed the support of the rest of the “High School Musical” gang. “She’s a lot of fun,” she says of “Sharpay.” “She’s a lot of character. She’s kind of larger than life. Taking her from the ‘High School Musical’ series and then putting her in her own film was definitely a challenge and difficult. You kind of had to have people fall in love with her and root for her where as before, you kind of loved to hate her. I just loved going through that with that character. I feel like she’s given me a lot. I feel like I’m here because of the fans that love ‘High School Musical.’ I just felt like this is a really good ending, this movie, for that character.”
Does she still get together with her former “HSM” cast mates? “All the time!” she says with no hesitation. “I just got back from Vancouver. I was there for like eight months doing ‘Hellcats.’ So I was flying back and forth. But it’s so hard because everybody is off doing everybody’s projects. I just got back and I just went out to dinner with Zach. I saw Vanessa before.”
So what do these talented friends do when they get together? “We have dinner. We hang out, go to the movies. We like to hang out at each other’s places, that kind of thing. Boring!” she laughs.
One of the things that is associated with “Sharpay” is the color pink. Everything “Sharpay” owns is pink and most of her clothes are pink too. Needless to say, Ashley herself is a little bit over the color. “When I starting playing ‘Sharpay’ I realized, I didn’t even know, but subconsciously, I just like stopped buying pink. I don’t really have a lot of pink things. I get away with it more when I’m brunette. I feel ‘that’s okay, I can pull of pink now.’ But if I’m blond… I’m just like ‘No!’ It’s like totally ‘Sharpay.’”
Something she does have in common with her character is their love for their dogs. “Sharpay’s” dog “Boi” is crucial to the “Fabulous” story. Ashley’s dog “Maui” (“I love Maui and Hawaii. I was thinking of Hawaiian names and Maui is perfect,” she says of choosing the name of her Teacup Malti-poo) makes a cameo in the film. “She’s in a tiny, tiny scene. She’s like the rejection dog. As I’m going in to the casting office, the girl’s crying who’s holding her.”
When talking about the movie, Ashley is quick to point out that she gets to do what she loves because of the fans. “The fans are so sweet!” she gushes. “I love the youngest fans. It’s really funny because now that I’m on “Hellcats” I have an older audience. But the younger kids are always so much more fun. They say the funniest things. I love older fans too! But I can’t wait for [her niece] Mikayla to start talking. There’s no filter. They’re just like blunt and honest and I love that about them.”
“One of them was in Palm Springs,” she begins, recalling a memorable encounter. “This little girl and she was like six years old. Her whole family would not come up to me. Her sisters and brothers who were older than her made her come up to me and she was only six. She was the littlest one. She was like “Uhm…are you Ashley Tisdale? Because you have her face.” I was like “Oh my gosh! You are so cute! She was like my best friend the rest of the day. I was on vacation but I was like ‘I don’t care.’ She was like ‘Can I have some of your fries?’ It was the cutest thing in the entire world. The little kids are always so cute and say the cutest things. They’re with you for life those kids. The fans of ‘High School Musical One’, they follow you. They grow with you, which is really great!”
While in Vancouver, filming “Hellcats,” Ashley’s week was pretty routine but incredibly busy. “What is was about a couple of months ago, was like I’d get up, I’d go work out. I worked out like six days a week with a trainer because I was on a cheerleading show so I wore like sports bras and shorts. I was on a very strict kind of diet, just like a lot of vegetables and protein. And then I’d have like a thirteen hour/fourteen hour day with that. And then I’d have the weekend off. I would fly back to L.A. because I have a beautiful house here and my family. My sister just had a baby a year ago. She’s so cute and I love her! She changes like all the time.”
The workouts benefited Ashley but she’s looking forward to her summer off. “My body completely like transformed. I got so lean. Which is great, I love it but after eight months of that it’s like ‘okay you can have some bread, you can have some dessert.’ I mean definitely on the weekends, we would all go out, the whole cast, and we’d have out cheat nights and stuff.”
Ashley will probably use some of her down time to get caught up on some movie watching. Even though she’s in the business, she still enjoys a good flick like the rest of us. “I was thinking about that the other day. There’s some people that can watch a film and they get really in to critiquing everything about it. But I’m still someone who gets totally lost in it. I just love getting in to it. And then if I watch it over and over and over and I like something about it, I tend to watch it a lot. Then I’ll be like ‘Oh my gosh, that’s so cool they thought of that idea.’ I’m a big fan of Kate Hudson and Cameron Diaz and I was a big fan of Brittany Murphy when she did all of her comedy movies. I think she was really good. I just like learning stuff and bits and pieces of how they play their characters and then just throw my stuff in to it as well.”
In terms of who she admires as a role model in life though, Ashley’s answer hits close to home. “My Mom is my role model. I always loved Britney Spears. I’d listen to her music all the time. I loved going to her concerts. I always thought these people were so great. But I think because I was in it, even though I was young, I kind of felt like they weren’t any different. So I just didn’t look up to them. I looked up to my Mom. I am the biggest fan of my Mom. She’s my best friend. I’ve always looked up to her and looked to her for advice. “
“Just cause we’re in the spotlight doesn’t mean we’re perfect,” Ashley reasons. “We’re human and we’re going to make mistakes. It’s really sweet when people say ‘You’re my daughter’s role model.’ I didn’t sign up to be a role model. The fact that you think I’m great like that, or the fact that you think I’m making good decisions, thanks! I don’t put pressure on myself to be a certain way. I just never really looked up to anybody in the business I guess.”
Ashley is really hoping that the fans embrace “Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure” the way that have embraced most of her other projects. She’s also hoping it makes a positive impact on the viewer. “I think there are a lot of lessons in the film and one of them mainly is to always believe in yourself. I think the film is actually very true to somebody who is trying to make it in the business. There’s totally those moments where you kind of forget that you are strong enough and that you really have something to put out there. You forget about that and then you like ‘oh maybe I should just start doing this.’ For instance, she starts assisting Amber Lee Adams. That’s not ‘Sharpay’ though. Sharpay would never do that. I love how Peyton is like ‘This is not the girl that I met. You’re now doing things because you’re not believing in yourself!’ I hope that people go ‘Oh my gosh, if I want to do something, I should just believe in myself and keep going and don’t let anybody stop me.’”
Nothing is stopping Ashley from being successful in any area she chooses whether it be acting, singing, producing or any other career path she might choose to pursue in the future. She’s grounded, hard-working, smart, and talented. Add those all together and you get one fabulous (albeit busy) person!