As excitement builds about Disney’s next HSM instalment High School Musical 4 , both Vanessa Hudgens and her ex-bf Zac Efron appear to be getting a little sentimental about their HSM days.
Zac Efron just shared a photo on Instagram and on Twitter dated August 26, 2008, of himself with High School Musical classmates Corbin Bleu, Ashley Tisdale, and ex-girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens.
“So grateful I came across this picture… With the o.g. crew during one of the most cherished and exciting times of my life. Love you guys forever. #fbf,” he captioned the photo.
The sentimentality might be catching. Yesterday, Vanessa tweeted out what she called “A Modern Day Snapchat Love Story” with a cut-off picture of two people that bears a remarkable resemblance to both her and her ex High School Musical lover Zac Efron, kissing.
A Modern Day Snapchat Love Story ? https://t.co/gAm36F2bmP pic.twitter.com/ZzV3pTCZtw
— Vanessa Hudgens (@VanessaHudgens) May 27, 2016
But all might not be so simple. It might be a little less about nostalgia and more about damage control for Efron, who has been throwing shade on his High School Musical past recently, saying in Men’s Fitness “I step back and look at myself and I still want to kick that guy’s ass sometimes,” Efron says of his former self. “Like, f*** that guy. He’s done some kind of cool things with some cool people—he did that one thing [ Neighbors ] that was funny—but, I mean, he’s still just that f***ing kid from [ High School Musical ].”
Neighbors co-star Seth Rogen seems to agree that Zac’s reputation as “that kid from High School Musical” has followed him. “For sure, I assumed he’d be a guy I wouldn’t like very much,” Rogen told Men’s Fitness of his first impressions of Efron. “But he was very self-effacing and self-deprecating, and I remember really liking him. He won me over.”
Ugh makes me self-conscious- but the story is pretty accurate about my life at the moment. Thx @MensFitness #humbled pic.twitter.com/iTaAHkWi3I
— Zac Efron (@ZacEfron) May 23, 2016
“What’s surprising about him is how sympathetic and vulnerable he seems,” Seth went on to say about Efron, “probably because people view him a certain way and he’s been s*** on. He’s someone you sympathize with, and that’s really hard to do when you look the way he does.”
What you want potential co-stars to think you think and what fans expect you to think are two different things, though, and Zac found out very quickly that his bevy of High School Musical fans were not happy to hear him dissing his past. HSM tragics inundated Zac’s Instagram account with responses ranging from anger to hilariously appropriate quoting of lyrics from High School Musical songs, asking variations on “What about us? / What about everything we’ve been through? / What about trust?” from the epic ballad “Gotta Go My Own Way” between Zac Efron’s character Troy and Vanessa Hudgens’ character Gabriella in High School Musical 2 , and some pouty-lipped references asking aren’t we “All In This Together”? from the first High School Musical.
The comments on Zac Efron’s Instagram after he said he regretted doing HSM has me dying pic.twitter.com/rlfCfzqm8X
— nas (@nasrinsampson) May 26, 2016
But for Vanessa Hudgens though, it appears the cheese is real. Vanessa told ET last week that she is really happy that Disney are keeping the hit musical series alive and that she still hums a few bars of High School Musical classics to herself. Hudgens herself has even been known to sing at karaoke nights with her new co-stars from her soon-to-debut comedy Powerless.
“We did a High School Musical [song], ‘Breaking Free,’” Vanessa says in this red carpet interview to ET , referring to the power ballad she sang with Zac Efron’s character in the hit TV musical. “I was like, ‘This is so funny because I saw my name [in the karaoke book], but it was Vanessa Anne and that was it. I was like, ‘OK, that’s interesting.’ So naturally, I had to sing myself,” she told reporters.
Disney has mooted plans for cameo appearances from the original cast members, including Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens, from the first three movies in this fourth incarnation of High School Musical , but nothing has been confirmed as yet. Zac Efron conspicuously did not attend the High School Musical reunion show this year, citing a scheduling clash.
[Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]
