First things first - yes
Vanessa Hudgens is as cute in person as she is in her photos.
How do we know that? We got to visit the awesome (and sort of creepy) set of
Freaks of Nature, back when they were filming, to spend some time with the cast. Vanessa, who plays leading lady Lorelei is Dag's (
Nicholas Braun) love interest.
"She's completely bored with the life that she lives and she could care less about what's going on in the world," the 26-year-old actress said about her character. "She lives in her own bubble, but things take a turn for her and she finally finds her way to happiness." The script initially got Vanessa hooked. "I thought it was a breath of fresh air and it was so fun. I'm a big zombie fan myself so reading the scene when Lorelei comes into a room full of zombies - that would be my heaven!"
Um, zombies and heaven? "I love zombies.
The Walking Dead is my favorite show. It's just fun," she explained. "The makeup and I love zombie killings. We have a few of those. It's kind of funny in a messed up way because they're not alive, but still, they're zombies." And you bet that zombie selfies happened all day on set. "Every single zombie or vampire I can find, I'm like 'Selfie time!'"
Robbie Pickering, the director mentioned to us that Vanessa's character was inspired by a young
Stevie Knicks. "He originally brought that up to me too and I love that because I'm all about the bohemian and hippie generation. I thought that was great and it kind of led to this laid back attitude. Right off the bat I could not have been more excited! She's amazing."
Speaking of amazing, that's exactly how Vanessa described working with Nicholas. "He's so good! I was really shocked though cause the first time I met him we had rehearsal at my house and I'm a barefoot kind of girl. I opened the door and he's standing there all of 6'7" and I was like 'Wait, this isn't right because I'm going to look like a little tiny girl, but I've been in heels this entire time so it makes up for it." The cherry on top? "It's fun staring at each other in the eyes and screaming at the top of our lungs. We now know what it's like to die together, so it's cool."
Vanessa is a human (as far as we know) in the movie, but that doesn't mean her character doesn't interact with anyone or any
thing else. "We're rivals for sure," she said about Lorelai and
Mackenzie Davis' character, Petra. "She does not like who I am and what I stand for. And I barely know she's alive. It's that dynamic. We get to be a little catty towards each other, classic high school situation."
So is Nicholas' character Dag in love or nah? "He definitely has that fling fascination, she's such a tease. She's very passive about so many things, yet she's very smart and knows what she's doing. She's just got the boys on a string."
We can't wait to see them dangle when
Freaks of Nature comes out on
October 30.