Vanessa Hudgens—undeniably one of the most successful celebs from Disney Channel—is officially shooting a travel documentary in the Philippines! The High School Musical star arrived in the country just last weekend to film a project in Palawan and Manila. “I’m so excited to come and to meet you all face to face. I love you guys!” says the Fil-Am actress, as this will be her first time visiting the Philippines.
The project garnered mixed reactions from netizens when it was first announced. While some fans found it exciting that Vanessa is rediscovering her Pinay roots, others were disappointed in the actress for not being “proud” of her Filipino heritage before.
“Vanessa ‘I’m German, French, 1/6 Chinese’ Hudgens who never talks about being Filipino unless a Filipino asked when her mum is like full Filipino is now collecting coins to shoot a [documentary] about being Filipino,” says one netizen. “Zac Efron has visited the Philippines multiple times whereas Vanessa ‘would love to visit one day. I heard it’s beautiful there.’”
Twitter“She was not proud of her Pinoy roots before but now that Pinoy clout is so strong, here she comes,” says another.
Twitter
Twitter
TwitterHowever, the actress’ fans defended her by unearthing a 2008 interview of Vanessa talking about her Filipino heritage. “I am so proud of my heritage. I love being a Filipina. There aren’t very many Filipino girls in the industry, so being able to stand up and be that girl makes me proud,” she said. “My mother is so proud, she grew up in Manila. I’d love to make it over there sometime. Unfortunately, I have not had a chance to visit.”
She also mentioned that she wants to learn how to speak Filipino.
In 2021, Vanessa also revealed that her dream project is to make a tribute film for her immigrant Filipina mom, Gina Hudgens. “My mom is from the Philippines, and growing up there weren’t really that many women who looked like me and my mom and my family on screen,” she said.
“As an immigrant, coming into the States and not knowing anyone, I can’t even imagine how difficult and challenging that is and what challenges she faced as a woman. And my father was a firefighter, so he was gone for a week and home for a week. I feel like that’s such a relatable story to so many women all over the world. The more that we can share, the more we can lift each other up.”
Instagram/vanessahudgensAs of writing, no updates have been announced on the documentary’s release.
*This story originally appeared on Cosmo.ph. Minor edits have been made by the Preview.ph editors.
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