Vanessa Hudgens wants to make a movie about the struggles her Filipino immigrant mom faced

December 20, 2021

Hollywood star Vanessa Hudgens recently revealed that she dreams of one day developing a movie about her mother’s experience as a Filipino immigrant in the U.S.

A story worth sharing: Hudgens, who graces this month’s cover of Glamour UK, shared in an interview with the magazine that she would like to create a film about the challenges that her mom, Gina Guangco-Hudgens, faced after moving to the U.S. at the age of 25.

The 33-year-old actor said her father’s job as a firefighter left her mom navigating a new environment mostly by herself while taking care of their young daughter. Her younger sister, Stella, would later come along.
“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,” she was quoted as saying.
Hudgens is now hoping her mother documents her experience in a book that she can later adapt into a movie.
“I feel like that’s such a relatable story to so many women all over the world,” she said. “The more that we can share, the more we can lift each other up.”
She revealed in a 2018 interview with Inquirer that the passing of her father, Greg Hudgens, made her bond more with her mom: “She thinks of me as her best friend, and she sometimes tells me things even I don’t want to hear. It’s weird but also sweet when that role reversal happens.”

On diversity and representation: Hudgens, who shot to fame as a teen star in 2006 via the Disney Channel Original Movie “High School Musical,” highlighted the importance of sharing “all the different stories because America is a massive melting pot, [just like the] world.”

According to “The Princess Switch” star, “there weren’t really that many women who looked like me and my mom and my family on screen” when she was growing up.
“There are so many different stories that need to be told so that we are exposed to them and can have more empathy towards different people,” she noted.

Hudgens, who reprised her role as Stacy De Novo/Lady Margaret in the third installment of the holiday rom-com franchise “The Princess Switch” on Netflix, also recently starred in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Tick, Tick … Boom!”

Featured Image via Glamour Magazine UK

Share this Article