Vanessa Hudgens has made an impassioned plea for equal rights and pay for women as she thanked the women in her life for their support when her father died.
The High School Musical actress has journeyed from teenage starlet to amassing a following of more than 70 million on social media.
“Feminism to me means being able to do whatever the hell it is that you want to do and be supported,” she told Glamour magazine.
“We should have equal rights, we should have equal pay.
“It’s about supporting each other, lifting other women up so that we can achieve all the things that we want to do.”
Hudgens, 32, told the magazine she leaned on the women in her life when her father Greg died from cancer the evening before she was set to play Rizzo in Fox’s TV production of Grease: Live! in 2016.
Now starring in Lin Manuel-Miranda’s latest movie musical, Tick, Tick… Boom!, Hudgens said: “There was never a moment where I thought that I wouldn’t do (Grease) because my dad would want me to do it.
“He gave so much time and energy into me achieving my dreams and for me to have a career where I can do what I love. So I felt like I needed to do it, because that’s what he would’ve wanted (me) to do.”
The actor, singer and producer also told the magazine one of her pet clothing hates.
“Bras are uncomfortable.
“If you feel more comfortable and ready to take on the world in a bra, then by all means wear one.
“But for me personally, they’re just not comfortable,” she said, adding: “Free the nipple!”
Read the full interview in the Glamour UK December digital issue, online now.
