Lana Condor Once Auditioned for "High School Musical: The Musical: The Series" With a Christina Perri Song
Teen Vogue cover star Lana Condor might be one of Netflix’s biggest stars, but long before becoming Netflix royalty with To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, the star almost joined a completely different streaming site: Disney+.
Speaking to Teen Vogue’s Gabe Bergado, Lana revealed that around four years ago, she actually auditioned to be part of Disney+’s very meta series High School Musical: The Musical: The Series and she remembers the experience vividly — well, kind of.
“I was seeing some things on Instagram, but I was like, I think I honest to God, might have auditioned for that,” Lana told Teen Vogue. “I don't think it was Disney+ when I shot for it, I think it was just Disney.”
Though details about the project might have changed over the course of the years, what remains intact is Lana’s excitement at the prospect of potentially joining the HSM franchise, even as part of a reboot. “I was the biggest High School Musical fan when I was a child,” Lana recalls. “[I was like] oh my God, I want to be Gabriella. I thought it was so cool.”
Speaking of her audition process, Lana admitted casting directors made a bit of an unorthodox choice for the project. “They didn't want us to sing High School Musical songs, which I'm sure everyone was like, okay I'll go in and sing ‘We're All in This Together’ or whatever. So I don't know what I did,” Lana says.
Luckily, Lana’s boyfriend Anthony de la Torre was present during the interview and helped jog her memory, reminding her of her song selection for the casting: Christina Perri’s “A Thousand Years.” And, honestly, we’d love to see the tapes.
Ultimately, she might not have landed the role, but Lana still thinks of the moment as “an amazing memory” — and her connection to HSM is anything but lost. “I looked up to Vanessa Hudgens since I was little because of High School Musical. She kind of looks like me and that's the first person that I've ever really seen that looks like me that has a lead role in something. So I've always looked up to her,” Lana explains. “I looked up to Vanessa Hudgens when I was a kid and now there are girls, like me when I was little, that are probably looking up to me [as Lara Jean Covey]. [It’s] weird but I'm okay with it.”
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Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue
