Vanessa Hudgens Wants Us All to Believe in Ghosts

With Dead Hot, she takes a deep dive into the other side.

Vanessa Hudgens isn't afraid of ghosts. That much is clear, even without watching Dead Hot, which takes her and her best friend, musician GG Magree, from an amateur ghost hunt in California to Salem, Massachusetts, to delve into the world of spiritualism, witchcraft, and self-discovery. It's a far cry from the squeaky-clean image of High School Musical's Gabriella Montez and the musical theater-adjacent repertoire she's built with Tick, Tick … Boom! and Grease: Live, which clearly illustrates the undercurrent of the documentary (available to stream on Tubi on Apr. 14): Hudgens is genuinely interested in the supernatural.

"I've always felt really connected in a way I could never explain," Hudgens says of her fascination with the realm of the unknown. "I was filming The Princess Switch 2 or 3 and I had my first conscious witchy awakening. I was learning about the history of the women who were wrongfully accused of witchcraft and learning about what witchcraft even is."

A cursory glance at her Instagram feed shows her dabbling in witchcraft, magic, and ghost investigations (between outfit posts and the announcement of her engagement). So, the show is a culmination of Hudgens and Magree's introduction into the metaphysical, where they take all those budding interests on the road to dig deep into what it means to be a witch, to learn how to commune with those who've passed to the other side, and to show viewers that it's not weird or strange to have an interest in the esoteric.

"I definitely didn't talk about it with everyone," Hudgens says of tiptoeing around the idea that she wanted to know more and to find people who shared her interest. A coven, in witch parlance. "I feel like the universe unravels itself in the most beautiful ways and at that time, the makeup artist I was working with comes from a long lineage of witches and she had brought something up about being a witch and about me being a witch. It was like, 'OK, so what does this mean?'"

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It's clear to audiences that Hudgens is, first and foremost, learning. In the span of the 90-minute documentary, she explores spirit boards, Magree confesses that she's a clairvoyant, and as the two get deeper and deeper into the world of magic, they invite us all to join them. They never purport to be professionals, something refreshing for anyone who's well-versed in the world of ghost-hunting TV. The reasons for their journeys are relatable, too. During one session, Magree shares that she really just wants to talk to her late grandmother and Hudgens explains that from that first spark of interest, she's never stopped questioning and remains open to growing and changing as she gets deeper and deeper into the world of magic and witchcraft.

"I will always be curious. My questions are never-ending, but that's what I love about it. There is no right or wrong, there's no rule book. It evolves with you and you have to trust your intuition to guide you," Hudgens adds. "It's a really beautiful, evolving relationship that I have with it."

That relationship includes enlisting professionals to help them along the way. The show features sit-downs with witches, mediums, and professional ghost hunters, each one sharing what they know so that Hudgens and Magree can add to their repertoires. They get introduced to spirit boxes (Hudgens notes she still uses hers when she manages to get some time alone, saying, "I make sure to try to connect to spirits whenever I can, I love ending up in a haunted place and seeing if I can feel anything or bringing my spirit box with me on the road in case I find an abandoned building. It's just a constant thing I'll always do."), electromagnetic field detectors, books, rituals, and more. With wide-eyed fascination and a genuine willingness to absorb it all, there's no way audiences aren't just as enamored with everything as Hudgens and Magree.

"My very first reaction working with them was their passion, their commitment, their excited-ness to grow and learn. It was all so palpable," Leslie Garvin, the spiritual consultant on the show, explains of her initial reaction to hearing that Hudgens and Magree wanted to shine a light on the world of ghosts and spirituality. "They were so eager and excited that it was contagious."

Garvin, who worked as a showrunner in the past and also happens to be an intuitive (she had her first experience communicating with ghosts at age 8), noted that she's well aware that not everyone is as open to the world of the supernatural as Hudgens and Magree or even the people set to tune into Dead Hot. She wants people to be open to the idea of ghosts and, in the end, just stay curious about the world.

"I know that people have different beliefs of it. We're in a society where there's been a very clear directive path of what a ghost or spirit is and I think we're in a new age of that changing," she explains. "I always say, 'Just be curious instead of being judgmental, instead of being skeptical. Just stay curious.' When you're curious, miraculous things happen."

Related:How to Become Your Own Psychic Medium

That curiosity is a sentiment Hudgens is proud to showcase even as she moves on to other projects. She was recently in the Philippines to film a new travel documentary and trace her own Filipina heritage — she was even named the country's global tourism ambassador. She explains that while she was with the indigenous tribes, she felt a whole new kind of spirituality and reverence.

"It's so beautiful that they live without technology," Hudgens says of the tribes she met on her trip. "It's like they live in a time warp and it's very pure and very simple. I think that's where magic lies and I would love to explore their traditions and their beliefs and dive deeper into it."

But it all comes down to another one of Dead Hot's main messages: Hudgens wants to showcase the history and heritage of the people behind the magic and lore, not just have it lurk in shadows or be relegated to being seen as nothing more than parlor tricks.

"Without documenting certain things, they just get left in the history books and forgotten about," she explains before encouraging everyone to follow their intuition if they have even the tiniest inclination towards the world of witchcraft. "Have faith in yourself that you're going in the direction you should. Just lean in and trust your gut."

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