Vanessa Hudgens on new film Dog Days
High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens talks about her role in the new film Dog Days.
The romantic comedy Dog Days releases in theaters tonight (Friday, August 10), and star Vanessa Hudgens hopes that it will encourage audience members to adopt their next pet, as she told Collider.
(Wondering what “dog days” are, exactly? Click here for an explanation.)
“You can see it with your grandma, you can see it with your kids. There’s truly something in this movie for everyone,” Hudgens told Collider.
The film’s plot follows a large cast of characters and their interactions with each other, and consists of at least eight storylines, touching on a variety of themes including childbirth, adoption, personal responsibility, maturity and death.
Hudgens plays Tara, a barista who takes care of a Chihuahua named Gertrude she finds outside her coffee shop. She then starts volunteering at a nearby animal shelter as a way to pay for the dog’s residency there.
“She’s like sunshine,” Hudgens said of Tara. “She’s very positive and just wants to lift others up and figure out a way to make things better, and I love that about her.”
The biggest challenge of the role, since she was essentially playing herself, was not getting distracted by all the dogs on set: “They were all so adorable! In between takes I was definitely sneaking off [set] and you could find me in a pit of puppies.”
When the cameras were rolling, however, her canine co-stars were exceptionally easy to work with.
“They were like super dogs,” she told Collider. “They were the most well-behaved, well-trained dogs that I’ve ever been around.”
Hudgens is best known for playing Gabriella Montez in the High School Musical trilogy, though her other well-known credits include the superhero spoof NBC TV series Powerless and the movies Spring Breakers and Sucker Punch.
Dog Days also stars Eva Longoria, Finn Wolfhard, Jon Bass, Michael Cassidy, Nina Dobrev, Adam Pally, Rob Corddry, Tone Bell, Thomas Lennon, TIg Notaro and Ron Cephas Jones.
Critics found lots of fleas to scratch in their reviews, but overall enjoyed it.
Paul Asay of Plugged In calls it “a really tame romcom with lots of dogs” that is “gentle, feel-good film that delivers some solid messages.” Megan Garber of The Atlantic stresses that while there’s nothing particularly groundbreaking about the film, it’s still highly enjoyable: “Sometimes you just want simplicity and kindness.”
Next. TV Pups: Remembering Wishbone. dark
And finally, Variety‘s Peter DeBrudge admits that while “Dog Days may not be grand, it is funny, and kinda sweet in spots.”
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