Hollywood Hottie Ashley Tisdale shows us what it takes to be a Hellcat.

By Brittany Geragotelis

Check out the photo gallery at the bottom of the page!

Butterflies fluttered around  in my stomach as I recognized the number on my caller ID. “Hi! This is Ashley Tisdale,” a peppy yet friendly voice announced across the line
after I answered. When I mentioned to the actress that this was the third time I’ve interviewed her for AC, she answered with a chuckle, “I know! It’s so cool!” Funny, because that’s exactly how I’d describe Ashley. She’s just so cool.
After talking to her for just a few minutes (she was in Toronto, Canada, at the time of our interview, filming the High School Musical spin-off movie Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure), you can’t help but feel like you know her—like really know her. And why not? Her fans have practically watched her grow up on TV.

As a young actress, Ashley got her first big break—and a little taste of her fabulous life to come—on the Disney Channel hit “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.” Later, she moved on to high school, spending her adolescent acting period filming the ridiculously successful High School Musical franchise. Now, Ashley’s graduated from her teenage years and is heading off to college—The CW University to be exact.

On the new show, “Hellcats,” Ashley plays Savannah, the tough-as-nails captain of her college cheer squad. The role isn’t a stretch for the New Jersey native: She’s a former Pop Warner cheerleader herself. “I was really shy when I was younger and cheerleading helped me come out of my shell,” says Ashley. At the age of 8, she became a Spartan cheerleader in Ocean Township, NJ, and wore her uniform proudly.

Under the watchful eyes of the media, paparazzi and her adoring fans, Ashley has made the transition from a shy kid to the confident performer we see today. Read on as Ashley lets us in on the three main phases of her life and what each of her creative projects has taught her about herself, love and growing up.

Ashley was only 3 years old when she got into this business, so by the time she scored the role of good girl Maddie Fitzpatrick on “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody,” she was already a Hollywood veteran. “For years I’d been doing guest appearances and recurring roles where I played the daughter or the friend,” says Ashley.

“Before ‘The Suite Life’ I did three pilots. None of them got picked up and I was like, ‘Am I ever going to get something that’s picked up?’” Finally, she got her wish and landed “The Suite Life.” It was her first chance to star in a television show, and she took the opportunity and ran with it. “Disney was such a great place for me,” says Ashley. “I just felt that it was a place where I could be a star.”

And she was. Acting alongside other young performers, like Dylan and Cole Sprouse and Brenda Song, Ashley became a hit among kids for her portrayal of hard-working Tipton Hotel employee Maddie. Ashley made the role believable, no doubt due to the fact that her own parents had instilled a similar work ethic in her while she was growing up. “My parents really wanted me to have a normal life,” she says. “I went to a regular school and worked in clothing stores, even though I was acting a lot and didn’t necessarily need the job. They wanted me to learn the value of a dollar and stay grounded.”

Though she insists she still led a normal life while on the show, Ashley was also getting her first taste of Hollywood drama. But because of her strong family foundation, even the pitfalls of being a child star couldn’t penetrate her happy existence. “Hollywood is like high school—and I’d already been there,” says Ashley. “I never got into the whole Hollywood scene. I may have grown up in this business, but my parents always made it clear that acting [is only] my job. There are
other things that I do outside Hollywood.”

Still fresh from “The Suite Life,” Ashley began to film a made-for-TV movie about a group of high school students trying to find themselves, while starring in the school musical. Ashley was set to play Sharpay, a high-maintenance diva used to getting her way—a far cry from her “Suite Life” character. Her co-stars were five other relatively unknown actors, all of whom were talented singers and dancers. The movie? High School Musical. “None of us had any idea it was going to be as big as it was,” says Ashley. “We had such a blast filming it, but it wasn’t supposed to be this huge phenomenon. Disney wasn’t marketing it like it was the next big thing—it was the fans that made it that way. I owe all my success to them.”

Suddenly, Ashley and her co-stars, Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Lucas Grabeel, Corbin Bleu and Monique Coleman, were household names, enjoying a kind of instant fame that young actors their age seldom achieve. They were the cool kids in school but also the new kids on the block and were feeling the pressure to prove themselves to their peers.

“It was crazy,” Ashley says. “We were at the Billboard Music Awards, being named Album of the Year over people like Jay-Z. Everyone was like, ‘Who are these kids? What is this album?’ Record labels were trying to figure out why we were on the Billboard charts.”

The massive media attention and scrutiny they experienced turned out to be a lot for them to take. Between Vanessa’s infamous photo leak and an increased focus on Ashley from the paparazzi and tabloids, the HSM cast found themselves dealing with the downside of celebrity. “A lot of the things that end up in the media are just not true, and it messes with your head,” says Ashley. “I’ve learned to have a thick skin, be positive, block out the negative and just keep going. When I was 3, I wasn’t looking to be on magazine covers. This is all still new to me.”

Yet Ashley managed to rise above the gossip and rumors and graduated from this time in her career a stronger performer because of it. “It was kind of like a second high schoolexperience for me,” says Ashley. “I was still young in the middle of that franchise and a bit immature at the time, but it taught me to be grateful and not take anything for granted. In the past year and a half, I’ve definitely grown up. I’ve become a woman.”

“We are an internationally recognized competitive sport. We spend 20 hours a week practicing. We bench-press twice our body weight and run a seven-minute mile. We compete with broken thumbs and twisted ankles, smiling through the pain. We are athletes.” This is how audiences are introduced to Ashley’s character, Savannah, on the new CW show “Hellcats.” The talented squad captain is completely serious as she tries to explain to spirit nay-sayer Marti (played by fellow Disney alum Alyson Michalka) that competitive collegiate cheerleading is more than just standing around looking pretty.
It was partly because of this stance on the world of cheer that Ashley jumped at the chance to head back to school—this time settling on a southern college campus. She admits that the Bring It On films had a little to do with her decision to take on the cheer role. “I loved the script and they’ve made seven or eight Bring It On movies, which were all so successful,” says Ashley. “I couldn’t believe that a TV series hadn’t been made about cheerleading before.”
She was also excited to play a character that was so different from the ones she’d tackled in the past, pointing out that it was the grittiness of the show as well as the edgy tone that ultimately drew her in. “The energy is fun because of the cheerleading, but it’s also still dramatic,” she says. “It’s the best of both worlds. It’s not as bubblegum as Bring It On, but it’s a great voice for cheerleaders.”
Taking on the role also meant shimmying her way into a midriff-baring uniform, something the actress hadn’t done since she was a kid. So Ashley began to work out with a trainer every day and started eating healthy to get herself back into tip-top cheer shape. She also brushed up on her cheer skills, working on her motions and dances with her sister, Jennifer, who cheered through college and had a starring role in Bring It On: In It to Win It in 2007.
And where there are cheers, there’s stunting. We’re talking pyramids, coed tosses and Baskets. So, does that mean we can look forward to seeing Ashley take to the air? “We have stunt doubles, but it’s so much fun,” she says. “I’m like, ‘Heck, put me up there!’ Eventually, I’d like to actually be the one at the top of the pyramid.”

But just because the cast is working their tails off on set doesn’t mean they’re not having fun. For Ashley and her co-star Alyson, this project is a reunion of sorts. “Ashley and I have known each other for 10 years—from my first acting class,” says Alyson. “It’s so crazy how fate has brought us together for this show. We have such a solid friendship on and off camera. Our characters are so different yet share the same
passion as athletes.”
At the end of the day, Ashley isn’t just reciting her lines and playing a role—she’s serious about the sport and the athletes who participate in it. And that means defending the activity to anyone who bad-mouths it. “To anyone who thinks cheerleading isn’t a sport, I can definitely tell you that it is,” says Ashley. “One of the guys on the show is a basketball player who’d never cheered before taking on this role. Afterward he was like, ‘Oh my God, this is so hard!’”
College is usually a time for people to discover who they are and what they want to do with their lives, but it seems like Ashley’s already got it all figured out. “I’ve been lucky in that from an early age, I’ve always known what I wanted to do, which I think is pretty rare,” she says. “High school is definitely about the experience of learning about yourself and gaining life lessons. College is when you use that knowledge. Right now, I’m so lucky to be a part of ‘Hellcats.’ I’ve always gone with my instincts and that’s what I’ll keep doing. I’ll always follow my heart.”

Check out this awesome Ashley Tisdale gallery, including some photos of her days as a cheerleader!

[Show as slideshow]

photo cred: Andrew Eccles/The CW; Jack Rowand/The CW; Joe Magnani/The CW; ABC/AdamLarkey; Disney/Bob D’Amico; NBC/DanaEdelson; Jeff Staab/The CW; Disney/Adam Rose

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