Magazine, The Immigrant Experience
Hollywood star Vanessa Hudgens recently revealed that she dreams of one day developing a movie about her mother’s experience as a Filipino immigrant in the U.S.
A story worth sharing: Hudgens, who graces this month’s cover of Glamour UK, shared in an interview with the magazine that she would like to create a film about the challenges that her mom, Gina Guangco-Hudgens, faced after moving to the U.S. at the age of 25.
- The 33-year-old actor said her father’s job as a firefighter left her mom navigating a new environment mostly by herself while taking care of their young daughter. Her younger sister, Stella, would later come along.
- “As an immigrant, coming into the States and not knowing anyone, I can’t even imagine how difficult and challenging that is and what challenges she faced as a woman,” she was quoted as saying.
- Hudgens is now hoping her mother documents her experience in a book that she can later adapt into a movie.
- “I feel like that’s such a relatable story to so many women all over the world,” she said. “The more that we can share, the more we can lift each other up.”
- She revealed in a 2018 interview with Inquirer that the passing of her father, Greg Hudgens, made her bond more with her mom: “She thinks of me as her best friend, and she sometimes tells me things even I don’t want to hear. It’s weird but also sweet when that role reversal happens.”
On diversity and representation: Hudgens, who shot to fame as a teen star in 2006 via the Disney Channel Original Movie “High School Musical,” highlighted the importance of sharing “all the different stories because America is a massive melting pot, [just like the] world.”