Monique Coleman is looking back on her High School Musical days and the cast’s on set hijinks.
“If those set walls could talk — and we never would. And that’s what’s so beautiful,” the actress, 44, exclusively told Us Weekly of her time on the hit Disney Channel Original Movie on Tuesday, February 11, while promoting her new Lifetime film Trapped in the Spotlight. “I think about our dynamic specifically is that we genuinely care about each other, and it doesn’t matter how much time passes. It doesn’t matter what we’ve been through. We will always have each other’s backs.”
Coleman confessed that since she was older than her castmates, they looked to her as a “big sister” figure. (Coleman was 25 when the first High School Musical movie premiered. The other main cast members were between 17 and 22.)
“I am not going to say who, what or where, but I was in the car with people the first time they got to drive with an adult in the car. I would be the one. They’d be like, ‘Mo, you’re going,’” she recalled. “People lost their virginities. All kinds of things [were] happening. And I was like, ‘Oh my God, talk to your parents.’”
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Coleman explained that with her maturity, she was able to “bridge the gap” between her costars and their family members.
“We went on two tours. We went on a national tour and also an international tour. And there were times where I really was able to see they’re actually growing up a little bit,” she shared. “I can kind of stand in that gap and be a buffer for them between their parents to say, ‘Hey, you can trust them. I’m here and I’m paying attention and you can trust them.’”
Coleman also wasn’t afraid to lay down the law with her cast when they did act out.
“Also being in the room also and being like, ‘Don’t you act a fool in this room with you. I don’t want to get in trouble,’” she quipped.
While Coleman was older than her costars, she recalled trying to appear as youthful as she could.
“I was showing up to set and my Mickey [Mouse] T-shirts with my pom poms on my ears acting like a little child. Meanwhile, Vanessa [Hudgens] and Ashley [Tisdale] have their Frankie Bs with the little booty cheeks out. And I’m like, ‘Oh my God,’” she told Us. “They were 16 and I think maybe 20, I was 24 and I was doing my best to be as young as possible. Meanwhile, all the young people around me were trying to appear older.”
As she looks back, Colman shared that now she doesn’t mind taking on roles that don’t line up her current age.
“I actually really enjoy playing younger characters because I feel like it gives me an opportunity to replay parts of that experience from a different perspective,” she confessed. “So it was really fun for me and it still is fun for me. I don’t look my age even now.”
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Since High School Musical, Coleman has not slowed down. She’s starring in and co-executive producing the new movie Trapped in the Spotlight, which premiered on Lifetime on Saturday, February 15.
“I think one of the aspects of this character is just what happens when you achieve fame maybe a little bit before you’re ready to, and not to say that that is my exact story, but I do understand that we like to cancel people because we can be a little bit judgmental,” she told Us of the role. “We like to see you in the limelight, and then we like to watch you fall.”
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
