Article by Craig Byrne
Until recently, Ashley Tisdale was most recognized for her work on Disney properties, playing the memorable Sharpay Evans in the High School Musical franchise and starring as Maddie Fitzpatrick in the early seasons of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody. Now, Tisdale has taken on her first major adult role, playing cheerleader Savannah Monroe on Hellcats, which airs Wednesdays at 9PM on The CW.
KSiteTV was one of several media outlets that visited the Hellcats set in Vancouver, British Columbia last week. While there we were able to see the show’s sets, including the “Cheertown,” and even were able to see rehearsals on a production number with a 1980’s theme.
Our visit came soon after the airing of the show’s airing of the third episode, where Savannah’s control-freak nature was threatened with the character drinking alcohol. “That was a lot of fun,” Tisdale tells us. “It was my first time playing drunk, and I actually don’t even like alcohol, so it was a challenge.”
Savannah’s relationship with Dan will continue to push her boundaries and it will possibly allow the character a chance to let loose, but fans should not expect changes to her character overnight. “Dan and Savannah are really kind of funny together, because you just really don’t know what’s going to happen,” Tisdale teases, and she hints that things might get “kind of weird” considering the relationship that also exists between Dan and Marti. “For Marti, it’s her best friend dating her roommate, who is the captain of the Hellcats, and also was the one to let her on the squad. She saved her scholarship,” Ashley explains. As to whether or not it will affect the friendship between Savannah and Marti, Tisdale tells us that the relationship will be “up and down.” “I think they’ll be close, but I think there’s going to be things that obviously kind of make them ‘frienemies’ in a way. And they’re roommates, so they’re just going to have to try to deal with it,” she says.
That unexpected nature of the friendship is something that Tisdale and her castmates seem to appreciate from creator Kevin Murphy’s scripts. “Every week, we are surprised and shocked on what happens. You think ‘Okay, this is going to happen,’ Kevin will literally twist around and make it about something else, and you’re like ‘Oh, my gosh. I did not see that coming!’ For us to be that way, I think the audience is going to be that way too as well, which is really cool,” she says.
In the three aired episodes thus far, Hellcats has explored Marti Perkins’ scholastic life but the academic side of Savannah – including her major – has yet to be seen. “Apparently Savannah’s in school,” Tisdale says, laughing. While Ashley believes we’ll be seeing an answer to the question of Savannah’s studies soon, although she does think her character has been studying when the action hasn’t been following her on screen. “She’s just someone that, even though you don’t see her doing homework all the time, she probably has it done before everybody else,” she explains.
Thanks to Ashley Tisdale and the cast of Hellcats for taking the time to speak with us. Our current plan is to roll out one interview per week on the site for the coming weeks, so be sure to come back! Also don’t miss tonight’s episode, the trailer for which you can find below, and talk about Hellcats on our forum!
