Vanessa Hudgens gets past the drama

vanessa hudgens

Vanessa Hudgens wishes people would just — stay with it for a minute — let her work.

“It's so annoying, because there's always so much hype, and there are always so many people following actors when they're not doing anything,” says the Disney starlet, on the phone from New York. She's been talking up Bandslam, a scrappy high-school musical of sorts, opening Friday.

“I hate drama, so I try to avoid it at all costs.”

Right about now, the collective thought is probably something along the lines of, “Mmmhmmm.”

Hudgens, 20, made these earnest claims less than a day before a second set of nude photos surfaced online. (She has yet to release any official statement.) Similar photos leaked in 2007, and Hudgens apologized.

Alleged comedian Dane Cook took a cheap shot at Hudgens' latest photo scandal during Sunday's taping of the Teen Choice Awards.

“Girl, you gots to keep your clothes! Phones are for phone calls, girl,” he yelled from the stage. His comments were cut from Monday's broadcast.

It's all a bit of shame, really, since Bandslam is a charmer that turns several high-school clichés upside down. It focuses on Will Burton (Gaelan Connell), a painfully awkward nerd with a love of classic rock who assembles a group of oddcasts to form a band (the cleverly named I Can't Go On, I'll Go On) with hopes of winning a high-school competition. He develops an intense crush on Hudgens' Sa5m (the 5 is silent), an emo-esque loner with a love of reading and sarcasm.

Much of the film was shot in Austin, where Hudgens says she had the chance to take in South by Southwest and spent time at an “incredible” movie theater where “you could sit down and order food, and they would bring it to you as you're watching the movie.” (That's the Alamo Drafthouse, y'all.)

Bandslam also boasts winning turns from Lisa Kudrow as a much-put-upon mom and Alyson Michalka as a quirky hot girl with a heart and issues of her own. (Your tween daughter knows her as one-half of sister act Aly & AJ.)

“Even though it's based around an unoriginal story, I think we've made it original. It doesn't go the way you think it would go,” Hudgens says.

She also relished the chance to break out of the shiny-happy Disney mold. The film was directed and co-written by Todd Graff, who knows his way around adolescent angst — and has a penchant for soundtracking it with flourish. He also helmed 2003's grandly entertaining Camp.

“I don't really relate to Sa5m that much at all. I was kind of a loner when I was a kid, but I was never dark or anything like that,” she says.

“It was definitely a collaboration with the producers and Todd — the way she dressed, the way she talked, the way she walked. It was a whole process. It was a lot of fun being part of that creative process.”

Hudgens' real-life high-school experience was hardly as adventurous. Mostly, it involved sitting at home with mom, slaving over assignments at the kitchen table. No breaking into spontaneous song.

But the Cali girl says she doesn't regret missing out on — well, she'll explain. (And it includes that “d” word again.)

“I went through High School Musical, had my graduation for High School Musical, made my really good friends from High School Musical,” she says.

“I think the only thing I missed is drama, and that's totally fine — jealousy and prom and all that other junk that is just so unnecessary.”