Vanessa Hudgens: Vanessa Hudgens in Twilight 2, New Moon?

Vanessa Hudgens has auditioned for a role in Twilight sequel, New Moon. Yup, you read it right. The High School Musical star seems to be looking beyond Disney for her future in films. After all, she cannot play a teenager forever. And with the High School Musical franchise nearing its end, who knows what other roles (if any) Disney has for her what with the n-u-d-e photo controversy she was involved in a few months ago. Twilight actress Ashley Greene recently revealed through an MTV interview that the High School Musical star has auditioned for the role of werewolf Leah Clearwater in the vampire romance sequel New Moon.

. The character of Leah Clearwater transforms into a werewolf during the events of New Moon, around the same time as her brother, Seth. Leah is a bitter member of the pack who likes to stir things up and antagonize Jacob Black. Taylor Lautner has recently been confirmed to be coming back to the Twilight franchise as Jacob Black despite rumors to the contrary earlier. While there will some debate over Hudgens can portray a character as aggressive as Leah coming off playing Gabriella in High School Musical, it would certainly be a major casting coup for the franchise based on the books by Stephenie Meyer considering it shares roughly the same demographic as the Disney series. However, it may be interesting to note that Leah Clearwater is one of the antagonists in the film and I am wondering how her fans will react to such a role considering what she has done in Disney so far.

Update: There are conflicting reports about Vanessa Hudgens' participation in the Twilight sequel, New Moon. Her camp in now denying the earlier reports that she has auditioned for the role of Leah Clearwater. I found the following entry on justjaredjr:

Vanessa Hudgens has NOT auditioned for New Moon, her rep tells JustJaredJr.com.

The 20-year-old singer/actress reportedly auditioned for the Twilight sequel for the role of werewolf Leah Clearwater.

“I don’t know anything about the audition,” Vanessa’s rep tells JJJ. “As far as I know, it’s just a rumor.”

Seems that Ashley Greene’s comment about Vanessa was taken way out of context because SpoilerTV is reporting that the character of Leah isn’t even being cast for!

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