Vanessa Hudgens hopes to make a film about her immigrant Filipino mother

After her many successful projects, from “High School Musical” and “Grease: Live!” to “The Princess Switch,” Vanessa Hudgens hopes to make one more dream come true: To create a film about her immigrant Filipino mother.

In an interview with Glamour early this month, the actress and singer said her mom Gina Guangco moved to the United States at the age of 25 without knowing anyone.

“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 said. “And my father was a firefighter, so he was gone for a week and home for a week.”

While her father was away, Vanessa said it was just her and her mom until her younger sister Stella came along. Even then, the actress said that Gina was still finding her way in a brand new country while taking care of a child.

“I feel like that’s such a relatable story to so many women all over the world. The more that we can share, the more we can lift each other up,” she said.

Vanessa said she hoped her mom would write a book that she would one day turn into a film.

“My mom is from the Philippines, and growing up there weren’t really that many women who looked like me and my mom and my family on screen,” she said.

She emphasized the need to tell different stories “so that we are exposed to them and can have more empathy towards different people.”

Vanessa, who is the daughter of Filipina Gina and American Greg Hudgens, has been vocal about her heritage. Last year, she revealed that two of her favorite Filipino dishes for Christmas were pansit and lumpia.

She also used to be “obsessed with adobo,” but she had recently stopped eating meat.

Vanessa rose to fame when she starred as Gabriella Montez on Disney’s movie series “High School Musical” with Zac Efron. – Kaela Malig/RC, GMA News