49 Things You Didn't Know About "High School Musical," According To The Cast

BuzzFeed - Corbin Bleu as Chad Danforth, Monique Coleman as Taylor McKessie, Zac Efron as Troy Bolton, Vanessa Hudgens as Gabriella Montez, Ashley Tisdale as Sharpay Evans, and Lucas Grabeel as Ryan Evans. Peter Tangen / Disney Channel 1. Corbin Bleu originally auditioned for Ryan Evans. "At the time, I didn't know about the role of Chad Danforth," he said. 2. And Ashley Tisdale originally auditioned to play Gabriella Montez, in part because... 3. Sharpay and Ryan Evans were originally written to be black characters. "I believe they found someone to play Sharpay, but they couldn't find a black equivalent [for Ryan] and then I think they found Ashley so they decided to cast Sharpay and Ryan as Caucasian," Bleu said. 4. Lucas Grabeel originally auditioned to play Troy Bolton. "I went in right after Drew Seely, who ended up singing for Troy in the movie," Grabeel said. "I obviously heard him because it was in a trailer, so it was really thin walls and I was like, Oh shit. I'm totally not go