In looking back at the High School Musical cast, it's interesting to chart the journey of Vanessa Hudgens' career. While Zac Efron obviously had the best run post-High, you'd think that everyone else would have popped off in the same way. Films like Sucker Punch didn't necessarily set the world on fire, but it's also hard to neglect her sexier turn in Spring Breakers. 2013's Gimme Shelter might've been Vanessa's most daring film, finding her portraying a woman who was at her bottom, but a 2013 thriller entitled The Frozen Ground saw her in a similar vein, although this was more of the "teen prostitute being pursued by a serial killer" wave, for good or ill.
It also featured 50 Cent with an awkward wig as her pimp.
The film, which also featured Nicolas Cage as a cop, John Cusack as a man molded after an actual killer, Robert Hansen, and Hudgens as a 17-year-old who was abducted and raped. While the majority of the film was Cage on the hunt to nail Cusack, Vanessa's Cindy Paulson was the victim that Cage's officer couldn't shake. The one that he knew wasn't lying (even if she was lying about her age because she was a prostitute).
The above scene takes place a bit later in the film, where Cindy is trying to make money while deal with the fucked up predicament that is her life. As you'll see, she's spotted by 50 Cent—aka Clate Johnson (what a pimp name—in all of his weird hair glory)—who lets her know that, sooner or later, she'll need him.
It's one of those films where the best thing about it is Nicolas Cage, but it's also one of those aces you'll keep in your back pocket when it's time to play "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" or something (for what it's worth, Vanessa and Fif both have a Bacon number of 2, with The Frozen Ground factoring into Vanessa's connection). If you're in for a decent thriller, check this out, although you've already seen V Hudge on the pole...so maybe you can skip it?
