Creme Magazine

Ashley Hearts Kiwis

Ashley spent six weeks living in our country and her verdict on NZ is in: she loves it here! Ash was in NZ to film They Came From Upstairs – a $60 million blockbuster about an alien invasion!

Filming has kept her pretty busy in her time here – her scenes have been shot quickly so she can return home before the other cast members to get to work on her next project, High School Musical 3. She says she’s been lucky enough to have weekends off, and she’s made the most of them by hitting the beach!

Alice went on set to talk to Ashley between scenes to find out the goss on her new movie and her plans for 2008!

What have you seen of NZ so far?
I’ve seen a lot of beaches – I love the beach. I’ve seen Takapuna, Mission Bay, Waiheke, Goat Island… I haven’t seen Piha beach yet, but I hope to do that soon. I really, really wanted to check out the Bay of Islands but I don’t think I’m going to get to see it, coz it takes a few hours to get there and I just don’t have the time!

More reason to come back and see us, right?
Exactly! I’ll have to come back.

Is NZ like you expected it would be?
Well, I’ve been to Australia before for publicity of High School Musical. I didn’t know too much about New Zealand. I thought it might be like Australia, but they’re both very different from each other. I knew it would be sunny and hot – which it is! It’s beautiful here! It’s really, really nice. The people are super, super nice, great people! Very open.

Have you met many Kiwis?
Yup! [Laughs] I’ve taken a lot of taxis and met some nice people. Everyone is really nice, they’ve very chilled. It’s nice.

Do you get recognised?
Yeah I do, there will be some people who recognise me. I signed a wall in a Mooks store actually while I was there. It was in some mall…I forget which one. I was in the store and they were like, “Can you sign our wall?” and I was like, “Yeah, totally!” Sometimes it’s pretty random, like, I was at Mission Bay and a guy pulled up his towel next to mine and was, like, “Are you Ashley Tisdale? My little sister loves you!” And he totally wanted to have this long conversation with me.

Are you missing home?
Oh, yeah I am. This is definitely far from home. I miss my dad and my sister and obviously my dogs, sooo much. It’s so hard being away from them. I actually just got a new puppy, named Maui, she’s eight-months old and it’s my first time being away from her. It’s kind of like having a baby! My dad is looking after her. I’m only away a month and a half, so it’ll be ok. You do miss your surroundings and your comfort zone, but everyone on the cast and crew here is really nice and making it really enjoyable to be here.

Tell me about the movie you’re filming here...
It’s called They Came from Upstairs. It’s kind of an action comedy and it has aliens in it. It’s really cool! They come from upstairs in the rooftop! It’s fun. My brother and cousin find aliens and my boyfriend gets a spark-plug, which is what they use to take over humans, they can only take over adults who’re over 18. My character is 17, so she’s safe.

What is your character like?
My character Bethany’s a typical teenager. She’s in love with her boyfriend. She comes to the summer house where they’re staying and she doesn’t know what’s going on, she’s more worried about her boyfriend coz he’s acting kind of strange. She’s all hormonal, but he’s all weird too, because of that whole aliens taking over his body thing! [Laughs] It’s a little bit dark and scary – It’s kind of being shot like The Goonies or Gremlins back in the day. It’s a great family movie though and has something in if for everyone.