Despite this, Hudgens is the first to admit 'Bandslam' challenged her acting and musical skills.

After three teeny-bopper 'High School Musical' films, the star found it "very hard" to adapt to the movie's rock style.

She said: "It was awkward for me. I don't do rock... that's not my thing."

In the end, a computer game came to the rescue.

Hudgens and her co-stars spent hours playing Rock Band - an interactive music game that allows users to play a variety of instruments or sing along to popular songs - on a Nintendo Wii games console before each scene.

The actress is quoted as saying: "We would not stop playing Rock Band! It was ridiculous. When we had lunch breaks we would go into the trailers and play Rock Band and I sucked at the drums.

"Ryan Donowho, who is the drummer in the movie, was incredible. He could play it on expert and not miss a single beat so I was intimidated by that and everybody else was good at guitar so I usually got stuck with vocals."

Hudgens also had trouble with the film's love scenes.

Previously, she has only had to cuddle up to real-life boyfriend Zac Efron, making her romantic scenes with Gaelan extremely "awkward".

She said: "It's not like, 'Oh that was so romantic'. In reality it is so awkward but it's just part of the job."

Hudgens' co-star Michalka also puckers up to Connell in the film.

Unlike Hudgens, she couldn't wait to shoot the steamy scenes.

Michalka said: "Gaelan and I were really comfortable with each other. We had known each other for months. I was just like, 'Dude, we're going to kill this! Don't worry about it. It's going to be sick.' We just pumped each other up and it turned out really good."

Lisa Kudrow was similarly enthusiastic about the film.

The 46-year-old actress raised eyebrows when she announced she would be starring in a teen movie but she never understood why - to her it was always a "great story" with "loveable" characters.

She explained: "I really fell in love with Gaelan Connell's character Will, who is my son in the movie. I liked that he knew a lot about music. That was his only way to fit in for the first time ever.

"He was smart enough to know he didn't really fit in, and he knew why he wouldn't but he just couldn't change who he was.

"The really nice part was you just knew he'd be OK. There isn't any anxiety about whether he's going to kill himself. It's just about how heartbreaking and hard it can be to be a normal teenager in your average high school."

Lisa also saw a lot of parallels between her character's relationship with Will and her relationship with her own 11-year-old son Julian.

She said: "Kids sometimes say something insensitive to your child and you want to strangle them. All of a sudden you get really protective. You just want to step in and look after them.

"All those instincts were in this script. The film also captured the way your relationship with you child changes as they get older. Certain things suddenly become inappropriate - like walking in on them in the shower, which happens in the film.

"You think, 'How come it was ok to do that last week but you can't do it now, or ever again?' That was all in the movie in a really realistic way."

'Bandslam' was released in the UK last week.

By Kerry Coleman

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