Reel to Real

Is there life after high school?

If you're one of the cast members of High School Musical 3: Senior Year, just pick up your diploma and find a spot on the riser... you've graduated! During its opening weekend, the frothy dancefest toplined by Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens (two teens now 'tweens with killer profiles) set a box-office record for the most money ever earned by a musical film.

Recently, I spoke to Monique Coleman – "Taylor McKessie" in all three High School Musical installments – as she was exiting a Hollywood spinning class -- about the stratospheric success of the musical trilogy as well as the comments her former Dancing with the Stars partner Louis Van Amstel has made recently about fandango-ing with chunky co-stars.

"The thing I like the most about the whole High School Musical experience has been watching our progress of getting better as dancers and singers and actors," Monique says. "Also, the relationships between all our characters, I feel, got strengthened as we progressed through the films."

Monique also says that she and her costars developed strong personal bonds. "We got to have an experience that a lot of people don't have," she says. "Even though actors do trilogies, it's rare that you all stay in the same state at the same hotel; work with the same crew, cast, dancers, everything. It really was like a family. Sometimes I felt like I went to East High School. I have to remind myself that I didn't."

According to Monique, the big difference in the HSM trilogy is the size of the budget for the third installment – a real movie as opposed to the two previous made-for-television iterations of the franchise. "High School Musical 3 was my first feature film," Monique says. "To make the transition to the big screen seemed like a natural progression. It took the pressure off because it felt like I was in very comfortable territory with people that I knew would really help me out.

"The sets were so much more elaborate than they were before," Monique continues. "We were performing on Broadway-sized sets. Everything was more elevated, but the energy we put into it was identical. And that was solely based on our director, Kenny Ortega, who made sure that we understood that this was about maintaining the magic of High School Musical and not doing something bigger or better."

Monique says that her popular stint on the third season of Dancing with the Stars was a valuable primer for the dancing she's done in the HSM. "Dancing taught me that I'm not as competitive as I thought I was," she says. "Being on that show really toughened me up. At the same time, with HSM, I feel like it's about having fun, being yourself and doing your best and not trying to beat everyone else out. HSM is really about co-existing which, in a way, mirrors real life in high school."

As far as Monique's ex-dancing partner's harsh comments that a couple of the professional dancing ladies on Stars need to lose a few stone, she stops short of calling Louis Van Amstel … light!

"I will say that in this industry it is very sad to me that women are asked to live within an unrealistic physical shape," she says. "A size double-0 is becoming the standard sample size. It's scary because who wants to be less than nothing! We have to stop perpetuating this problem."

For the first time in a long time Monique says she doesn't know what she'll do next. She admits that can be a scary place, nonetheless, like any newly minted high-school graduate, she's excited about what the future will bring and what possibilities lay ahead.

"After being featured on a huge billboard in Times Square, I think its OK to take a moment to make the next choice something I really want to do."

Photo credits: Dimitros Mambouris/WireImage; Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic; none; Vince Boucci

• Discuss Zac Efron, Vaness Hudgens, Monique Coleman and the rest of the cast of High School Reunion 3: Senior Year on the Actors/Actresses board.
• Discuss High School Reunion 3: Senior Year on the Movie Land board.
• Discuss Dancing with the Stars on the Other Networks and Their Shows board.