'Grease: Live' EP Talks Vanessa Hudgens' Decision to Perform After Her Father's Death

Grease: Live‘s executive producer Marc Platt has opened up about Vanessa Hudgens‘ bravery for performing in the show, despite her father’s death just one day before.

“It was incredibly brave of her. She’s a professional, but she’s also a human being and a daughter. I looked at her in the eyes and said can you do this? I think your dad would want you to do this, and she said she knew that he would,” Marc told Variety. “She knew that she had to do it. She knew that she had to put that in a box for a few hours and use it to fuel her performance. We asked her if her family would come. And they came to the show and watched in a trailer live on the Warners lot. I was with her mom. I think it was for all of them a very cathartic experience given the brutality of the circumstances. Her performance speaks for itself. We were all very proud of her and send her love to her family.”

“At the 11th hour I asked her if we could honor her dad and the memory of her dad in that way and she was very touched by it. Fox jumped on and Paramount and we put it in the last moment. We were happy to do so. The performance was indeed dedicated to his memory,” Marc added about the decision to honor Greg Hudgens at the end of the broadcast.