If you thought Tracy Turnblad was ambitious, just wait until you hear about Nikki Blonsky's journey to playing the iconic character in the 2007 film adaption of Hairspray.
After the Long Island native fell in love with the Tony-winning Broadway musical when she saw it for her 15th birthday, Blonsky had one goal and one goal only: Star in it herself. So she started regularly purchasing Backstage magazine to keep an eye on notices for open casting calls until finally she saw the message she had been waiting for.
"I went in to audition and they brought me back three times," Blonsky exclusively told E! News. "I was super excited and then they were like, 'We love you, but you're just too young.' I was brokenhearted."
Though initially rejected, Blonsky, who had only a school production of Wicked on her resume, didn't give up on her dream. And on her 17th birthday, she checked again for any upcoming Hairspray auditions.
"I was like, 'Well, if you keep auditioning for the Broadway musical, I'm older, it's got to work now!'" Blonsky, 33, recalled. "I checked the website and I scroll down and it says, 'We're casting Hairspray the movie,' and I'm like, 'Oh my, here we go! This is it!' It literally said '17 to 24.' It was the best birthday present I could've asked for was to see that age."
Despite the notice specifically asking for prospective Tracys to not send in audition tapes, Blonsky did just that, explaining, "I was just a young kid with a dream and this was all I ever wanted and I was like, 'Well, you gotta follow your dreams and be persistent.'"
That fateful decision kicked off what would ultimately be a six-month audition process, during which director Adam Shankman and the casting team saw 1,100 young women for the role before selecting the then-unknown 17-year-old Blonsky to lead an all-star ensemble that included John Travolta, Christoper Walken, Michelle Pfieffer and Queen Latifah. Oh, and High School Musical heartthrob Zac Efron was playing her love interest and Amanda Bynes was playing her best friend.
The movie took in a record-breaking $203 million at the global box office and Blonsky was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical, And 15 years later, she is still as awestruck by Tracy and the message of Hairspray as she was when she was a teenager taking the train into New York City to see it for the first time.
"Tracy is eternally optimistic and she believes she can do anything and that I will forever be grateful to her for," Blonsky said. "Because she taught me that."
Blonsky shared her secrets about the making of Hairspray with E!, including the intense rehearsal process, the surprising co-star she was completely fan-girled over and that time a bartender tried to get her to give him Zac Efron's phone number...
1. Nikki Blonsky beat out 1,100 other actresses to land the lead role of Tracy Turnblad, with director Adam Shankman delivering the news in a video message while the 17-year-old was working at Cold Stone Creamery. It also happened to be the night before her senior prom, which made the high school rite of passage even more of a night to remember.
"When I got to my prom venue, there was just a massive spray of red roses from the Hairspray family," Blonsky told E! News. "I literally had to call my mom to come to prom to pick up the roses. I was like, ‘Mom, these are too nice and these kids are going to ruin them!'"
And after the event ended, Blonsky and her friends spent the night in New York City, where she unexpectedly found herself in front of the Neil Simon Theatre, where Hairspray ran for many years on Broadway. "I just remember looking up and seeing the Hairspray logo and just being like, 'This is it. This is the next stage of your life. Here we go,'" Blonsky shared.
2. A newcomer, Blonsky had never been on a movie set before Hairspray, choosing to star in the musical over going to college to study theater.
"One of the assistant directors said, 'I am going to teach you how to hit a mark,'" Blonsky recalled. "I said, 'Why would I want to hit Mark?' Because one of the dancers was named Mark! They were so patient, and kind and literally taught me everything."
3. While Zac Efron was one of the top teen stars in the world after High School Musical became a pop culture phenomenon in 2006, Shankman initially believed the actor was "too Disney" for the role of Link Larkin, Tracy's boyfriend and the lead male dancer on The Corny Collins Show. But his time on the Disney Channel is actually why Blonsky thought Efron would be perfect for the role, predicting the casting decision while channel-surfing with her brother one day.
"Literally High School Musical popped up and I went, ‘Well, why don't they get that kid? He's cute, he sings, he dances, he's fun,'" Blonsky recalled. " And then they said, 'Guess who's playing your Link? Zac Efron!' And I said, 'Well, I could have told you that. I called that a week ago!'"
4. Blonsky and Efron became close while filming, often going to Toronto Blue Jays baseball games or the local mall, along with their co-stars Amanda Bynes and Brittany Snow.
"Even on our downtime, we all just chose to hang out," Blonsky said. "I really cherish those moments because that's when I got to know them for the amazing humans they are and not just as the incredible performers that they are as well."
5. Blonsky turned 18 while filming the movie and the studio threw her a "beautiful" birthday party, during which "Zac carried my cake out," she revealed. "It was epic and definitely one of my most favorite nights of my life thus far."
6. Of course, Blonsky and Efron kissed on-screen as Tracy and Link, but it was a surprise makeout during a July 2007 appearance on Canada's Much Music that really got people talking about the co-stars' chemistry.
"We were just two teenagers having a lot of fun on a press tour," Blonsky said with a laugh. "That is definitely a moment that I will never forget, and that the internet will never let us forget. We were the best pals and he was my buddy. The fact that we had to make out with each other wasn't the worst thing in the world! I felt like a lucky gal, for sure."
7. Blonsky revealed she didn't had a passport and had only flown on an airplane one time prior to Hairspray's global press tour. While traveling the world was "a blast," the actress said, "it's always about the people you have surrounding you. I was lucky to have my mom and Zac. It was just such an incredibly fun time. I even laugh now about some of the wild and interesting stuff that happens when you tour the world with Zac Efron!"
8. Blonsky went on to divulge one story about a hotel bartender who called her room at 5 a.m. asking for Efron's phone number and room details so he could impress his lady friends.
He was like, 'It would really help me.' I was like, 'Yeah, I know what it will help you achieve, buddy. And guess what? This girl is not helping you. Goodnight!" Blonsky recalled. "And I hung up. I am usually super kind, but when you are on a press tour and on a plane for 26 hours and you finally get to the hotel, the last thing you want is the bartender waking you up to ask for your buddy's phone number and room number. Yeah, like I'm just going to give that out to you!"
9. While executives were initially eyeing comedic actors such as Robin Williams, Steve Martin and Tom Hanks to play Tracy's mother Edna Turnblad, a character played by a man in all its film and theater variations, producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron spent "a year" convincing Grease star John Travolta to do it, according to Shankman.
"If I want to cast the biggest male musical star we have, then that star would be John Travolta," the director wrote in blog post for Broadway World. "How crazy and wonderful would it be to see Danny Zuko as Edna Turnblad?!?"
10. Blonsky told E! News that, while Travolta spent five hours a day in hair and makeup put on a much-discussed padded bodysuit to transform into Edna, she was more impressed by the emotional weight he put on while inhabiting the character.
"He gave Edna such a beautiful heart and soul and made her somebody that people could really relate to," Blonsky said. "That's what I give John so much credit for. He could have gone a different way, but he made her so beautifully maternal."
11. Of all her Hairspray co-stars, Travolta is "the one person who has always, always stayed in touch with me and has always been a mainstay in my heart and in my life over these past 15 years," Blonsky shared. "He really took me in as if I was his own child when we were filming. He taught me so much. Every year when I get a Christmas card, nothing warms my heart more. He is one of the most special people in my heart forever."
12. After being cast as Edna, Travolta recommended Christopher Walken play his onscreen husband Wilbur Turnblad and that Michelle Pfieffer be considered for the villainess Velma Von Tussle.
13. The Notebook's James Marsden beat out his X-Men co-star Hugh Jackman and New Kids on the Block's Joey McIntyre to land the part of talk show host Corny Collins after Shankman watched a clip of Marsden singing on the TV series Ally McBeal.
"He was the end of the line but it felt like the greatest discovery of all," Shankman wrote in a Broadway World blog. "Jimmy Marsden is the next Michael Buble and Frank Sinatra, all rolled up into one. He is unbelievable."
14. Describing Amanda Bynes as "the next Lucille Ball," Shankman revealed the All That alum had been "aggressively" pursuing the supporting role of Tracy's best friend Penny Lou Pingleton "like a pit-bull" before she was cast.
Blonsky told E! News that Bynes "has given me some of the greatest laughs and some of the greatest filming experiences. She's a brilliant actress and I just grew up loving her and, after working with her, I just love her even more forever."
15. Brittany Snow was cast as Amber Von Tussle, Tracy's rival, after Hayden Panettiere was no longer available for the part due to her commitment to the NBC series Heroes. Ironically, it was Panettiere who would announce Blonsky's name when the 2008 Golden Globe nominations were revealed.
16. Ricki Lake, who originated the role of Tracy Turnblad in John Waters' Hairspray in 1988, made a cameo in the 2007 movie as William Morris Talent Agent #1, a casting decision producers decided to surprise Blonsky with on set.
"I am probably one of the biggest Ricki Lake fans," Blonsky shared. "Ricki Lake was my Corny Collins. I would run home from school, turn on the Ricki Lake show, she kept me in the know when I needed to know. She was the best talk show host."
So, when she walked into the hair and makeup trailer and saw Lake, Blonksy said she "got so panicked that I turned around, walked out and shut the door. I was like, 'I can't go. Ricki Lake's in there, my idol! No way! No one could have told me so I could prep myself?!'"
"It was the greatest surprise ever and we got on fabulously," Blonsky continued. "She is still a friend to this day. I thank her so much for paving the way for girls like me."
17. Tracy's chic beehive hairstyle for the "Welcome to the '60s" musical number was an accident.
"My hairstylist didn't mean to make it happen," Blonsky explained. "She was taking off one of my wigs where I have the blonde streak in it one night and she pulled it up and goes, 'Oh, this would really be cute in a beehive!' And then they elaborated that into the full look."
18. The cast underwent two months of intense singing and dancing lessons before filming began in Toronto, Canada. The climactic musical number "You Can't Stop the Beat" took nine days to film, not that Blonsky minded the rigorous routine. "It was a blast," she said. "It didn't matter if it was nine days or if it lasted 19 days, I was with my friends and we were working and it was awesome."
19. Hairspray broke the record for biggest opening weekend box office for a movie musical when it was released in July 2007, going on to make $203 million at the box office. (Mamma Mia! surpassed its gross the following year.)
20. Blonsky "definitely heard rumors forever" about a possible sequel, though nothing was ever officially presented to her. But the star is still holding out hope for a follow-up.
"All I have to say is if they ever do a second one, they know where to find me," she said. "They know who's their girl and I will be ready and raring to go. I would love nothing more than to join forces with that team again and just have a great experience."
Hairspray is streaming on HBO Max and you can run and tell that.