Ashley Tisdale’s 3-year-old had an unexpected reaction to Zac Efron in ‘High School Musical’

Ashley Tisdale’s daughter got fiction and reality mixed up after watching “High School Musical” for the first time.

Tisdale dished on her 3-year-old daughter Jupiter’s reaction to seeing the Disney Channel original movie during a Jan. 15 episode of the “Breaking Beauty” podcast.

The actor turned entrepreneur, who also welcomed daughter Emerson in September 2024, shared that her husband, Christopher French, had shown Jupiter “High School Musical” about a year ago.

“She thought Zac Efron was her dad,” Tisdale revealed. “I was like, ’No! That’s not daddy!’ She’s like, ‘Daddy!’ I was like, ‘No, no, no. Just because they have dark hair, it is not daddy.’”

“High School Musical” premiered on Disney Channel in 2006 and starred Tisdale as Sharpay Evans alongside Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Corbin Bleu and more then-rising stars.

The Kenny Ortega-directed hit was followed up by 2007’s “High School Musical 2,” which also premiered on the Disney Channel, and 2008’s theatrical release of “High School Musical 3: Senior Year.”

The Being Frenshe founder said that in addition to “High School Musical,” her daughter has seen “Phineas and Ferb” and knows that her mom plays the character Candace because she can recognize her voice.

Despite seeing some of her work, Tisdale said she doesn’t think Jupiter quite understands her mom’s career. But she added her daughter is getting “to the age where she’s questioning why people take pictures” with her mom.

“We were at Taylor Swift in Miami and she was like, ‘Mommy, why are they taking pictures with you?’ And I truly did not know how to answer that, so I just said, ‘I don’t know,’” the actor said.

“And my husband goes ‘That’s what you said?’ So I think she actually thinks that you just take pictures with people, that’s what you do in life,” she added.

Tisdale said French suggested telling Jupiter that her mom is an actress.

“I’m like, ‘How do I explain that to her?’” Tisdale said. “It’s just weird. I don’t know if she’s ready for that, and I don’t know if I’m ready to have that discussion with her.”

Tisdale previously opened up to TODAY in May 2022 about her experience with childhood fame, explaining, “There are definitely times where I felt anxious and pressure being a perfectionist and trying to manage it all.