Vanessa Hudgens: It's important to have someone to lean on

Vanessa Hudgens thinks it's imperative to have someone to "lean on".

The 30-year-old actress - who stars as Maureen Johnson in 'Rent: Live', a TV production of the musical 'Rent' - believes that creating a sense of "community" is one of the keys to tackling issues like depression.

Vanessa - who has been in a relationship with Austin Butler since 2011 - shared: "I feel like over the past year or two, there's been so many suicides ... to be honest, that it's really disheartening and depressing to know that these people who we've looked up to, designers or artists or musicians have taken their own lives and the people around them had no idea that they were in this state of depression.

"I feel like it's so important for everyone and anyone no matter your circumstances to have a community - a group of people that you can lean on, be inspired by, bounce things off of, and the core of 'Rent' is that. It's this group of artists coming together, having each other to lean on and push through difficult times."

Vanessa explained that the themes of 'Rent' - which was developed in the 90s - are as relevant today as they ever have been.

The brunette beauty - who stars alongside Jordan Fisher and Tinashe in 'Rent: Live' - told E! News: "We are all in a time and age where there's a lot going on in the world and the things that are dealt with in 'Rent' are things that are still being dealt with in our current communities.

"People are still dealing with AIDs. Gentrification in new cities and rent prices going up is a real thing. There's props where we're voting on them to see what's going to happen. It's all so relevant."

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