Vanessa Hudgens and 'Sucker Punch' Stars: 'It Was Pretty Mental'

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A long way from singing and dancing in a "High School Musical," Vanessa Hudgens now wields a machine gun in her new action-fantasy 'Sucker Punch,' in theaters Friday, and she tells ET, "[I was] doing things I thought I'd never do in my life."

"I mean, I have a Tomahawk fight sequence; it's crazy," says Vanessa. "And to be able to work with such strong young women who have such a strong sense of who they are, and to work with [director Zack Snyder], [it's great] just to have all these new experiences in fantasies, which means there are no limits."

"It was pretty crazy," says the film's focal point, Emily Browning (all grown up since 'Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events'). "We trained five days a week for three months, and it was pretty mental. We did three hours of martial arts in the morning, and then we would do strength training for a couple of hours afterwards, and sometimes gun training and wire stunt work and everything. Yeah, it was pretty hardcore, but I think it was really necessary to properly get into these characters."

The new action fantasy casts Emily as Babydoll, a young woman incarcerated in an institution by her wicked stepfather. In order to cope, she taps her vivid imagination in order to escape the tortured realities of her life, making her way through a vibrant world filled with fire-breathing dragons, machine gun-toting Samurais and vintage World War I perils. Vanessa, Abbie Cornish, Jamie Chung and Jena Malone fight by her side in an effort to evade their captors (including Carla Gugino and "Mad Men" star Jon Hamm).

"We're like in the middle of all these crazy worlds, and it's like girls, girls, girls, and all of a sudden it's like, 'Jon Hamm's here?'" says Jena. "He's a great guy. He's a really great actor."

"But there's something shocking and stunning about him," observes Jamie. "I can't really explain it in words."

"He's really handsome," offers Jena. Jamie gushes with a big smile and responds, "Yeah."

Watch ET for more with the stars of 'Sucker Punch'!

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