In this modern-day retelling of the Cinderella story, Hilary plays Sam Montgomery, who, after her father dies, finds herself being treated like garbage by her stepmother and stepsisters. Her social life isn't going so well eitherm until she starts cyber-chatting with a boy who turns out to be the school's football star - a fact she discovers at a school dance where they've agreed to meet. Frightened, she takes off, leaving her cellphone behind. Now the boy, Austin(Chad Micheal Murray), uses it to try and track down this mystery woman so that true love can blossom.

Release Date: July 16, 2004
Co-Starring: Jennifer Coolidge(Fiona)
Chad Micheal Murray(Austin)
Regina King(Rhonda)
Julie Gonzalo(Shelby)
Written By: Leigh Dunlap
Directed By: Mark Rosman
Hilary Plays: Sam, a teenager who, after her father has passed away, finds herself trapped with an evil stepmother and stepsisters.

What are your feelings about your A Cinderella Story character Sam?
HD: It's a modern-day twist on the Cinderella story, but it's a little different. My character Sam doesn't talk to mice, like in the cartoon. In this version, Sam moves in with her stepfamily after her father dies, which is very hard on her. And she has to work at the diner that her dad used to own that her evil stepmother has taken over. She lives in this life where she feels like she doesn't fit in. She has goals, but she just never believes she can ever accomplish them because of her horrible family situation. But she overcomes that in the end and meets her Prince Charming. We meet through a text message and through the Internet at school. He finds my cell phone and puts posters around the school and tries to find me.

Was it a tough audition?
HD: When I was cast, I didn't even know about it. My mom was like, "Hey, you got Cinderella Story," and I was like, "Oh, that's really cool." It happened really quickly, and one of the directors from Lizzie McGuire actually directed. That's cool, because I get to work with a lot of people that I know. Dylan Sellers was one of the producers of Agent Cody Banks and he produced with a couple of other people.

Interestingly, your mom is credited as an executive producer on this movie. What's the story with that?
HD: I think that we kind of learned the hard way that when you don't have any control, when people want you to do something that you might not really want to do, or wear something you don't want to wear, or say something you don't want to say, when you have a little bit of control, essentially my mom can go in and say, "I don't think this is appropriate," or something like that. It's really important.

Was there ever any talk about doing more of a fantasy Cinderella and less of a real one?
HD: No. There was never any of that. I feel that there have been so many remakes of Cinderella, and there's never really been a modern-day, high school version of it. I love that about it. I love that the characters are different. Each character kind of had a twist to it, especially Sam. Like, she was a very ambitious person, and even though she was put down throughout the whole movie and torn down and told that she was nothing, she still had goals for herself and she had dreams that she'd accomplish herself. Then the boy came, which is great. But it's a good message for girls.

What was it like working with Jennifer Coolidge as your stepmom?
HD: I think that she's larger than life all of the time. She's so funny, and I had a really hard time working with her, actually, because I couldn't keep a straight face, and everything that she did in this movie wasn't written. She is creative and such an amazing actress. I was like, "How do you come up with these choices?" I love watching her. She's great.

What about working with Chad Micheal Murray?
HD: Chad was great. He's very charming and very nice and a great actor. We've actually remained friends since the movie. He's a great person.

When you think about the Cinderella story, do you ever compare it to your real life?
HD: In a lot of ways, I feel like I'm living a Cinderella story in real life. I was just in the studio the other night and I actually hit this really high note and was proud of myself. I was like, "Wow, did i just do that?" It's really cool and I've always dreamed about this since I was little. My sister and I would watch movies, and after we would see them, we would act out the scenes. We would get all dressed up and try and do it as good as they did it. And then we told our parents that we wanted to come out to California. They said that it was a huge step to take and we didn't talk about it for a long time. Then they did and they've been so supportive. So it does feel like I'm living a dream, expecially when I get to do movies and get to be on the big screen and people actually go to watch these movies. At the same time, I don't think I necessarily relate to this story, though I feel very lucky all the time. You know, "Why do I get this?" Definately before I got my TV show, it was such a struggle. It was going on hundreds and hundreds of auditions and maybe not getting any call backs. My mom prepared us really well for handling rejection and not taking it too seriously. But I feel very lucky and I feel very blessed.