For the most part, High School Musical star Monique Coleman looks back fondly on her times in the halls of the fictional East High. The actress, now 42, played brilliant and bubbly high school student Taylor McKessie in the 2006 Disney Channel Original Movie and both its sequels.

While the experience was largely positive, Coleman says that the cast and crew of the family-friendly musical trilogy weren’t always all in this together—namely when it came to the third and final movie.

Appearing on Christy Carlson Romano’s Vulnerable podcast Tuesday, Coleman told her fellow Disney alum that she was left heartbroken after being snubbed by the network when it was time for the High School Musical 3: Senior Year press tour.

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“I feel safe to say this: Disney really broke my heart,” she said. “When I got to the third movie, I really championed the film. I always spoke so positively, and I was a Black girl playing the smartest girl in school, which was a very big deal at that time.”

Adding that she and co-star Lucas Grabeel were the only two actors from the main cast asked to sit out from the tour, she said, “When it came to promoting the third movie, I wasn’t invited on the tour. They said something about there not being enough room on the plane and they only invited Zac [Efron], Vanessa [Hudgens], Ashley [Tisdale], and Corbin [Bleu].”

Coleman Says Being Excluded From Tour Helped Her to Shape Her Identity

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Coleman, who was 28 when the final movie premiered, opened up to Romano about how the move affected her long after the press tour was over and helped her progress in her career.

“That heartbreak really hit me very deeply, and it did cause a bit of a depression because it helped me to recognize that I was overly identifying with what I was doing and not who I was,” she explained. “And that was what led me to take that step and say, ‘Maybe this is my five minutes of fame. Maybe this is it in some way.’ And if that is the case, then what am I going to do with it?”

Realizing that she wasn’t bound to her breakout role, Coleman decided she was in the position to inspire others, and wants to spread a message of hope.

“To be in a position to where I had the wherewithal and to take that out into the world and say, ‘You know what? I’m not going to feel reduced to Taylor McKessie.’ I’m gonna rise up and actually walk in the door and let people see me and connect this character that was their childhood with who Monique Coleman is and I’m gonna leave a message that lets you know that your dreams are also possible,” Coleman said.

Watch Coleman’s full interview on the Vulnerable podcast below: