14 Times Actors Had Unfavorable (Often Illegal) Experiences On Disney & Nickelodeon Sets
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14 Times Actors Had Unfavorable (Often Illegal) Experiences On Disney & Nickelodeon Sets,The sad behind-the-scenes reality of our favorite childhood shows.
14 Times Actors Had Unfavorable (Often Illegal) Experiences On Disney & Nickelodeon Sets
Being a child star on Disney Channel or Nickelodeon used to sound like a dream come true. However, throughout the years, some of the networks’ most prominent actors have spoken up about how distressing the experience truly is.
Michael Kovac / Getty Images for IMDbStoner now uses her status as a public figure to advocate for changes in the industry. She intends for young actors to have the protection she wasn’t granted as a child, such as having mental health professionals on set.
3. Demi Lovato’s been very vocal about how unhealthy her Disney Channel days were. Among her many struggles as a child star (including drug use and sexual abuse), she was also overworked on set.
Paul Morigi / Getty Images for March For Our LivesIn a 2016 interview with Billboard, Lovato said that when you’re on set, “you work like an adult.” Needless to say, that certainly can’t be legal.
4. In the documentary Light Girls, Raven-Symoné mentioned that she used to tan several times a week while filming That’s So Raven. One day, a lighting tech on set told her she needed to stop tanning. “You’re getting too dark, and we need to relight the whole entire show,” Raven-Symoné recalled.
Allison Dinner / Getty ImagesThe Disney star apologized to the tech, saying, “Sorry. I was just trying to be pretty.'”
5. Victorious star Daniella Monet once contacted Nickelodeon with concerns over a scene involving lip gloss and a pickle that felt sexually suggestive. She claims the network refused to cut the scene. Monet also expressed unease over some of the outfits the young characters wore in the show.
Desiree Navarro / WireImageMonet said that some of the clothes the teenagers wore on set were “not age appropriate.” She even claims she wouldn’t “wear some of that today as an adult.”
6. Alexa Nikolas felt vulnerable as a young actor while on the set of Zoey 101. She called out the series creator by name, saying, “He played a huge role in my personal childhood trauma. I didn’t feel safe around Dan Schneider; every time he came on set, my body got extremely tense.”
Nbc / Todd Owyoung / NBC via Getty ImagesCyrus claims that she had coffee “jammed down [her] throat” every morning to keep her awake. “I just had to keep going, be tough, be strong. Everything happened to me on that set.”
Illegal work schedule aside, being on Hannah Montana also gave Miley Cyrus unrealistic beauty standards. “From the time I was 11, it was, ‘You’re a pop star!'” she told Marie Claire. “That means you have to be blonde, and you have to have long hair, and you have to put on some glittery tight thing.”
Arturo Holmes / Getty Images8. In a 2016 video, All That‘s Angelique Bates opened up about being “physically, mentally, emotionally abused” by her mother on set. The Nickelodeon producers and cast members who witnessed the abuse did nothing to help, with some adults urging her to keep quiet.
Leon Bennett / Getty ImagesShe notes that Child Protective Services had to be called to the set in 1996, though it didn’t help as she was forced to remain tight-lipped.
9. Joe Jonas tolerated Disney Channel’s “terrible” writing and strict rules in fear that it was his only chance at success. This included shaving every day because they wanted him to look like a 16-year-old on set when he was actually 20 years old.
Robert Smith / Patrick McMullan via Getty ImagesSpeaking with Vulture in 2013, he said, “We were just kids. That’s the reality. We were frightened, little kids. So, you got all this responsibility that’s foisted upon you, and you’re expected to be perfect.”
10. Bella Thorne was forced to be a different person on- and off-set during her Disney days. The notoriously strict network allegedly almost fired her after being photographed wearing a bikini on the beach.
Corey Nickols / Getty Images for IMDbShe was also required to lie about her interests and change her voice to maintain a wholesome “Disney-like” persona.
11. Zendaya and Bella Thorne got tossed into a bizarre competition during the whole first season of Shake It Up. The girls wanted to be friends, but their time on set was made incredibly awkward by people who insisted on fueling comparisons.
Gregg Deguire / WireImage“We wanted to love each other, but yet we were constantly being put against each other,” Thorne told J-14 in 2017. “It was, ‘Who’s better at this?’ and ‘Who’s better at that?'” Talk about a toxic work environment.
12. Tyisha Hampton appeared on Nickelodeon’s Kenan & Kel and was married to Kel Mitchell from 1999 to 2005. Hampton allegedly witnessed countless horrible things on set, and she was sexually harassed so much that she would hide in Kel’s dressing room.
Ron Galella / Ron Galella Collection via Getty ImagesThe ex-actor spilled the beans in 2022 on a Night & Day Network YouTube video.
13. In 2017, Rowan Blanchard told Nylon that “working for Disney was stressful.” In a different interview, she admitted that nobody directly silenced her, but that “the subtext is always there. I worked for a corporation for four years that is known for silencing and crafting your voice.”
Emma Mcintyre / WireImage14. Cole Sprouse and his twin brother Dylan observed that “the young women on the channel we were on were so heavily sexualized.” That channel was, of course, Disney.
Lionel Hahn / Getty ImagesCole’s very defensive against people who mock Disney stars for their behavior. “I don’t feel like it adequately comprehends the humanity of that experience and what it takes to recover,” he said.
Cole Sprouse also claimed that the long work hours as a child star ruined his perception of a normal life. Being on set for nine years with Disney felt like “an insular environment that you forget what real human experience…actually looks like.”
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