Raven-Symoné is getting candid about body-shaming issues she faced during her time on “That’s So Raven.”
The actor was a guest on the Oct. 24 episode of Hello Sunshine’s “The Bright Side Podcast,” where she was asked by hosts Danielle Robay and Simone Boyce about claims made by a Disney Channel exec that her body was edited to make her look thinner on episodes of her Disney Channel show.
“So, ‘That’s So Raven’ was during a time when weight was not celebrated like it is now,” Raven-Symoné said. “There’s this really interesting thing you can do with film, when you’re in television, and you can stretch the film. So if you’re wide and you stretch it long ways, you look skinnier. And, there were talks about that.”
Robay said the “That’s So Raven” episode where Raven-Symoné’s body was reportedly altered was in a school dance episode. The claims about altering Raven-Symoné’s appearance were brought up in a book called “Disney High: The Untold Story of the Rise and Fall of Disney Channel’s Tween Empire,” which shared behind-the-scenes secrets from the network’s shows and stars.
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In the book, Dava Savel, co-producer and writer for “That’s So Raven,” said there were talks of the star’s weight when she was on the show “but never to her face.” Adam Bonnett, former head of Disney Channel original programming, said in “Disney High” that “there was some stuff done to make Raven(‘s attire) look more flattering in certain scenes.”
He added that it was “not something I would have asked for” but the technique was used in post-production in other episodes.
TODAY.com has reached out to Disney for comment.
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“That’s So Raven” ran for four seasons from 2003 to 2007. The show was later rebooted to “Raven’s Home” in 2017, before ending in 2023.
In the podcast, Raven-Symoné said she remembers having conversations about her body being edited “from the start.”
When asked how she felt about her footage being altered, Raven-Symoné said, “In hindsight I was told I was fat all the time. I’m used to that.”
She said that she wasn’t told by people on set but from “behind the scenes.”
“That was the industry back in the day. I mean, I don’t know if you guys remember, but back in the day, they thought I had Omarion’s baby because I was fat,” she said. “They were like, ‘She must be pregnant.’ I’m like, no, I like In-N-Out. Go sit down. Like, what are you talking about? I’m depressed. Here’s my food.”
She said that if people looked at her photos from back in the day, she didn’t get the same attention “as the other ladies did because I didn’t look the same, especially during that time when I gained a lot of weight from a really bad breakup and depression.”
Raven-Symoné also noted that she always wore heels in “The Cheetah Girls” films because it made her appear slimmer.
“Why do you think I was in heels during all of the ‘Cheetah Girls’? Because if you wear heels, you’re taller and you look skinnier,” said, before referencing the 2006 sequel. “Who struts in Spain with heels when these ladies are in ballet flats?”
Over the years, Raven-Symoné has spoken about the body-shaming she’s endured during her career. In 2023, she revealed that she had two breast reductions and liposuction before she turned 18 due to weight-shaming.
During her podcast “The Best Podcast Ever with Raven and Miranda,” she said the experience was physically and mentally difficult for her.
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