They were 12 years old. And instead of letting them be children, an entire set of adults pushed them to compete.
Bella Thorne shared it on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast: during the filming of “Shake It Up”, she and Zendaya were pressured to rival each other in front of the cameras and off them as well, while their characters, CeCe and Rocky, were portrayed as inseparable best friends.
“Things got pretty ugly”, confessed the actress, now 28 years old, about that environment she describes as toxic within Disney Channel between 2010 and 2013.
The curious thing is that neither of them bought the whole story. According to Thorne, they both slipped away from the set during the crossover with “Good Luck Charlie!” to talk privately, woman to woman, and defuse years of tension manufactured by others.
Today their paths are different, but that teenage conversation seems to have been enough to maintain a cordial relationship that survived the noise Disney put between them 🩷
Interview: