stopped by annelise weak podcast — moderated by fellow Disney vet Christy Carlson Romano — and reveals some behind-the-scenes facts that’s so Raven And how his initial vision for the show didn’t include Raven-Symoné in the titular role.
“When I went to audition, the show was called absolutely mental“Annales tells Christie in the latest episode.” it was not called that’s so Raven Absolutely.”
“At the time, Raven wasn’t the lead. She was the associate. They were looking for a lead and I came in to audition for the lead role.”
The lead role eventually went to someone else and soon after, production began on the series. Despite casting a different lead character—who was initially going to be called Molly—Raven stood down to producers.
“When they filmed, they realized that Raven was the most fun and the one to follow, and that’s why they bumped her up in the first place.”
Once Raven was cast in the lead role, auditions began again for supporting characters. Anneliese went to a large “cattle casting” and was eventually chosen to play Chelsea, Raven’s best friend on the show.
But Anneliese revealed that Disney never envisioned a black girl as the star of the show when they first created and cast the show.
“I think it was kind of low-level racism — I guess if that’s even a possibility. They really couldn’t see a black girl leading a show. They just had her as a sidekick.” I saw.”
Christie said that Disney was focused on financial gain and making strategic business decisions without thinking about the implications for “not only who you cast, but the stories, representation and visibility of the children involved”.
that’s so Raven eventually became a hit, running for four seasons and earning two spinoffs: blank in the house (Disney’s first official spin-off series) and raven’s housein which Anneliese starred in the first four seasons.
For more on Anneliese, watch her full interview weak podcast Below:
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