“Multiple people involved” in an episode about body positivity claimed a network executive asked the visual effects team to manipulate footage — as one producer calls the move “shameful.”
Raven-Symoné’s body was allegedly altered to appear thinner during a body positivity episode of That’s So Raven.
In a newly released book Disney High: The Untold Story of the Rise and Fall of Disney Channel’s Tween Empire by culture journalist Ashley Spencer, Spencer exposes the alleged realities of Disney Channel’s child stars at the network’s peak, including Raven.
At one point in the book, Disney Channel co-producer and writer Dava Savel opened up about how Raven’s weight was approached on the hit television series, which catapulted the 15-year-old actress to stardom.
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“Disney Channel was going crazy about it,” Savel, who worked on the series, said, per E! News. “And they handled it in really bad ways. But it was never to her face.”
One example used to highlight that point was an allegation about how her body was altered for an episode titled “That’s So Not Raven” in Season 2. The episode sees a slimmer model chosen over Raven for a runway show, prompting Raven to try and lose weight before deciding her body is perfect just the way it is. The episode ends with Raven walking in the runway, giving viewers a body positive message.
According to E!, the author spoke to “multiple people involved in the episode” who shared that a network executive allegedly told the show’s visual effects team to make Raven appear thinner in the episode’s final scenes.
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“It was shameful,” producer Michael Feldman said of the alleged alterations. “I don’t know how they could look at themselves and do that. The very thing that she wanted to do a story about was literally done to her. It’s still a shocking thing to me that they were that tone-deaf.”
While Adam Bonnett, the former head of Disney Channel original programming, said he didn’t make that call — he admitted the postproduction technique was used in later episodes.
“There was some stuff done to make Raven[‘s attire] look more flattering in certain scenes,” he said, citing a school dance episode.
So far, Raven hasn’t publicly reacted to the claim.
TooFab has reached out to reps for the actress and Disney for comment.
Raven lead the teen sitcom That’s So Raven from 2003 – 2007.
