Raven-Symone's body 'made thinner with CGI' by Disney Channel bosses
'That's So Raven' producers allegedly made Raven-Symone's body thinner using CGI on the Disney Channel sitcom.
Raven-Symone's body was allegedly made thinner with CGI on 'That's So Raven'.
The former Disney Channel star rose to fame as Raven Baxter in the early 00s sitcom, having first landed the role at 15 and stayed on the show for four years until its end in 2007.
When her weight fluctuated in her later teenage years, co-producer and writer Dava Savel has claimed show bosses "handled it in really bad ways".
In new book 'Disney High: The Untold Story of the Rise and Fall of Disney Channel's Tween Empire', Sevel said: "Disney Channel was going crazy about it.
"And they handled it in really bad ways. But it was never to her face.”
Sources in the book allege that one incident occurred in in season two episode 'That's So Not Raven', which saw another model picked for a runway show over Raven because of her slimmer frame.
The episode saw the character Raven try a range of diets before realising she is perfect jut as she is, and then sending a message of body positivity when she walked the runway at the end.
However, the book's author Ashley Spencer writes that "multiple people involved in the episode" claimed a Disney Channel executive told the visual effects team to make Raven thinner in the closing scenes.
Producer Michael Feldman said: "It was shameful. 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.”
Adam Bonnett, Disney Channel's former head of original programming, insisted while it wasn't something he "would have asked for", he can recall the same technique being used later in the sitcom's run.
Remembering a school dance episode, he added: "“There was some stuff done to make Raven[‘s attire] look more flattering in certain scenes.”
