Raven-Symoné Tells Demi Lovato 'You Weren't the Nicest Person' on 'Sonny with a Chance'

Demi Lovato and Raven-Symoné rehash their sticky history on Hulu's new documenary 'Child Star.'

By Libby Birk

Raven-Symoné is being brutally honest with her former costar Demi Lovato. In the new Hulu documentary Child Star, the Disney Channel alums discussed working together back in 2010 when Raven-Symoné was a guest star on Lovato's Sonny with a Chance.

"When we first got on the phone to talk about this project, I was like, 'I watched you on That's So Raven. Such an inspiration,'" Lovato, 32, said. "You were like, 'B—, I was on your show.' I was like, 'Oh my god, she was.'"

Lovato explained that she has a hard time remembering that period of her life due to dissociation, but does remember "how difficult I was to work with, because I was in so much pain and I was hurting."

"I mean, you weren't the nicest person," Raven-Symoné, 38, agreed. "You weren't like, 'Welcome!' You weren't doing that." However, she had a suspicion Lovato had good reason for her behavior.

"Being the type of person I am and that I've been in the industry for as long as you, and I understand the glaze over the eyes," Raven-Symoné said, "I didn't hold it against you. I just was like, 'Something's going on there.'"

In the documentary, Lovato opened up about experiencing trauma as a child actor after her career "exploded" with the 2008 movie Camp Rock. She said she felt a shift in the power dynamic on Camp Rock 2, saying she originally felt validated because she "had been leveled up" but that it came at the expense of her relationships with her costars.

"I was trading connection for success," she said to her costar Alyson Stoner.

"It felt so hard to access you in that way," Stoner said. "We had lost that thread of trust, we had lost that closeness." She called working with Lovato "challenging" and remembered "a sense of walking on eggshells. There was definitely a lot of fear of a blowup."

Lovato said that even though she's aware of why she acted out, "it still didn't give me an excuse to treat anyone poorly."

Related:

"I just want to genuinely, deeply apologize for any stress or any walking on eggshells, any hurt feelings," Demi told Stoner. "I'm genuinely so sorry for that. And I look back at that time and I have profound sadness because I'm like, 'How many people did I treat poorly?'"

Child Star, on which Lovato is an executive producer, is streaming on Hulu now.

Trending Now: