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Zendaya attends the “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” UK Premiere at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square on July 29, 2026 in London, England.
Bella Thorne survived her Disney Channel days thanks, in part, to costar Zendaya.
In the Wednesday, Aug. 5 episode of “Call Her Daddy,” Thorne opened up about the pressures of being treated like an adult as a pre-teen and how she and Zendaya, whom she starred opposite on “Shake It Up” from 2010 to 2013, mended their friendship after being pitted against each other as child stars growing up in Hollywood.
“Thank God,” the 28-year-old “Scream” TV actress said of having a confidante in Zendaya during their Disney days, which also included the 2012 movie “Frenemies” and Zendaya’s series “K.C. Undercover,” in which Thorne made a onetime cameo.
“Zendaya definitely was probably the only person on the [Disney] Channel that I hung out with,” Thorne told host Alex Cooper. As the breadwinner for her family, Thorne said she couldn’t step out of bounds: “I couldn’t afford to make a mistake in that way or be like, ‘I’m going to have drama’ or revel in anything.”
Bella Thorne and Zendaya had ‘awkward’ start on ‘Shake It Up’
Thorne, who is due to release her directorial debut “Color Your Hurt,” has spoken out in various interviews over the past decade about her and Zendaya’s friendship having a rocky start on the first season of “Shake It Up” because, as she told Us Weekly in 2021, “everyone is pitting you against each other.”
“Zendaya and I were put in a very unfortunate position where we were kind of forced to compete against each other, which made the whole first season of the show just very awkward for us,” Thorne told J-14 magazine in 2015.
“[We] were 12. It’s crazy; what is wrong with you? We played best friends!” Thorne said on Cooper’s podcast.
“It got pretty bad,” she added, then described feeling that Hollywood expects actors to “beat each other down” and “eat yourselves alive,” while women play a zero-sum game in which they have to “beg for one spot.”
As a 12-year-old, Thorne said, “I’m expected to be this child, but I’m also working hours like an adult and being in adult conversations.”
While filming a 2011 crossover episode with “Good Luck Charlie,” Thorne and Zendaya “escaped” to a different soundstage where they had a heart-to-heart about their experiences.
“We got into it, hashed it out, and it was so beautiful,” Thorne said. “It was my first experience, woman to woman, girl to girl, where you actually can speak, and you can both be heard about the different things you’ve been experiencing and what people are saying and how they’re trying to do this to you, and you can walk out of there seeing each other.”
Post-Disney Channel, Thorne released an EP, starred in music videos for Liam Payne and Keke Palmer, released books including a collection of personal poetry and launched a massively successful OnlyFans account. In 2019, she released nude photos of herself after a hacker allegedly extorted her by threatening to make them public.
As she transitioned into adulthood, Thorne admitted, “I don’t know that I ever handled it or balanced it out correctly.”
“I think people can see how I’ve managed it publicly. They can see it. They’ve got photos of it. They got all the photos,” she said.