Demi Lovato she wasn’t ‘the nicest’ to work with

Former co-stars Raven-Symoné and Demi Lovato sat down for a chat as part of a new documentary co-directed by the non-binary pop star. 

Lovato has enlisted a line-up of queer celebrities for Child Star, which reveals some of the highs and the lows of growing up in the spotlight at a young age, as Lovato – who featured Barney & Friends from the age of 10 – did.

It includes conversations with other former very young stars, and Lovato makes her directorial debut by bringing the 90-minute programme to Hulu. 

Among those interviewed are Christina Ricci, who starred opposite Cher and Bob Hoskins in Mermaids before she turned 10, Drew Barrymore – who shot to fame aged seven in Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi blockbuster E.T. – JoJo Siwa and former Disney favourite Symoné.

‘I was in so much pain’

During the documentary, Lovato recalls appearing with Symoné on Sonny with a Chance at a time when she herself was “difficult to work with” because “I was in so much pain”. 

Symoné, who starred in The Cosby Show from the age of three, responded: “I mean, you weren’t the nicest person, you weren’t like ‘welcome’, you weren’t doing that.” But she understood “the glaze over the eyes” that she saw in Lovato having been a child star herself. 

In August, Lovato said if she ever has children, she won’t let them pursue a music or acting career until they were over the age of 18.

Asked how she would handle her future child wanting to become a performer, the singer told The Hollywood Reporter: “I’d say, ‘Let’s study music theory and prepare you for the day you turn 18 because it’s not happening before that. Not because I don’t believe in you or love you, or want you to be happy, but because I want you to have a childhood – the childhood that I didn’t have’.”

Last year, Symoné opened up about the “challenges” of deciding to come out while in the public eye.

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