Wile Many Former Disney Stars Try to Forget Their Roots, Dove Cameron Embraces Hers
Disney has a reputation for bringing up young stars who turn and rebel against their childhood squeaky clean image. But Dove Cameron, of Liv & Maddie, is one of the few who doesn’t regret her time with the network.
In fact, she enjoyed it so much, she’s continuing to work with them as an adult on the Disney movie, Descendants 3. Here are the details on Dove Cameron’s career and why she’s so happy with Disney.
Disney stars who regret their time with the network
Many former Disney stars try to quickly move away from their past as soon as they grow up. Miley Cyrus, for example, said she moved away from her Hannah Montana character as soon as she had sex for the first time.
She told Elle magazine, “The minute I had sex, I was kind of like, I can’t put the f**king wig on again,” she added. “It got weird. I grew up.”
Cyrus ended her career on Hannah Montana shortly after turning 18, “because it felt ridiculous,” she said.
Selena Gomez was quick to distance herself from her clean Disney past when she recorded a video for Flaunt magazine that features her tangled in bed with a hottie and wearing lingerie.
Dove Cameron embraces her Disney past
But Cameron doesn’t feel the same way. She embraces her Disney days, and will always love the twin characters she played on Liv & Maddie.
In an interview with Seventeen magazine, Cameron explained, “There will never be a day when I don’t miss that show. It is home to me and I am so grateful that I got my start there with all of those true angel humans,” she says, referring to the Liv & Maddie cast.
Playing two characters on the same show, with two distinct personalities was hard work. “I was so tired I could hardly function,” Cameron told Seventeen about her experience playing the twins, Liv and Maddie. “But I figured out how to manage the twin thing pretty quickly. Doing everything twice, with the energy of two humans, and at the decibel of a Disney show is no joke!”
She spent four years with the Disney show and is grateful for the start it gave her career. However, she does feel like their personalities influence people’s perceptions of her, even today.
“[I think people feel like] ‘oh, she’s a bit sparkly and bubbly’ and then that means she can’t be intellectual or intelligent or wise in any sort of way,” she said. “I have a feeling that that’s going to follow me for a while. There’s always people that you can’t really get through to, and I also don’t really care to. I’m kind of fine having people think whatever they want about me because I really am at peace with who I am.”
Cameron’s role in Disney’s ‘Descendants 3’ and her tearful goodbye to co-star
Cameron stuck with Disney for her latest project, Descendants 3, which just came out. However, the premier event was shadowed by the death of her co-star Cameron Boyce.
At the age of 20, Boyce suffered a seizure in his sleep, which led to his untimely death. The entire cast and crew were heartbroken, and so they dedicated the film to Boyce.
Cameron posted an emotional video tribute to her friend on Instagram. “Cameron was one of my favorite people alive in the world,” she said before listing all the ways he had supported and encouraged her. She ends the long and emotional tribute to Boyce by saying, “Goodbye to an earth angel,” she says. “I will spend the rest of my life missing and loving you and [I’m] all the better for knowing you.”
Cameron credits support from the rest of the cast for helping her through the death of Boyce.
Despite the loss of her co-star, filming the three Descendant movies has been a highlight of Cameron’s career. Her character, Mal, is one she really enjoys and relates to. “So much of me is in Mal because she wasn’t complete when I got to her. I got to really craft her,” she told Seventeen.
Now that the Descendants franchise has come to an end, it’s time for Cameron to move on with her career. Her plans include reprising her role as Clara in the Los Angeles Opera’s The Light in the Piazza as well as some new movie and television projects.
