Raven-Symoné has never been one to mince her words and in a recent interview the former Disney star opened up about why she feels like she was “catfished” into joining ABC’s daytime talk show The View.
Monday, Symone appeared on the podcast The View: Behind the Table with co-host Sara Haines and former co-host Candace Cameron Bure.
During the sit down, the That’s So Raven actress started off by explaining she was pitched a much more light-hearted gig at first but that things quickly went into a heavier direction focusing on the now infamous and polarizing 2016 election.
“Sara, I got catfished. I feel like I just got catfished,” Symoné said to fellow panelist Sara Haines. “I thought I was going on a show, like Candace, where it was pop culture and fun and exciting and I got catfished, and I learned a good lesson.”
Former co-host Bure spoke up in agreement, confirming that she too was “pitched a completely different direction” for her involvement on the show.
The Fuller House star elaborated, “I said, ‘Politics is not, it’s not my bag. I’ve never spoken publicly about politics. I don’t even come from a political family, meaning I didn’t grow up speaking about politics.’”
“So they had told me, ‘We’re going so much lighter,’ a lot more would be evergreen. We want to talk more about family and sex and life, so I was like, ‘Absolutely, 100%, I’m on board.’ And then it all changed when [Donald] Trump entered the race,” Bure continued.
Symoné also shared that being the only host who was part of the LGBTQ+ community also added to the heaviness of her job.
“Outwardly, the pressure I felt was the LGBTQ+ community, because I was the only one on the panel with that label,” said the 35-year-old. “And I’m not a fan of holding an entire community on my shoulders, because again . . . like Candace said, even in your own community, people will get mad at you.
So I really didn’t like that. And so, on an everyday basis, I knew what I was there for — to represent that slice of life, but when I was speaking, I blacked that part out because I knew that it would inhibit me from being myself. And it would inhibit me from actually speaking my truth because I’m worried about other people.”
But on the brighter side, both child stars who left the show in 2016 said the most redeeming part of their experiences was the support of the producers and head chair Whoopi Goldberg.
“The only reason I really got through a lot of the stuff that I did get through was because of Whoopi [Goldberg] and the producers as well,” said Symoné. “There is something amazing about behind the scenes of The View that kind of puts the salve over all the BS that’s going on on-camera that made it tolerable to stay as long as we did.”
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