Anneliese van der Pol, best known for starring in Disney Channel’s “That’s So Raven,” opened up about the “racism” she saw unfold during the show’s initial casting.
The actress, who starred as Chelsea Daniels on the hit show, revealed that the show initially featured Raven-Symoné, who later played the lead character, in a supporting role.
“When I went in to audition, the show was called ‘Absolutely Psychic,’” she told fellow child star Christy Carlson Romano on her “Vulnerable” podcast Tuesday. “It wasn’t called ‘That’s So Raven’ at all.
“At the time, Raven wasn’t the lead. She was the sidekick. They were looking for a lead and I came in to audition for the lead. I think the character’s name was Molly.”
The actress claimed Symoné successfully landed the “sidekick” role, but a massive change was made to the show when the production team noticed her incredible talent.
“When they filmed, they realized Raven was the funniest one and had a following, and so they bumped her up to first position, and then they started auditioning people again,” van der Pol recalled.
“I think that was kind of, like, racism at a low level — I guess if that’s even a possibility. They couldn’t really see a black girl leading a show. They only saw her as a sidekick.”
Page Six has reached out to Disney for comment.
The show, which proved to be an international hit, starred Symoné, van der Pol, and Orlando Brown as three best friends navigating through high school.
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Raven’s brother Corey was played by Kyle Massey, and their parents were played by Rondell Sheridan and T’Keyah Crystal Keymáh.
The show centered around Symoné’s titular character’s psychic abilities and ran from 2003 to 2007.
During its 4-year run, which consisted of 100 episodes and four seasons, the sitcom scooped up two Emmy nods.
A spinoff was commissioned in 2017, which saw Symoné and van der Pol return to reprise their respective Disney roles due to popular demand.
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The reboot saw the friends navigating motherhood together.
Aside from the spinoff, van der Pol dabbled in other on-screen projects, including “Vampires Suck,” “Extremely Decent,” “Shalom Sesame,” and “5 Weddings.”
She also appeared in several Broadway and Off-Broadway productions.
