Oh SnapSee All the Celebrities Who Totally Dissed Disney Channel

Joe Jonas

The Jonas Brothers‘ singer just got real with Wonderland magazine about the struggles of being Disney Channel stars, and the point at which it became uncomfortable. But just because they outgrew the network doesn’t mean they’re not grateful for the platform it gave them when they were first starting out.

“We have a lot to thank Disney for,” Joe tells me. “When we were getting started, we were in a position at one point where we were without a label and we didn’t really know what the next steps were going to be and Disney reached out with a huge opportunity for us to be signed by them and work on a TV show. This was kind of a saving grace for us in that point of our career and we jumped at that opportunity.”

Unfortunately, when the boys grew older, working on Disney Channel felt a little restricting, and the brothers wanted to break away and have more creative freedom with their music and their image.

“As you get older and you’re a young adult and you’re still on the Disney Channel, that can feel a little uncomfortable,” he admitted. “Creatively, you can feel like you’re a little boxed in and you can’t really expand and grow. Lyrically, what you’re going through in that time in your life, you have to protect your audience by only writing what Disney would approve. It was a little bit tricky as we got older, that’s for sure.”

This certainly wasn’t the first time Joe’s spoken up about the network. In an interview with New York Mag in 2013, for example, he totally slammed the Disney Channel for its “terrible” writing, and strict rules.

“The thing about the show was that some of the writing on it was terrible. It just ended up being some weird slapstick humor that only a 10-year-old would laugh at. They took out the kissing scene that Nick had,” he wrote. “I had to shave every day because they wanted me to pretend like I was 16 when I was 20 (when the show was done, I cut my hair off and grew as much of a beard as I could). We went along with it at the time, because we thought Disney was our only real shot, and we were terrified that it could all be taken away from us at any moment.”

And in an interview with Paper Magazine in May of 2019, he explained, “Being a part of the Disney thing for so long will make you not want to be this perfect little puppet forever. We were having to censor ourselves, I think any artist could relate. That’s not fun. We were at a standstill with our TV show and the movies. We were young adults, having to pretend like we’re young teenagers.”

Jake Paul

Jake did not hold back while talking about his time on the network during an appearance on his bro Logan Paul‘s “Impaulsive” podcast on March 4, 2019. As fans know, the YouTuber starred in the first season of Bizaardvark, but in the middle of the second season, he unexpectedly left the show.

In the podcast, Jake finally explained the reason behind his mysterious exit, claiming that it had to do with how little Disney was paying him.

“I’m sitting there on Disney Channel literally making crumbs compared to what I’m making doing my [YouTube channel],” he said.

There were conflicting reports at the time that the controversial star got kicked off the series because of his risky and sometimes illegal behavior in his YouTube videos. Although, we’re still unsure about what really went down.

Miley Cyrus

It was no secret that Miley tried hard to break away from her Disney persona after her time in Hannah Montana. In a February 2019 interview on the “RuPaul: What’s The Tee” podcast, she admitted that she hated it at first.

“From 18 to probably two years ago, I hated it,” she said of her Disney days. “I didn’t really get to be a kid very much, because I worked so much, but I wanted that.”

But now, Miley has grown to be thankful for her time on the Disney show.

“Since the last record, my last record was called ‘Younger Now’ and it says, even though it’s not who I am, I’m not afraid of who I used to be. That was my epiphany,” she continued.

Although she’s at peace with it now, in the past, the “Wrecking Ball” singer has spoken negatively about the network quite a few times. In 2016, she even accused Disney of underpaying her.

“I mean, at one point — they’ll probably kill me for saying it — I was probably the least-paid person on my cast because I didn’t know any better,” she told Elle Magazine. “I was just like, ‘I can be on Disney! Yeah, I want to do it! My name was Miley on the show, but I didn’t own my name. My mom started understanding how many people take advantage of a child, so she hired smart people to protect me in that way.”

The actress even admitted that being on the show had a negative impact on her mental health.

“I was told for so long what a girl is supposed to be from being on [Hannah Montana]. I was made to look like someone that I wasn’t, which probably caused some body dysmorphia because I had been made pretty every day for so long, and then when I wasn’t on that show, it was like, ‘Who the f–k am I?'” she told Marie Claire in 2015.

And it probably had a lot to do with her age.

“I think what was hard for me was balancing everything,” she told W Magazine in 2017. “I think it got harder when I started touring as both — I toured as Hannah Montana and as myself. I think that’s probably what’s a little bit wrong with me now! I mark that up to doing some extreme damage in my psyche as an adult person. I liked being in the Disney universe because I didn’t know anything else. I knew I was getting to live what I wanted to do. I think now that I’m older now, I realize that’s a lot to put on a kid.”

Stefanie Scott

In an interview with Buzzfeed back in 2015, the actress threw some major shade at the network. In case you forgot, Stefanie played Lexi Reed in A.N.T. Farm, but she claimed that the role forced her to “sugarcoat everything all the time.”

“That’s one of the hardest things, not being able to express myself in a certain way or being stuck having to promote something or say something you don’t believe in. It’s kind of hard after a while when you are feeling things and having a rough time in your personal life and you can’t express your emotions through your work,” she revealed. “I wanted to tell stories of troubled girls where everything isn’t perfect all the time. I didn’t want it to stop there and be labeled as ‘a Disney girl.’ I quickly realized I wanted to do more. If you’ve been on a Disney show, people target you as being the ‘sitcom funny girl’ who can’t take herself seriously and doesn’t really have true emotions because they have to be perfect and pure — not shattered and torn in any way.”

Demi Lovato

The Sonny With a Chance actress was not happy when Shake It Up made a joke about an eating disorder. She blasted the network for making light of a serious problem.

“What are we promoting here? #notfunnyATALL,” she wrote in a now deleted tweet. “I find it really funny how a company can lose one of their actress’ from the pressures of an EATING DISORDER and yet still make [a] joke about that very disease.”

She also opened up about her time on the network to Harper’s Bazaar in March 2020, and she admit that she was “overworked.”

“I’m grateful for the opportunities that I got. Do I wish that I’d had more downtime? Yes. I think when you are a teenager and you’re given your big break, you’ll do anything to make it happen,” she said. “I do feel that a lot of the way some of my life was handled and lived led to me kind of having a bit of a downfall, just because I was so overworked and I wasn’t dedicating enough time to my mental health or my personal life.”

Dylan and Cole Sprouse

According to Dylan, the boys pitched an awesome new Suite Life Of Zack and Cody spinoff idea to the network but were unfortunately turned down. A little while later, however, Disney approached the twins with a similar idea.

“They pitched us our idea, in Miami, with Selena Gomez. And Cole and I turned to each other… we basically laughed in their face and walked out,” Dylan said. “That was the last meeting we had with Disney. We were just like no, that was the end.”

Vanessa Hudgens

The High School Musical star apparently refused to sign autographs on HSM memorabilia for fans who waited outside of her Gigi stage door.

“I’ll only sign Gigi programs. I won’t sign any of that High School Musical stuff,” she reportedly said. Clearly, there’s some animosity there!

Shia LaBeouf

The Even Stevens star claims that Disney tried to push him to do music when he didn’t want to. He also basically compared the network to a factory. Yikes!

“I went a whole different route. I never came out with a music thing, even though [Disney will] push you that way. I didn’t just want to be a churn-’em-out guy. I never really felt like I fit in there. From the moment I got there, all my friends were [making fun of me], like, ‘Dude, you’re at the Disney Channel!’ It was kind of embarrassing,” he told MTV News.