Raven-Symoné was not feeling Disney’s desire to make her character in “Raven’s Home” queer. Find out why inside…
Raven-Symoné has stated yet again that she does not want her character in Disney’s “That’s So Raven” reboot, “Raven’s Home,” to be queer.
The “Cosby” alum reprised her role as Raven Baxter in the “That’s So Raven” spinoff in 2017, roughly ten years after the original series ended. In the reboot, Raven and her bestie Chelsea Daniels (played by Anneliese van der Pol) move in together to raise their kids.
The former “The View” co-host was able to work with Disney from the very beginning of the creation of the show. When it was time to discuss the characters on the show, the Disney Channel suggested her character on “Raven’s Home” be part of the LGBTQ community. Raven, who stars in and executive produces the show, wasn’t feeling it.
In an interview with LGBTQ+ publication THEM, Raven-Symoné revealed Disney’s reason for making her character gay wasn’t good enough for her. Producers desired to make on-screen Raven gay, similar to real-life Raven.
“I think Disney wanted her to be queer in the beginning, and I just didn’t feel comfortable doing that,” she shared.
“They were like, ‘Do you want Raven to be gay?’ I said, ‘Why?’ [and they said,] ‘Because you are.’ I said, ‘Bad, bad reason. That’s a bad reason,’ ” she explained.
She continued: “No, Raven Baxter never exhibited any type of sexual identity situation in the priors. I’m not being myself on this show; I’m being a character. Raven Baxter’s not gay. No matter what the first four seasons looked like, with me and Chelsea sleeping in the same room and us raising a family together. Okay, that’s not the case. We are friends. Who sleep in the same room.”
The 36-year-old actress also pointed out how she didn’t believe that Raven Baxter should be dating in the spinoff.
“It’s so funny because we’re working on the sixth season now, and I’m talking to the EPs and they’re like, ‘And you’re gonna start dating?’ ” she stated. “I’m like, ‘She don’t need to date either. She’s just gonna be nothing.’”
Go down Raven’s queer journey (where she talks about “Raven’s Home” at the 13-minute mark) below:
The famed actress, who married social media manager Miranda Maday in 2020, previously spoke about not wanting her character to come out as queer. In 2021, she told “Pride” podcast, “There was a conversation before the series started, and I was asked the question, ‘Would you like Raven Baxter to be a lesbian?’ And I said, no. I said no.”
“The reason I said no wasn’t because I wasn’t proud of who I was, or I didn’t want to represent the LGBTQ+ community in any way,” she explained. “It was because Raven Baxter is Raven Baxter is Raven Baxter and there was no reason for me to change the human that she was in order to fit the actress that played her.”
There you have it.
Photo: Tinseltown/Shutterstock
