Amid new scrutiny on child performers in the wake of the Quiet on Set docuseries, former Disney actress Christy Carlson Romano is opening up about the moments when she and her mother had to speak up on the set of Disney show Even Stevens, which Romano starred in as a teen.
In a conversation on Mayim Bialik's Breakdown podcast, which also included Bialik's fellow Blossom alum Jenna von Oy, Bialik asked the former child stars about times in which they had to assert themselves during production and what "worked well" in managing to be heard.
Romano noted that there were a couple of times when she was able to have a say in the production choices. One was when writers would come to her to draw from her own experiences while writing for her character, Ren. "They would be like, ‘Hey, you just turned 16. Are boys interesting to you? Do you want [your character to have] a boyfriend?,'" recalled the actress. "Sort of like that, where they would try to write to your strengths."
She additionally noted that her mother "marched into the producers' office" saying they couldn't "start a close-up on [Romano's] butt and pull out." The former Disney Channel star said she had brought up the concern to her mother after the shot was filmed.
When Bialik asked why they went with the inappropriate shot in the first place, Romano said, "It was a stylistic choice, and it didn't happen, let's just put it that way."
Romano gave the crew the benefit of the doubt, noting that example "might have been an oversight" because she doesn't think they were thinking about it in a way that sexualized her character.
Romano then delved into why she's been hesitant to share these memories with anyone who isn't part of her inner circle of fellow child stars, saying, "These [recollections] are us recounting stories of these traumas and it feeds into the algorithm."
She continued, "It's tempting to want to share, but I want to share with you guys. I don't really want to share anymore with the echo chamber of the algorithm."
Earlier in the podcast episode, which focused on the women's response to Quiet on Set, the Kim Possible alum shared that she denied a request to appear in an Investigation Discovery documentary that was similar to the hit docuseries about alleged inappropriate behavior taking place behind the scenes on Nickelodeon series run by prolific creator Dan Schneider.
"I've chosen not to speak about this with anybody, including ID, who originally came to me looking to see if I'd be interested in a doc like this," she explained. "I don't know if it was [Quiet on Set]. But I was approached when I first started advocating three years ago for my own YouTube channel with my own experiences that I did in different and separate episodes. I started to be approached by many reality show-type producers, and they were like, ‘Hey, how do we do this?' and I would combat them with saying, ‘Hey, guys, the only way we would do this is if we talk about how do we fix it.'"
When asked why she didn't want to speak about it, Romano said that fellow Disney Channel alum Alyson Stoner, who starred in Mike's Super Short Show and Camp Rock, has "really impinged upon me the importance of understanding trauma porn."
She explained, "I actually have a degree from Columbia in film, and you know, we know that the art of montage and the collision of images is going to incite a certain kind of emotion. That is what documentary filmmaking in social movements is meant to do. And so we're so manipulated by media, and we have so many little cut-downs of misinformation and things being thrown, that the echo chambers, to me, are not helpful."
Since Quiet on Set‘s premiere on March 17, with the docuseries making headlines for its revelations about Drake Bell's experiences with convicted child sex abuser Brian Peck, a number of actors who previously worked on Nickelodeon shows-including Josh Peck (no relation to Brian Peck), Kenan Thompson and Steve Burns-have spoken out about their experiences, with many sharing their support for Bell.
The docuseries has sparked a wider conversation about better on-set regulations for minors. SAG-AFTRA recently released a statement about this issue, saying that its most recent agreement following the 2023 strike, "requires background checks for any ‘teacher or welfare worker (or other individual assigned to perform the same duties as a welfare worker, such as a child labor coordinator) who is engaged by the producer to supervise or teach minors employed under the agreement.' Additionally, we have authorized producers to demand background checks as a condition of employment ‘for any person working in close proximity to one or more minor(s), other than a minor who is that person's child/ward.'"
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