Disney bills itself as the paragon of family friendly entertainment.
But there is a dark underbelly to the entertainment juggernaut.
And Disney is under fire after this actress stepped forward with disturbing allegations.
The dark secret behind the Mickey Mouse Club
The Mickey Mouse Club was the Disney Channel flagship show, and the program launched the careers of numerous stars.
Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Ryan Gosling, and Christina Aguilera were among performers who got their start on the program.
Actress Keri Russell – who starred in the CW Network hit show Felicity as well as the critically-acclaimed FX drama The Americans – was another star on the 1990s The All-New Mickey Mouse Club.
Appearing on Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s podcast Dinner’s on Me, Russell shared why she got booted from the show.
Russell said it was because once girls reached the age where Disney thought they looked like they could become sexually active, Disney removed them from the program.
“Yeah, it’s usually girls who look like they were sexually active, which probably I was one of the first,” Russell stated.
“They’re like, ‘She’s out! She is out! That one is gone!’” Russell added.
Russell said there was a double standard at work since Disney removed the female cast members around the age of 17.
Male cast members stayed on for longer.
“Meanwhile, the boys stayed ‘till they were like 19,” Russell added.
“I was like, ‘Um, by the way, I had sex with that person. I know that they’ve had sex,’” Russell continued.
Russell also told Ferguson that being pregnant was a complete no-go.
“Pregnant musketeers aren’t on the roster,” she stated.
“So I left at probably 17-ish,” Russell stated.
How Russell got cast
Russell recounted how she got the gig because she had a more all-American look.
“I think back then Disney was looking for kids that were kind of, like, normal,” Russell explained.
Russel told W Magazine that looking back on her time on the show and her famous castmates, she couldn’t believe she got cast.
“I was there at a time when there were a lot of famous kids there,” Russell declared. “And I say this completely truthfully: I was literally the least talented one there. I’m not kidding. When I look at those kids, I’m like, why in the world did they pick me? Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake and Ryan Gosling and Britney Spears. It was wild.”
This isn’t an entirely fair statement as Russell’s work in The Americans and The Netflix show The Diplomat was widely praised and she’s considered one of the most talented actresses of her generation.
Russell also told Ferguson being on The All-New Mickey Mouse Club was a different experience for a child actor.
Normally a child actor is cast on a show where there are only adults on set.
In the case of The All-New Mickey Mouse Club, the cast entirely consisted of children.
“I think what’s really the creepiest part of kid acting is usually it’s one or two kids with all adults. And so that really accelerates the adultification of everything. And for the ‘Mickey Mouse Club,’ there were 19 of us. The adults were invisible to me. You know what I mean?” Russell told Ferguson.
Disney also tried to make the child cast members comfortable, as they required at least one parent to be on set at all times.
“I was 15 to 17. So I think that is what was unique about being a kid actor at such a young age. So I wasn’t completely alone with all the adults. And I think that was helpful,” Russell concluded.
