Demi Lovato has reunited with her Sonny with a Chance co-stars during quarantine and she used the opportunity to get very real.
On April 25, the singer opened up about rehab and her eating disorder while video chatting with cast members like Tiffany Thornton, Allisyn Ashley Arm, Doug Brochu, and Sterling Knight from the Disney show and its spinoff series So Random! When asked what everyone has been up to since the original show ended in 2011, Lovato replied, “I went to rehab. Several times!”
She could have left it with the quip, but she continued to share more about her recovery after entering rehab at 19-years-old. “When I went away to treatment for the first time, I remember you were my biggest inspiration coming out of it,” she told Thornton, per People. “You dealt with all of those pressures of being a woman on TV. I looked at that as, ‘I wish I had that so bad.’ Yes, I probably was happier in my head with whatever I looked like at the time, but I’m so much happier now with the mentality that you have…But you really inspired me a lot and I hope that my future kids someday have the same mentality that you had at the end of the show.”
Demi Lovato went on to discuss how she’s evolved since that period in her life. “I look back and I’m like, ‘Man, it’s a shame we wasted any energy thinking about what we wore on set.’ I went to Will and Grace this time and I literally spent 10 minutes in the wardrobe room,” she said. “My fittings used to be an hour. But now I’m just like, ‘It doesn’t matter. What I’m wearing doesn’t matter to people.'”
[embedded content]
Lovato continued to talk about how she felt “miserable” while filming the series. “I was so miserable and angry too because I felt like I was being overworked,” she said, per The Hollywood Reporter, but she also had some wise words for anyone else starting out in the business. “I would just say, speak up for your needs, always tell the people around you how you feel,” she said. “If you’re tired, tell them you’re tired. If you’re sick, be honest about being sick and not feeling good. Just speak up for yourself.” Honestly, that can be applied to most jobs.
My mom died two years ago this spring. She had complications from a stem cell transplant to rid her of lymphoma. She was only 58 years old.
The night before she died, my aunt texted me that my mother was in the ER and that I should call her. This was a common thing, her going to the ER, because of her breathing condition. I thought, “I can’t do this right now.” I had two events that night, back-to-back, and was preparing for meetings the next morning. On the car ride home, I took my time on Instagram and fell asleep on the couch watching My So Called Life. I had thought to call her all night, and then just forgot. This would haunt me for a long time. I woke up at 4am EST which would have been 1am PST (she was in Oregon), and I felt a wave of electricity wash over me. I fell back asleep and then woke up in a panic to get to work. As I was rushing to the subway, I saw a text from my aunt that said “Call me!”
I almost waited until I got out of the subway in Soho. (It’s important to understand that my mom had been sick for many years, and trips to the ER had sadly become a normal occurrence.) But I called my aunt right away and when she picked up the phone, she said, “Honey, I’m so sorry, but your mom had an episode last night and is gone.” I couldn’t believe it. The air completely left my lungs. She told me my mom was unconscious, but still had a heart beat. I FaceTimed her right then, in the middle of the street and hysterical. I was able to tell her that I loved her and what an amazing mother she was, as she left this world and crossed over to the next. I believe she heard every word I said. When I hung up the phone with her, I just collapsed into the street and cried, “I wasn’t ready” and “I didn’t get to say goodbye.”
The writer with her two children.
Courtesy Sara Larson
With Mother’s Day this weekend and the recent birth of my son, whom she never got to meet, I’ve been thinking a lot about her and how hard it has been to walk through this time without her. I’ve been replaying my last conversation with her, which took place a week before she died. It was a normal afternoon lunch break chat and I remember feeling frustrated with her because she was a little blues-y. I also thought I might be pregnant (which I wasn’t—although I had been trying for almost two years at this point) and wanted to tell her, but decided not to because I didn’t want to get my hopes up. With the two-year anniversary of her memoriam, I was hit with the realization of how much I truly missed her during this pregnancy and would have loved to hear her voice even for five minutes to assure me that my delivery would go well and that I shouldn’t be afraid.
It still feels surreal that she’s not here and as I look at my children I just miss her and wish they could experience her love and light. For a long time, I beat myself up that I hadn’t called her the night before. I found out that she had wanted to call me and my brothers and even had her phone brought to her in the hospital bed but was so short of breath that she never called. I never called. What would I have said to her in that last conversation? And would it have been so different from the previous one I’d just had with her? We always ended our phone calls with “I love you.” But would it have been it different to actually feel like I was saying goodbye? Would I even have known that that’s what I was doing?
The first time I got to write a featured role for an Asian character was on a one-hour network TV drama. I was a staff writer and my showrunner told me he had an idea for my episode. “It’s about two sisters. Two HOT sisters. And they’re Asian. Like the Hilton sisters, but Asian.”
I’d like to say I was secure enough in myself and my views on cultural representation to tell him to stick it up the hole he was pulling these ideas from, but I didn’t. I was just psyched I had a job. Also, this was before Twitter, chronic wokeness, and #MeToo. Instead, I opened my notebook, licked my pen (figuratively), and asked, “So what are these two hot Asian sisters doing?” My showrunner shrugged. “They’re running around for two acts being hot.” I dutifully scribbled “Asians Being Hot” in my notebook.
That was just the beginning. That same showrunner also wanted me to feature Chinese triads, have them use Japanese throwing stars, and get into a kung-fu fight with our (white) lead. To not feel like I was totally selling out my race and culture, I tried to own it. Subvert expectations. I had the badass triads selling imitation handbags. (OK, that was more a dive into different stereotype.) I tried replacing the throwing star with another less culturally on-the-nose weapon: guns! And I tried to not have a scene between our other (also white) lead and his Chinese contact at a roast duck restaurant. I tried, but I failed. If you find this distasteful, it’s worth noting the episode did great with a 3.0 rating in the demo, which is astronomical for today’s standards. America did not share your squeamishness for racial stereotypes.
Adele Lim at the ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ premiere
That was over 10 years ago, and the shows I’ve worked on since have not come close to that level of doofy obliviousness. (Also, now that I’m more established in my career, I don’t put up with that nonsense.) But there are other issues I’ve faced in depicting my culture—or, more accurately, not depicting it. Of the dozen or so shows I’ve written on, none of them had an Asian lead. Only one had an Asian character in their main cast. And the few instances where I’d write a strong, sexually appealing Asian male guest character, I’d face pushback from the showrunner or casting. “Can he be Latino? Or African American?” was usually the first response, as if one minority was interchangeable for another. Casting would claim the talent pool wasn’t there, but I realized if I was an annoying enough jerk about it, they’d eventually find me the right actor.
So when director Jon Chu—who I’d worked with before, we sold a TV pilot together—asked if I’d be interested in working on the screenplay adaptation for Crazy Rich Asians (with co-screenwriter Peter Chiarelli), based on a book by Kevin Kwan featuring all Asian characters, my reply was not so much “yes” as it was “OH MY GOD. YES, PLEASE! WHEN CAN I START?!” It didn’t matter that I didn’t have the time (I was a full-time writer and producer on another TV show), had no idea how much or little money it would be, and I’d never written a movie before. I just knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and that I was going to make it work.
My rabid enthusiasm for the book went beyond the fact its entire galaxy of amazing characters was Asian. Jon didn’t know it, but I grew up in Southeast Asia in the same overseas Chinese community and culture the book is set in. (Alright, not the exact same culture—we were middle class. I like to say my family isn’t rich, but plenty crazy.)
In a world where the majority of lead characters is male and white and you’re not, that’s a constant challenge.
I came to the States at 18 for college and hustled for years before landing my first TV writing job in Los Angeles. I feel blessed and fortunate for the career I’ve had, but I’ve often felt that there was a level I wasn’t hitting in my work. “Write what you know” is the platitude most often leveled at writers. But in a world where the majority of lead characters is male and white and you’re not, that’s a constant challenge. I had to work doubly hard to make sure their lines sound authentic (enough) or to have a handle on their drives and motivations. And if I did pull from my own experiences, I had to translate them through a fractured prism to make them applicable to a white guy with a strong jawline.
With Crazy Rich Asians, I had to do none of that. I felt these characters in my bones—they looked and acted like my family members or people I knew. Their voices were ones I grew up with. Their vices, predilections, and obsession with food and luxury handbags were details etched in my DNA. One of my favorite scenes in the movie is one that isn’t in the book—we had to compress plot points to squeeze it into a two-hour movie—and that’s a scene of Rachel, the protagonist, playing Mahjong with Eleanor, her boyfriend’s mother.
It was inspired by the countless hours my family has spent around the Mahjong table, telling stories, working out family issues, and trash-talking the living fuck out of each other. It sounds narcissistic, but I cry every time I watch that scene. Not because of the Mahjong, but because it’s a love letter to my world and my people. One I never had a chance to write before.
Jon Chu has said that he wants our movie to be a movement. And I hope it is, or at least the beginning of an age where we give voice to all people whose stories have yet to be told. Where minorities and women in this country get to be equally celebrated in movies and TV. Having had a taste of it, I know there’s no going back. Kiss my ass, Asian Hilton sisters.
Crazy Rich Asians is in theaters now.
Photos: Warner Bros./Everett Collection, Getty Images
However you feel about Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber reuniting out of the blue in the last few weeks, there’s no denying that they’re becoming closer and closer with every church service and hockey game they attend together. It’s been reported that Justin is actively looking to rekindle his romance with Selena, and while sources previously claimed that the “Wolves” singer is just looking to rebuild a platonic friendship with J.Biebs, a new report from People reveals that she might actually be willing to give him yet another chance on the boyfriend front.
As a source told the magazine, Selena “always saw the best” in Justin, even throughout his many legal troubles, tumultuous life in the spotlight, and their own on-again, off-again relationship. “Justin was Selena’s first love. He will always have a special place in her heart. She’s always held out hope that one day the circumstances and timing would be right,” the source added. “There have been times in the past where Selena was excited and thought things would work out again, but then was disappointed [by how things turned out].”
Another insider told People that Justin has also never been able to get over Selena and is currently on his best behavior in an effort to try to win her back. “They’re having a great time together. Neither are seeing anyone else, and they seem happy to leave it at this for now,” the source said. “Spending time together makes them both very happy. For Justin, no one ever came close to comparing to Selena. He always thought she was the most special, and now seems mature enough to realize Selena deserves the best.”
Selena, 25, and Justin, 23, who dated on and off between 2011 and 2014, were first spotted hanging out again last month. At the time, sources said Justin had reached out after hearing about Selena’s kidney transplant, and that the pair had reconnected while attending the same church. Not long after, however, Selena and The Weeknd broke up after 10 months of dating, and the rumor mill kicked into high gear, with countless “sources” and Jelena fans speculating that the two pop stars were actually more than friends. Of course, matching outfits and rented-out restaurants don’t necessarily equal a relationship, and neither celebs have confirmed any romance rumors—yet.
