Aladdin and Power Rangers Star Naomi Scott Explains Why She Passed on Her Own Disney Channel Series

Over the past few years, Naomi Scott has become a sort of household name, with major roles in Power Rangers, Aladdin, and Charlie’s Angels. For those who have been keeping up with her career a bit longer, they might remember some of her earlier work, particularly on the Disney Channel, with both the British TV series Life Bites and the 2011 movie Lemonade Mouth. As Scott revealed in a recent interview with Collider Ladies Night, there was briefly an offer for her to even get her own show on Disney Channel, but she turned it down for a very specific reason.

“Life Bites was this little UK production,” Scott revealed. “That was great. That was so much fun. And again, it was like [a] five-minute sketch show, so it wasn’t necessarily part of the big American machine. I’m sure some of the other Disney stars, child stars that kind of came up on a show, I think that was a whole different thing and a whole different type of pressure… I did the Disney Channel movie Lemonade Mouth, [it] was even probably different to that. I was already, at that point 18 so I had a little bit of understanding of who I was, what I wanted to do, what I didn’t want to do. My friend Bridgit [Mendler], she’d been on a show since she was 14. So again, when it comes to Lemonade Mouth, I entered it [at] 18, so I feel like I somewhat knew a little bit about myself at that point.”

“I think once it gets into the shows, which, by the way, they definitely were keen for me to go that route. There was an opportunity for me to kind of follow in the footsteps of maybe some of those other girls; have your own show around you that has to do with music, etc., etc,” Scott continued. “And it’s so interesting that at 18 years-old – 17, 18 – I knew that wasn’t what I wanted to do. And I think it’s because, again, those deals; they lock you in for such a long time and if you’re already, as I said, you’re 18, you’re coming into your womanhood, I was like, ‘I think that time’s passed.’ If I was 14 and it was like, ‘Disney Channel, have your own show,’ great! But I think that there’s a [frustration] – and you can see it, and I’m sure a lot of those actors would be open about that and these Disney stars that we see now, about maybe that frustration of wanting to grow as an adult and feel like you’re still kind of seen as one thing. I knew that that’s not what I wanted, so I kindly passed up that opportunity.”

While Scott has since gone on to be a major star in the Disney world — particularly with Aladdin, which grossed over $1 billion at the worldwide box office — the notion that she did pass on a Disney Channel series years prior is definitely interesting.

Scott’s upcoming filmography includes the sci-fi film Distant, and the upcoming TV series Anatomy of a Scandal.