Dove Cameron Says She’s ‘Extremely Happy’—Even If the Internet Thinks Otherwise

Dove Cameron has spent more than a decade in the public eye, which means a lot of people feel like they’ve grown up alongside her. From her early Disney roles to her current work in 56 Days, her image has shifted, her style has evolved, and the internet has had opinions about all of it.

On a recent episode of Not Skinny But Not Fat, Cameron sits down for an honest chat about where she is now. She talks about turning 30 and all the things that come with it. She also reflects on her Disney years, her relationship, and why she believes fear is often a sign that you’re moving in the right direction.

Below are the highlights from the conversation, adapted from the episode.

Dove Cameron on ‘56 Days’ and Growing Up After Disney

Do you still get nervous in interviews?

“No, I don’t get nervous. I never get nervous for this kind of stuff anymore, but I do struggle to say everything I want to say concisely.”

Your new show ‘56 Days’—what’s the setup, in your words?

“Basically 56 Days is an adaptation from a novel of the same name…They’re calling it a psychosexual thriller…I guess I would call it an erotic thriller, but it centers around this relationship between these two characters, Oliver and Ciara, Oliver played by Avan Jogia. And they meet in a grocery store in the most like innocent sort of like, ‘Oh no, you go first, you go first kind of way,’ and then within [that time] they go to the movies—it’s all very cute, they have like nice easy chemistry, and within 56 days, one of them is dead in the bathtub of Oliver’s apartment. So then the whole thing is about finding who’s dead, who did it…and then where the crime is also being solved in a parallel timeline.”

What pulled you toward Ciara as a character?

“I try to avoid the word complex when I’m talking about female characters because I feel like it’s so dead done over with…It’s like the participation prize, like it’s like, ‘Oh, she’s complex,’ it’s like, you know, it feels diminishing. I think that particularly Ciara is so layered, and she is so traumatized, and she has such a rich lore and background, and she gets to be morally gray and complicated, and she gets to, you know, be immutable and changing around different people, and I just thought that that was like a fun challenge. And to also make someone like her more human and more relatable, I thought was a really fun challenge because I’m always really attracted to those characters.”

This was your first time filming nudity—what was it like when it actually started?

“No. Truly, no. I’ve been in bathing suits…I mean, I’ve kissed people…but I’ve not been naked in this way, yeah…I electively took this role, and then when I got to set and it was time to do it, I was like, ‘All right, let’s go, woo,’ and then I got there, I like clammed up and freaked out and I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is so intense. It’s really intense,’ and I really commend other actors and actresses who’ve done stuff like this because it’s just an inherently weird thing.”

How did it feel after you got through it?

“I feel good. I actually feel more in my body…I really felt on the other side of it that I had kind of broken down, a sort of a shame about my body. I don’t know if that really makes sense or translates to anyone else, but I feel like in Western culture, we’re so trained as women to hide our bodies for fear of what it’s gonna make someone else feel or for our own safety or for some weird purity complex that like I don’t personally ascribe to, you know…And I had adopted so much of that just being in this sort of like nudity fearful culture, whereas like in other cultures it’s, it’s not a big deal.

You go to Europe and you’re on the beach and all the women are topless. No one’s looking at them, no one’s like following them home, no one’s taking pictures. Like it’s just normal…I didn’t realize how much of that I had internalized until I got to set, and I was like, ‘Oh f*ck,’ like ‘I’m scared.’ And then when I did it on the other side, I just felt like I owned myself more.”

Your hair is darker now—why do people treat that like a personality shift?

“It was who I was at a time, and then I started to perpetuate it because I knew it’s what people expected, and then that’s what Disney knew I was and also perpetuated because I was branded and they were a brand and it just got bigger and more like, ‘Dove Cameron wears white, is blonde, doesn’t wear eyeliner, pink lip gloss’…and the funny thing is that I actually think I’m very personality wise similar to that now. I’m just not a child…

…Like that’s really the thing is that when people are like ‘she changed so much because she got so sad’ it’s like, a lot of the trauma that people perceive me having now I already had when I was that age, so it’s not like there was pure Dove and now like I’m so sad all the time and I have dark hair and I wear eyeliner like it’s really not related…I would say I’m actually extremely happy now. I think that it’s just not as overtly coupled with things that we associate with like girlishness and like I would say I’m extremely friendly and happy, but I think I just give off this kind of darker vibe now by comparison.”

Do you feel like you’ve ‘graduated’ from Disney?

“I will say with honesty and love and confidence that it never comes up in my life…When I was first starting to date my partner, we went back into like dust off the relics and like bring him out and be like, ‘This is where I started,’ and I have so much fondness. For my birthday, we put Descendants on and I interact with people online when something goes viral and I’ll be like, ‘You’re killing it.’ I will never forget. It’s still in my life in cute and charming ways. Like people will ask me to sign dolls and like I have some dolls…

…That was such a good time in my life professionally. I had so much fun on those sets. I have zero regrets. I look back with great pride for what they are. I think they’re cool for what they are. I love that kids are still finding them, but like in my day to day life, I have zero correlation with any of that.”

Turning 30—did it mess with you at all?

“Weirdly, I didn’t care at all. Like I was sort of worried about that too, because everyone kept being like, ‘watch out’…and I was like, ‘Oh sh*t, maybe I should be f**king worried,’ and then it came and went, like I just didn’t care.”

You and your fiancé seem obsessed with each other—what’s the real dynamic?

“We are so in love..he’s obviously not here right now with me, he’s back in Rome…And he had to go back and I had to stay, and so like when we’re apart for a week, it’s like awful, and so we keep each other updated on our day, we’re sending endless voice notes, texts, whatever, ‘cause it’s like, that’s what you gotta do. We’re not like, at the end of the day, ‘How was your day?’ Like that would drive us insane, so we just keep each other posted.”

To hear Dove Cameron’s full conversation, listen to Not Skinny But Not Fat wherever you get your podcasts.

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