Bella Thorne feels she was "pitted against" Zendaya when they starred together on 'Shake It Up'.
Bella Thorne
The 23-year-old actress has admitted she was initially reluctant to befriend Zendaya, 24, as they were so often compared to each other during their time on the Disney show.
Bella shared: "We had to deal with that so much on 'Shake It Up'.
"It’s like we said [in] a couple interviews when we were younger, how we explained how in the first season we weren’t friends and it took us those other two seasons of becoming so close.
"[It was hard] not having someone pitted against you [before] and then all of a sudden, now everyone is pitting you against each other. That fed into our heads. It made us not [be] friends in that first season."
However, they became much closer after a "beautiful talk in the middle of a sound stage".
Bella told Us Weekly: "We were really able to put our cards out on the table and understanding each other."
Zendaya is currently one of Hollywood's most in-demand actress and Bella remains a huge fan of her former co-star.
She also doesn't understand why people still insist on comparing them to each other.
Bella explained: "Zendaya’s amazing. I f****** love her.
"She’s always been amazing and she’s always going to be amazing. I’m just happy that people see that. She’s getting the recognition she deserves. That just makes me so happy. I feel like when people put us against each other, it’s just like, … 'Why are you doing this? Is it just because we’re women?'"
Bella now realises that rather than getting angered by the comparisons, it's best to "block it out and just don’t even listen to the noise".
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