People Reveal Their Disney Audition Horror Stories On TikTok & Say It Was A Huge Scam
Disney stars who were involved apparently knew about it.
A woman talking about her and her sisters Disney audition. Right: A woman revealing what happened to her during Disney auditions.
Back in the mid-'00s radio commercials across the U.S. announced Disney Channel auditions. Many young millennials aspired to be the next Hannah Montana or Alex Russo and begged their parents to take them.
Now, those kids are adults and are revealing what happened on TikTok. They say it was a major money scam.
All of their stories start off the same. They listened to the advertisement, called the number and were sent a script to memorize. They showed up to a casting call in their hometown, and notice tons of kids and teens waiting for their big break.
After the audition, many of them received a positive response and were offered a callback. Some were asked to go travel to L.A. and meet with casting directors, while others were asked to join modeling, dancing, acting, or singing classes for thousands of dollars.
One creator Jazmine Garcia (@jazminegarcia) tells her heartwrenching story.
@jazminegarcia This haunts me still to this day. So unethical. #disneyscams #disneyauditions
Her mother had stage 4 terminal colon cancer and didn't have a lot of money, but wanted to give her daughter the opportunity. When her mom asked one of the staff members if it was legitimate, she said the woman responded, "'absolutely, absolutely. It'll just cost $1,000 for some modeling and acting classes.'"
Garcia said "obviously" it was a scam to just get you to sign up for classes.
Another TikToker named Karen (@notthekarenyouknow) said she paid for the classes after getting a callback and begged her mom to take a grand out of her college savings account to afford it.
She went to the classes and trained with Nickelodeon and Disney actors, Matthew Underwood from Zoey 101 and Giovanni Lavette Samuels from The Suite Life of Zack And Cody.
"She [Giovanni Lavette Samuels] was the one who told me that this was a scam and to not let them take my money," the creator revealed.
@notthekarenyouknow Scam Auditions! #fyp #trending #scam #scamauditions #embarrasing #oop #DoritosTriangleTryout #funny #butwhy @Matthew Underwood #greenscreen
Karen continues to say that she went to another audition after the training week with the Disney stars.
"So, later on, that day, they tell me that I made it and now they need $10,000 from my mom so they can fly me to L.A. and I can film the pilot of the new TV show that they had in mind," she said they declined the offer.
Another aspiring child star, Rachel Villegas (@rachelclaireevillegas), paid out of pocket for a trip to Disney to audition in front of casting directors and Disney stars after making it through the callback round in Pittsburgh, PA.
"It wasn't like Disney auditions, where you actually just like go in and they do like a tape of you or something like that...but they were making it sound all glamorous like 'you already have the job,' which is not true," she said.
@rachelclaireevillegas Replying to @bby_niks i hope this answers the questions lol #fyp #disney #disneyaudition #scam #theevent
It happened to countless other people joining in on the TikTok trend, as well.
One guy named David (@davidwfromnyc3151) said that Adrian R'Mante from The Suite Life of Zack And Cody was at his casting call, and the company asked him for $10,000, which was revealed in his comment section.
Some people, like Shan (@shanswanz) say they were lucky to get away before the callbacks happened. Now, so many U.S. adults across the country are bonding over their experience.