When Bella Thorne was 10, she auditioned for a movie. The director accused her of ‘flirting’ with him.

We first met Bella Thorne on the Disney Channel show Shake It Up, in 2010. 

The actor, who was then just 13 years old when the show aired, played the impulsive CeCe Jones. She dreamt of being a famous dancer alongside her best friend Rocky Blue – who was played by Zendaya.

Shake It Up went on for three seasons and ended in 2013 and then Thorne would go on to play a major role in the Adam Sandler comedy, Blended. 

Zendaya and Bella Thorne in Shake It Up. Image: Disney.

In a new interview with model Emily Ratajkowski on her podcast, High Low with EmRata, the actor revealed she auditioned for a role almost three years before she landed Shake It Up. At the time, she was just 10 years old. 

As a child actor trying to make it big, Thorne shed some light on what it was like in her early years of stardom – revealing she was far from protected by those around her. 

There was one incident the actor says she "still [goes back to every day" and admitted it drives her "crazy". 

It involved an unnamed director, who she says accused her of "flirting with him" and "making him really uncomfortable" after her audition.

"I had a director give me feedback once and I was 10," Thorne explained during the podcast. "And the casting director calls my agent and my agent calls my mum and they're like, 'So she's not moving forward because the director felt like she was flirting with him and it made him really uncomfortable...'"

The actor went on to describe her thoughts on the incident from 15 years ago.

"What the f**k are you talking about, man?" Thorne said, noting how she was "trying to find almost a fault in [herself]... [I'd ask] 'What did you do, Bella? What did you do? You made him feel like this.'"

However, now at 25 years old, she says she knows she was "not the problem" when the alleged incident happened.

"I don't give a f**k what the f**k I said," Thorne lamented to Ratajkowski. "I don't care if I said, 'Eat my p***y right now. [I was] 10 years old. Why ever would you think that [I was flirting]?"

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Emily Ratajkowski (@emrata)

Thorne went on to add how she really had no power going into the audition.

"Also you're in a director session, you can't really say or do anything. You do the scene, you say hello and you walk out. There is no time to go sit on your lap or make you uncomfortable," she said.

Ratajkowski, 31, told the Blended star that she needs to "forgive" herself.

"If you need a more f***ed-up story of Hollywood and paedophilia and the sexualisation of children, I don't think there is one," Ratajkowski said in the podcast episode, before sharing she'd had her own terrible experience at the age of 16.

"They pointed to my picture, and I was with my friend who was also modelling at the time with the same agency, and they were like, 'This face. This is how we know this girl gets f****d. You've got to give a lesson, Emily, on this,'" Ratajkowski recalled.

"I remember being like flattered and also obviously so embarrassed and horrified, and now, of course, looking back, that is so f****d up that they said that," she continued about the interaction, which she initially wrote about in her book My Body.

Thorne also claimed she was nearly fired from her Disney Channel show after she wore a bikini and body chain to a beach. She also recalled being slammed for rumours she was on hard drugs when she was actually struggling with acne.

Thorne, who has been outspoken about how Hollywood treats women and young children, went viral in 2019 after she shared her nudes when a hacker threatened to leak them. 

Listen to The Spill, Mamamia's daily entertainment podcast. Post continues after audio. 

In the post, she said she felt "gross" and "watched" – a result of trauma at the hands of what was, by every definition, a crime committed against her.

Later, Whoopi Goldberg discussed the situation on The View and declared famous people should not take nude photos of themselves.

"Shame on you, Whoopi," she tearily said. "Shame on you for putting that public opinion out there like that for every young girl to think that they’re disgusting for even taking a photo like that. Shame on you."

Thorne later revealed she was supposed to make an appearance on The View, but was reconsidering because she doesn’t "want to be beaten down by a bunch of older women for my body and my sexuality".

"I don’t really want you guys talking about your views to young girls because I would not want my daughter to learn that and I would never say that to her."

Feature Image: Getty/Instagram @bellathorne.