Degrassi alums Cassie Steele and Miriam McDonald are opening up about the challenging times they faced while filming the show.
During an Instagram Live, the actresses reflected on their time starring in the teen drama and admitted that, although it was “amazing,” there was also a downside — dealing with bullying.
During their chat, Cassie, 31, shared that fans had a hard time separating her from her character on the show, Manny, who had a “promiscuous” phase and notoriously wore a visible thong.
“People couldn’t separate me from my character,” she said. “I felt like I was being bullied a lot at parties growing up and even at the mall. People [would call] me a slut. And that was very difficult because I just wanted to make friends.”
Miriam shared a similar experience with her character, Emma.
“I was terrified to walk through the cafeteria and mall food court at lunch time where there were teenagers. Everyone’s pointing, everyone’s looking and throwing paper at you,” she explained, noting that her character faced controversial challenges, like dealing with STDs.
While this may have been a challenging time for the Degrassi stars, they were able to forge a strong off-screen friendship because of it.
“That’s part of why we formed such a strong connection,” Miriam said. “We were each other’s number-one peers.”
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