Sabrina Carpenter Says She's '900 Inappropriate Jokes Away from Being a Disney Actor': 'I Feel Very Distant from It'

Mar. 15, 2025

Sabrina Carpenter for Variety.Photo:Matthew Sprout/Variety

Matthew Sprout/Variety

Sabrina Carpenterknows she’s too raunchy for Disney.

In anewVarietyprofile,the rising pop icon — who got her start on the Disney Channel seriesGirl Meets Worldin the mid-2010s — acknowledged that she’s embraced a more mature persona in the years since she left her original label, the Disney-owned Hollywood Records.

“I’m 900 inappropriate jokes away from being a Disney actor, but people still see me that way,” she told the outlet. “I’m always extremely flattered to be grouped in with the other women and girls who I’ve idolized and looked up to who came from that, but I feel very distant from it.”

“For the people who love those early records and listen to them, I love you for that,” the “Feather” singer toldVariety. “But I personally feel a sense of separation from them, largely due to the shift in who I am as a person and as an artist, pre-pandemic and post-pandemic.”

Sabrina Carpenter for Variety.Matthew Sprout/Variety

Carpenter started to show off this shift on tour whenperforming the outrofor her song “Nonsense,” which she changes each night depending on the city or venue and are often riddled with sexual innuendos. (“Broke up ’cause the size was underwhelming / Tried to give him pointers, wasn’t helping / Maybe, I just need a boy from Melbourne,” she sang during a show in Australia.)

After gaining further recognition as an artist during her stint as theopening act for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tourthroughout 2023 and 2024, Carpenter started her meteoric rise when she dropped the first two singles off of her forthcoming albumShort n’ Sweet:“Espresso”and“Please Please Please,”the latter of which was the star’s first song to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

These latest songs are also ripe with adult language — “My ‘give-a-f—s’ are on vacation” and “I beg you don’t embarrass me mother f—er,” for instance — a marked tonal shift from the lyrics of the star’s early Disney days.

In her interview withVariety, however, Carpenter made sure to note that there’s a limit to her vulgarity: “I’m not posing forPlayboy— just to be clear,” she said.

And while Carpenter probably won’t be heading back to Disney anytime soon, she said she’s still open to acting, even if her pop career has prompted an “unwarranted break” from the profession. She’s just waiting for the perfect script, she toldVariety, since “a lot of them sound like five other already released movies.”

The performer’s sixth albumShort n’ Sweet, sure to include plenty more suggestive one-liners, is out on Aug. 23.

source: people.com