Zendaya refused to have her first kiss on camera

Zendaya was determined not to have her first kiss on camera.

The 25-year-old recalled the decision in an interview for the October 2021 issue of British Vogue, speaking to her experience on the set of the 2010 Disney Channel hit Shake It Up!

"I remember being on Shake It Up and being like, 'I'm not gonna do this. I'm going to kiss him on the cheek because I haven't been kissed yet so I don't want the kiss to be on camera,'" the Dune star explained.

While the actress didn’t specify who she refused to kiss, her character Rocky cheek-kisses several characters throughout the series, including co-stars Adam Irigoyen and Leo Howard. Shake It Up! was the actress’s first major lead role, sharing the stage with fellow Disney veteran Bella Thorne.

Since leaving the network in 2018, Zendaya has spoken highly of her Disney origins. After actress Carey Mulligan asked if she considers herself a Disney kid during Variety’s Actors on Actors, she replied: “It's just kind of been this slow progression, and I am happy that it's all been to prove it to myself and not to anybody else, you know? I embrace it a little bit. It's part of my heritage, to a degree.”