Earlier this month, Descendants star Cameron Boyce died of complications related to epilepsy. Hollywood mourned the 20-year-old Disney Channel actor's death, including many of his co-stars. Now, Dove Cameron, Boyce's close friend and co-star in the upcoming third installment of the movie musical franchise Descendants, has opened up in a new interview with Seventeen about the emotional way she found out about Boyce's death.
"I was nervous about why I could be getting so many texts and calls, so I only looked at my mother’s text. I knew she would be the gentlest, and the most concise, whatever it was," Cameron told Seventeen about finding out Boyce had died. "It explained what had happened and I immediately phoned Boo Boo [Stewart of Descendants], who had already called me twice. We just sobbed without speaking. If there was a word stronger than devastated that could describe the depth of pain that I was feeling, I would use it."
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Cameron previously shared her reaction to Boyce's death in an Instagram video, where she cried and expressed her sympathies for Boyce's family.
"My heart aches for you. I have close to nothing left, which tells me some small percentage about how you must be feeling," Cameron said in the Instagram video.
In the Seventeen interview, Cameron shared that from the moment she met Boyce, she "loved him like a brother" and "learned from him every day, how to be joyful, how to be resilient, how to be patient, no matter the circumstances."
Cameron is one of several members of the Descendants ensemble cast, which also includes Booboo Stewart and Sofia Carson. Cameron told Seventeen they are leaning on one another for support.
"Me, Boo Boo, Cam and Sofia [Carson] still have our core 4 group chat active and open, as we have for five years. It’s hard when there are no adequate words to express the pain we are all feeling, but the usual text is ‘love you.’ Or ‘are you eating?’ Or ‘how are we all today?’ I think something like this horrible loss makes you realize how important you are all to each other. I am grateful for my chosen family at a time like this," Cameron revealed to the outlet.
Out of respect for Boyce, Descendants 3 canceled its red carpet, which was scheduled for July 22.
Descendants 3 premieres August 2.
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