Selena Gomez was supposed to be in Camp Rock instead of Demi Lovato
Jennifer Stone has caused a stir by claiming that her fellow Wizards of Waverly Place star Selena Gomez – not Demi Lovato – was meant to play the lead role in Camp Rock.
In an episode of Wizards of Waverly Pod podcast, Stone said Lovato wasn’t that big a name when Camp Rock was being cast, so wasn’t seen as the first choice to play the film’s protagonist.
Stone, who starred in Disney’s Wizards of Waverly Place from 2007 to 2012, claimed that Gomez was originally lined up to play the teen musical’s Mitchie Torres, but declined the role.
“Selena was supposed to be in Camp Rock,” Stone said. “But because Demi got it, they needed a name, because Selena was supposed to be the name. Demi got it, nobody knew her, so then they had to put names in it, so… the Jonas Brothers got put in.”
Lovato has reportedly since unfollowed Stone on Instagram, with some fans speculating that the move was due to the latter’s comments.
This isn’t the first time the podcast has come out with exciting revelations about the world of Disney in the 2000s, with Wizards’ executive producer and writer Peter Murrieta saying that Gomez’s character, Alex Russo, almost had a gay romance with Hayley Kiyoko, who appeared in four episodes in 2010..
“I wished we could have played more with what was quite obvious to a lot of us, which was the relationship between Stevie [Kiyoko] and Alex,” Murrieta said in March.
“We weren’t able to at that time, but it was pretty clear to all of us what that relationship was.”
Speaking on the podcast in May, Kiyoko said that while she wasn’t out at the time, the “lesbian energy” was evident in her character.
“I booked the role and, honestly, I had no notion or thoughts that there was some kind of undertone or underlying storyline going on,” she added. “The lesbian energy was really thriving, but I was in the closet to the public at that time.”
