Meaghan Martin Says She Still Gets Backlash About Her Character's Bullying of Demi Lovato inCamp Rock

Mar. 15, 2025

Meaghan Martin in 2008 and 2024.Photo:Dave Benett/Getty; ALAN SACKS PRODUCTIONS / Alamy

Dave Benett/Getty; ALAN SACKS PRODUCTIONS / Alamy

SomeCamp Rockfans still haven’t forgiven Meaghan Martin for the way her character treatedDemi Lovato’s in the 2008 Disney Channel Original Movie.

“Which is the weirdest thing!” Martin said. “I got a message the other day that was, like, pretty cruel in my Instagram DMs that was like, ‘You lied to Demi and you deserve to die.' And I was like, ‘Wow. We can move on.’ ”

Jasmine Richards, Demi Lovato, Meaghan Martin and Anna Maria Perez de Tagle in 2008’s ‘Camp Rock’.ALAN SACKS PRODUCTIONS/Alamy

ALAN SACKS PRODUCTIONS/Alamy

Funnily enough, Martin explained that she initially auditioned for Lovato’s role. But, she said, “I knew that I was Tess. Like, I felt it in my bones. I was like, ‘Look, we’ve all read the script. Like, the blonde girl is gonna be Tess.' "

The cast of ‘Camp Rock’ in 2008.ALAN SACKS PRODUCTIONS/Alamy

Martin also compared working on the film to going to “Disney Channel high school.”

“Working as teens, that becomes your peer group,” she told Bryan and Friedle. “It becomes like, that is your high school classmates, and we all went to summer camp together.”

Of course, Bryan wanted to know about on-set romances. “There was a lot,” Martin said. “It’s the high school thing, like you’re gonna date the people you go to high school with, right?”

“I don’t thinkDemi and Joe [Jonas]were together then,” she continued. “I think they got together later than that, because it was right before we startedCamp Rock 2that they got together and then broke up.”

Anna Maria Perez de Tagle, Kevin Jonas, Meaghan Martin, Joe Jonas, Demi Lovato and Nick Jonas in 2008.Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage

Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage

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Bryan remembered watching along with some of the older stars as romance bloomed among the younger teen actors. “We were older, so we were, I mean, obviously not going to be taking part in anything,” theCheetah Girlsstar recalled. “But it was like watching younger kids and you’re just going, ‘Oh wow, look at that dynamic across the pool …' ”

“It started atCamp Rock,” Bryan added. “Because I feel likeHigh School Musical— It didn’t seem like that, obviously you know besidesZac [Efron] and Vanessa [Hudgens]. But other than that, it didn’t — It all seemed very friendly. And thenCamp Rockcrew comes in town, and we’re like …whooo!”

Meaghan Martin with husband Oli Higginson in 2024.Jed Cullen/Dave Benett/Getty

Jed Cullen/Dave Benett/Getty

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“Honestly, I don’t remember much, but I do remember the hot tub being a site to — It was the under the bleachers equivalent for us,” Martin recalled.

For her part, though, Martin said that while she has been married to British actor Oli Higginson since 2016, she “had an aggressive rule as a teenager that I would not date other actors,” and never dated any of her fellow Disney Channel stars.

source: people.com