‘Camp Rock’ Director Reveals Why Demi Lovato, Joe Jonas’ Characters Didn’t Kiss

It’s been 10 years since “Camp Rock” premiered on Disney Channel, but fans still have some unanswered questions about the iconic flick, which starred Demi Lovato (Mitchie) and Joe Jonas (Shane).

One thing people have always wondered after seeing the first film is why Lovato and Jonas’ characters didn’t kiss. Near the end of the musical movie, there’s the sweet moment when Shane realizes that Mitchie’s the girl he’s been looking for after hearing her sing “This Is Me” at the end of the Final Jam competition.

He joined her on stage to sing a mashup of “Gotta Find You” and “This Is Me,” slowly walking towards each other the whole time they’re singing. Eventually, they were standing very close, serenading each other and then smiling and holding hands. When their songs end, they’re left just looking into each other’s eyes, holding hands, with mouths inches from each other. Just when it seems like they might kiss, the camera pans out to the cheering crowd and then the scene changes.

Though many viewers wanted Lovato and Jonas to kiss in the 2008 movie — there are many Yahoo Answers questions about it — “Camp Rock” director Matthew Diamond told International Business Times that he believes they didn’t truly want to see it happen in the first movie.

“First kisses are very special...you treasure them,” he told IBT. “And as audience members, you treasure them. In a way, the audience doesn’t even know that they want to wait.”

For those patient enough to wait, the kiss did eventually come in the sequel, “Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam,” which is something Diamond pictured happening all along.

“First of all, [a kiss] was not scripted. You deliver the script,” he said plainly about why the kiss didn’t happen in the first movie. “I remember thinking about it, and I also kind of thought one of the things you try to do in those situations is leave the audience wanting more. That’s your job.”

He continued: “So, ‘High School Musical 2’ had just come out, or was about to come out, and I knew that if ‘Camp Rock’ was a success, maybe they’d want to go off and do ‘Camp Rock 2,’ I don’t know.”

He didn’t know for sure that a second movie would be ordered, but he hoped fans would see the chemistry between Mitchie and Shane and “that everybody [would] want to come back to see if that romance takes off.”

Two years after the original “Camp Rock” debuted on Disney Channel, the sequel came out and fans got the Shane-Mitchie kiss they’d been waiting for. Diamond ended up being right about that, although he wasn’t part of the second film. Disney had brought in a new director, Paul Hoen, for the project.

“I have no idea. I have zero idea,” Diamond said about why he wasn’t part of the second film. “They offered it to somebody else, who had done a lot of movies for them. I don’t know why. I never asked. I don’t know, maybe they wanted to give somebody else an opportunity to work on a musical.”

Despite not being part of the sequel, it was Diamond’s work on the original that helped ensure that it would be necessary. Fans had to get that kiss, after all.