Camp Rock 3: Lumi Pollack Interview on Cello, Demi Lovato, Jonas Bros

Lumi Pollack is gearing up for her big moment.

The 17-year-old actress, whose credits include the 2021 Jenna Ortega film The Fallout and Disney Channel‘s 2025 series Electric Bloom, plays cellist prodigy Rosie in Disney’s Camp Rock 3, which premiered Thursday on Disney Channel and is streaming on Disney+. 

It’s the latest installment in the hit music-driven franchise, which kicked off in 2008 with original stars Demi Lovato and the Jonas Brothers and spawned a sequel in 2010. (Lovato and Kevin, Joe and Nick Jonas all serve as exec producers on the new movie and make appearances as well.)

Given the success of the first two movies — which made Lovato a star and brought global fame to the Jonases — Pollack is poised to become a household name, especially among the movie’s target demo, which she’s not sure she’s fully processed yet.

“Even though I’ve already been to the premiere, and we already shot the movie, it still doesn’t quite feel real and it doesn’t really feel like it’s hit me yet,” she says. “I don’t know if anyone can really be prepared for such an original experience like this. But I have all my friends and my castmates who are going through the same thing, so it really just helps to have them support throughout this process.”

As for stepping into a beloved franchise, Pollack notes that it was “nerve-racking” at first, but the cast quickly established a rapport and camaraderie with one another that helped ease the nerves.

“I think the whole cast was a little bit nervous in rehearsals, and we were just not knowing what the environment was going to be like on set, but I think those nerves quickly turned into excitement once we finally stepped on and started filming,” she says. “Everyone was just so welcoming and warm. The cast and crew were just so amazing and talented, and it didn’t really feel like it was this huge production really when we got there. It kind of just felt like we were just making a movie with a bunch of our friends — like we were at summer camp.”

Pollack’s character, Rosie, is a gifted cello prodigy who competes for the chance to open for the band Connect 3 (once again played by the Jonas Brothers) on their national tour after. Rosie steps out of her comfort zone during the process and learns more about who she really is and who she wants to be when it comes to her musical ambitions.

For the role, Pollack — who plays piano and guitar — actually learned to play the cello. “Playing the cello was definitely quite a feat,” says the actress, with a laugh. She rehearsed up to two hours every day, “and then I’d come home to my hotel room and do it in my hotel room — sorry to my neighbors,” she quips. As for her instructor, Cyrena Huang, Pollack says, “She didn’t teach for film. Literally, she just taught the cello, so she wasn’t teaching me like, ‘Oh this is how you fake it.’ She actually was teaching me.”

While she doesn’t keep up with her cello playing post-filming (“It’s quite the instrument to trek around”), she says she has gained a lot of respect for cellists, noting that she thinks it’s harder than playing the guitar. “You have to hold your elbows up, you have to have the right posture, your fingers have to be placed in the right way,” she says. “It’s so intricate.”

Earlier this week, Pollack got to watch the movie with a live audience at the premiere (she’d previously seen it with family and friends). She says it was heartwarming to be able to witness their reaction in real time, “hearing hundreds of people laughing at the jokes that we’re laughing at and being like, OK, this joke landed, and this really hit the spot. Seeing that the movie really did what we wanted it to do with an actual live audience there, was just so special.”

Pollack says that while she’s excited for Disney Channel viewers to see the movie and “get to know Rosie and lover her as much as I do.” She’s hoping viewers can relate to Rosie’s arc.

“She’s this kind of quiet and reserved character in the beginning, and we can see that she has something inside of her, but she doesn’t quite know how to express her and express it and doesn’t know how to get it out,” Pollack says. “But with the help of some of her friends and advice, she finally gets to break out of her shell.” Besides sharing musical talent, Pollack adds that she can relate to Rosie in another way: “The friendship that she has with the other [characters] is kind of like the friendship that I have with [the cast] in real life.”

Speaking of the cast, Pollack recalls some advice that Lovato and the Jonas Brothers shared with the young actors before filming began. “Demi told us to not be afraid to ask for breaks or to say no,” Pollack recalls. “They also were just telling us to just look around and take in everything.”

Pollack shares her own advice for young aspiring thespians: “The most important thing is to have a passion for it. You also have to have a really strong backbone. Growing up in the industry, I’ve learned to not take things personally, try not to look at hate comments. If you’re confident in yourself, then it doesn’t really matter what anybody else has to say. If you have a vision for where you want to go, and you have the people that support you along the way, then you can do anything.”