Nick Jonas looks back on his Disney 'graduating class' of Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus, and Demi Lovato: 'Tremendous'

For better or worse, Nick Jonas will always be known as someone who had his early breakthrough with Disney. And he's more than OK with that.

"I absolutely look back at [Disney] as a creative school," Jonas said at the Red Sea Film Festival in Saudi Arabia, Variety reported Thursday. "It was also school, to be honest. I was between the ages of 14 and 18, which is my high school years. That graduating class of Miley, Selena, and Demi, it was all of us coming up together and you can see, frankly, the length of our careers and the success we've all been able to have."

Jonas, who earned his earliest credits on Disney Channel projects such as the 2008 movie Camp Rock and its 2009 sequel, Camp Rock 2, of course was alluding to "classmates" who really don't need last names: the newly engaged Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus, and Demi Lovato. Like Jonas, who worked with his brothers, Kevin and Joe, in music group the Jonas Brothers and on the Disney TV series Jonas, all three of the women he mentioned are about his age and also acted and released music for the House of Mouse in their teenage years.

Related: Selena Gomez reacts to Golden Globes nominations from her couch: 'I am so grateful'

In fact, both Jonas and Gomez had early roles on Cyrus' sitcom Hannah Montana. Golden Globe nominee Gomez, who's currently costarring in Netflix's upbeat mystery Only Murders in the Building and the crime musical film Emilia Pérez, was on another series, Wizards of Waverly Place, from 2007 to 2012. She also reprises her character, Alex Russo, in this year's revival show, Wizards Beyond Waverly Place.

Both Cyrus, with albums such as last year's Endless Summer Vacation, which featured mega-hit "Flowers," and Camp Rock and Sonny With a Chance alum Lovato, whose 2022 album Holy Fvck was acclaimed by critics, have also accomplished much in their decades-long careers in the spotlight.

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Related: Former Disney star Miley Cyrus apologizes to Mickey Mouse for her 'malfunction' during bad-girl era

Speaking of Gomez's latest honor, Jonas said it's a "tremendous thing" to hear his former costars are thriving. "I think that's a real testament to Disney's ability to find and foster talent and understand what makes someone unique while finding a way to make it work within their ecosystem."

The experience wasn't all shiny, though.

As Jonas recalled, it was difficult to get the people planning movies and shows to hire a Jonas Brother. He was even told that before he was cast in the MMA TV series Kingdom, which aired from 2014 to 2017.

Related: Jennifer Stone recalls 'messy high school nonsense' between Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez during Disney days

"There were projects I went after where the feedback was, 'There was no way they were going to take a chance on casting you,'" Jonas told Variety. "That was really discouraging."

He doesn't appear to have that problem now. Jonas is a successful solo artist who still works with his family group. In 2025, he'll also appear on Broadway, in the debut there of The Last Five Years.

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