Lemonade Mouth: Adapted Movie Tie-In Edition
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Not long after my second novel, Lemonade Mouth, was published in 2007, I got a strange and unexpected phone call at home from a Hollywood producer named Debra Martin Chase. Debra is the producer who made the movies The Princess Diaries, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and The Cheetah Girls, among many others. As I stood there with the phone to my ear and my jaw hanging open, she told me that she’d read and loved Lemonade Mouth, and that even though she didn’t yet have a deal in place, she was determined to make a movie out of my book.
I couldn’t have been more astonished if it had started raining lemons.
I wrote Lemonade Mouth, the story of five high-school freshman outsiders who meet in detention, form an unlikely band, and start a revolution destined to change the world, because I’ve played in bands and know something about what it’s like. Each member of the band called Lemonade Mouth--Stella, Olivia, Mo (Mohini), Charlie, and Wen--are different parts of me. Stella is a shout-through-a-megaphone rule-breaker who wants to make a positive difference but doesn’t always get it right. That’s me. Olivia is shy and quiet and sometimes has a hard time talking about the important things. That’s me too, sometimes. What Mohini and I share is that we both straddle two different cultures. Mo’s family moved to the U.S. from India, while I was born in England, grew up here in America, and have often felt the crosscurrent like a hot dog floating in a cup of tea.
In the summer of 2010, the Disney Channel started filming its adaptation of my novel (turned out, Debra’s promise of “Determinateâ€-tion was more than just words), and my family and I were lucky enough to get to visit the set. The filmmakers and cast were warm and welcoming, and I have wonderful memories of those days.
What a surreal experience it was to stand among three hundred extras and watch talented actors perform a concert as characters I had created in my kitchen. At one point, when Hayley Kiyoko (who plays Stella) started calling out to the crowd about how everyone should be nice to each other--a speech that uses my own words and heartfelt convictions--I had a lump in my throat the size of Rhode Island. My wife actually burst into tears. Out of anyone on this planet, she knew best what this meant to me--to all of us.
I’m actually in the movie. I’m an extra in the Halloween Bash scene. Pretty much whenever you see the principal standing in the audience, look over his shoulder and you might notice a guy dressed like a bee. That’s me. It’s just a little thing, but it sure does make me happy.
To all the Lemonheads out there: Be heard! Be strong! Be proud! And keep doing what you love, as I have. You never know what Destiny has in store for you.
--Mark Peter Hughes
