Selena Gomez is opening up about how her Disney past still affects her.
As many of you know, the Lose You to Love Me singer got her big break back in 2007 when she was cast in the role of Alex Russo on the Disney Channel’s Wizards of Waverly Place. This was of course a dream come true, as it would be for many young actors attempting to break onto the scene. However, like many Disney child actors before her, the Selena + Chef star has since attempted to put as much distance between herself and the children’s show as possible.
Related: Selena Responds To Hailey Bieber’s Shady TikTok!
While sitting down for an interview with Variety Wednesday, the 30-year-old dished on where her relationship to the Mouse House stands today:
“I definitely feel free of it. Sometimes I get triggered. It’s not that I’m ashamed of my past, it’s just that I’ve worked so hard to find my own way. I don’t want to be who I was. I want to be who I am.”
In the 11 years since WOWP concluded, Selena has attempted to break free from the child actor mold to carve out a more serious career for herself. In addition to releasing chart-topping music, the Texas native has executive produced Netflix’s Living Undocumented, which showed a harrowing look into the life of undocumented dreamers in the United States, and released the Apple TV+ documentary, My Mind & Me, which followed her life from 2016-202. Oh, and she recently earned a Golden Globes nomination for her work on Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building… She was even just named as “bright star” in Vanity Fair’s 29th Annual Hollywood Issue! See (below):
A successful rebrand if you ask us!
She told the outlet that during her time at Disney, she often felt like she was prevented from being her true, authentic self:
“I wasn’t a wild child by any means, but I was on Disney, so I had to make sure not to say ‘What the hell?’ in front of anyone. It’s stuff that I was also putting on myself to be the best role model I could be. Now I think being the best role model is being honest, even with the ugly and complicated parts of yourself.”
Related: Selena Shares truly Bare-Faced Selfies!
Reframing your relationship to the world around you is all a part of maturing, and to us, it sounds like Selena is doing a fantastic job! During her aforementioned documentary, the star even expressed how she doesn’t feel like she’s “lying to people” anymore:
“It’s not that I was lying… I was scared of what people would think or that people wouldn’t hire me. Now I don’t think that way. I understand that if it doesn’t feel good to me, then I need to step back and evaluate. Is this friendship giving me something? Is this project a really good one?”
We’ve got a feeling that a lot of good things are to come from Selena.
What are YOUR thoughts, Perezcious readers? Sound off in the comments (below)!
[Images via Vanity Fair & Disney/YouTube]
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