Selena Marie Gomez (born July 22, 1992) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and television producer. After appearing on the children's series Barney & Friends (2002–2004), she received wider recognition for her portrayal of Alex Russo on the Emmy Award-winning Disney Channel television series Wizards of Waverly Place, which aired from 2007 until 2012.
Gomez also starred in the films Another Cinderella Story (2008), Princess Protection Program (2009), Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie (2009), Ramona and Beezus (2010), and Monte Carlo (2011). Thereafter, she focused on more mature roles in Spring Breakers (2012), Getaway (2013), The Fundamentals of Caring (2016), and The Dead Don't Die (2019). She voices the character of Mavis in the Hotel Transylvania film franchise, and serves as an executive producer of the Netflix television drama series 13 Reasons Why (2017–present) and the Netflix documentary series Living Undocumented (2019).
The first time I meet Karla Sofía Gascón is on a London stage. I’m wrapping up a group interview in front of a live audience for Jacques Audiard’s film Emilia Pérez, and as the director, Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz all file off into the wings to boisterous applause, I notice that Gascón, the titular actress, has stopped.
She turns 180 degrees and heads back across the stage. The clapping becomes uncertain. They don’t really know her. They haven’t seen the film yet.
What is happening? Up close to me, she says softly, “This was a small interview.” Oh god, is she upset? It’s true that these event interviews are, by necessity, fairly brief.
But then, suddenly, she hugs me tightly. Oh, I think. She doesn’t care how any of this looks; she hasn’t noticed the schedule or the so-called order of things, it’s that she hasn’t yet had a chance to truly connect, to be real. “Thank you,” she says, squeezing my arm, meaning it.
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