Selena Gomez

INTERVIEW | Serena Donadoni | July 1, 2011

Meeting Selena Gomez, it’s hard not to notice what she doesn’t do as much as what she does: she doesn’t slouch or hesitate answering questions; she’s not testy or fatigued on this last stop of a cross-country mall tour; she’s punctual and conscientiously professional; and she seems perfectly content to be in Detroit during a stressful, career-defining week. Gomez is preparing for a summer music tour, having already made the transition from Disney Channel star (Wizards of Waverly Place) to successful singer, like Miley Cyrus before her. She’s on the cover of this week’s Billboard, and When the Sun Goes Down, the third release from Selena Gomez & The Scene, climbed rapidly into the iTunes Top 5, buoyed by the platinum (1 million units sold) single “Who Says.” But it’s another project that prompted the mall visits and rounds of publicity.

The romantic comedy Monte Carlo may not be a make or break movie for Selena Gomez, who turns 19 in July, but it is the first film built around her, and she’s eager to establish a substantial career. “I think of myself more as an actress,” she says. “I love making music, I love inspiring people, I love making songs that are just really fun. But that’s all it usually is for me: I love touring and singing great songs. I don’t think I’ll ever win a Grammy one day, and I’m totally fine with that. I do work really hard when it comes to acting and I want to do that for a long time, so I hope to be recognized professionally.”

This female friendly ensemble co-stars Leighton Meester (Gossip Girl) and Katie Cassidy (Melrose Place) — who each have their own fan base — but the success or failure of Monte Carlo falls on Gomez, who plays two distinct characters: the quiet Grace Bennett, high school graduate and diner waitress from a Texas small town; and British heiress Cordelia Winthrop Scott, jet-setting fashionista and mean girl extraordinaire. While on a trip to Paris with her prim future stepsister (Meester) and brassy waitress best friend (Cassidy), Grace is mistaken for Cordelia, and the trio are whisked off to a host of charity events in Monte Carlo, where luxurious accommodations and serendipitous romance await.

Monte Carlo is PG summer escapism in the vein of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, where coming of age means leaving familiar places behind, and the bonding between girlfriends is an all-important part of the process. “A lot of people aren’t going to like the movies I make, I’m sure,” says Selena Gomez, “but as long as I’m proud of the movie, and I’m not selling out and I’m doing things that make me happy and make me grow as an actress, I’ll be good.”

Gomez, who began performing professionally at seven on Barney & Friends, has had only had a few substantial movie roles, including 2009’s Princess Protection Program (with Demi Lovato) for the Disney Channel, and Ramona and Beezus (2010), based on Beverly Cleary’s children’s novels, where she played the levelheaded older sister. “Monte Carlo is definitely still a teen comedy,” she says. “It is a bit older than some of the things that I’ve done before, but I still feel like my younger generation [of fans] can watch it as well as an older generation.” Yet she is acutely aware that this movie signals a graduation of sorts.

“I’m in a very weird place, a very crucial place in my career,” she explains, “because I’ve been a Disney kid for the past five years. So obviously, whenever they’re putting together a film with Meryl Streep and Leonardo DiCaprio, they’re not really thinking, ‘Selena Gomez would be a good fit for this movie,’ and I’m totally aware of that. So for me, it’s all about choosing the right roles and fighting for the roles and really working hard. I don’t think that I’ll always necessarily be famous — hopefully I’ll just have longevity in what I love. So I think it’s about taking the right steps, and the right roles.”

That means taking an even bigger step than what Monte Carlo offers and choosing characters that aren’t sympathetic, and a movie not so tailored to her audience. “I don’t know what will come for me in the future,” says Gomez. “I like to make sure that my life is separate, so me as a person, I know that my fans know me, but as an actor I like to do different things and I’m going to want to try new things that may not necessarily have a positive message.” She could take some lessons from another former Disney kid, Jodie Foster, who in 1976 appeared in one of the studio’s signature hits, Freaky Friday, along with the very adult film that would change her career, Taxi Driver.

As for Gomez’s career path, she wouldn’t mind following in the footsteps of publicity shy Canadian actress Rachel McAdams: “You never see her do the same character and you probably never even know half the movies she’s in, I mean she went from Mean Girls to Notebook to Wedding Crashers to Family Stone to Red Eye to Time Traveler’s Wife. She’s done so many films and they’re all different, and I admire that. Plus, she’s not in the public eye that much.”

Selena Gomez has lived with that bright glare of the spotlight throughout her teens, and her fame has grown exponentially since she began dating pop star Justin Bieber. “It’s weird and confusing, but it’s something that I also try not to focus on,” she says. “I really try not to hide or live my life according to what people say about me. I try my best to be as normal as I can. At the same time I don’t understand it, I don’t understand when there’s like grown men following me with cameras — that confuses me, a lot. So I just try to be as normal as possible.”

Which makes Gomez a modern paradox: she yearns for normalcy as more than six million people follow her on Twitter. But she funnels that celebrity into charity work, with animal rescue foundation Island Dog, as well as being an Ambassador for UNICEF. She plans on taking her second mission trip with the United Nations Children’s Fund after completing her summer music tour. But the position that she finds herself in most often — and one that makes her uneasy — is role model.

“I never pursued that, I never said I wanted to be a role model,” Selena Gomez explains, “but I have that title and I’m fully aware of that. I think it’s helped me as a person. Having a little girl coming up to you, saying she wants to be you when she’s older, is a lot. So whenever publically I’ve been scrutinized, which I have been since I was 14, I’ve always just thought to myself, ‘If I ever lashed back, I don’t think that would make them proud to say I’m a role model.’ I think that if anything, they’ve made me better, because I’m very aware. But at the same time, I let them know I’m not perfect, because I’m not. I make mistakes all the time. I’m figuring out who I am, I’m growing up, but I do try to be the best I can be because ultimately you have to treat people how you want to be treated.”

In May, Gomez shot the final episodes of Wizards of Waverly Place, where she had received on-set tutoring instead of attending traditional high school. While on the Monte Carlo set, she collected her own diploma on the day they were filming Grace’s graduation scene. As for her continuing education, she doesn’t see the Ivy League in her future, but does envision exploring some other options. “I do think I would like a break,” she says, “my dream, though, would not be as intense as Jodie or like Natalie Portman, because they went to incredible elite schools. I actually would like to go to culinary school. I want to take a course in Italy — that would be really amazing.”

As Cordelia, the couture-clad spoiled princess, Selena Gomez is delightfully wicked, but it’s the good-hearted Grace who’s the sweet heart and moral center of Monte Carlo. In her few film roles, Gomez has positioned herself as the underdog, the overlooked girl who gets an unexpected opportunity to shine. “Obviously it’s easy for me to play,” she says with a laugh. “It’s nice to have that whole, start as this character, and get to see her journey, and see her end as another character, which I really like playing. I do see myself as that a little bit, but I think that’s good. I think that’s a good quality to have, and I never expect any of this. So whenever I take a project, I treat it as if it’s my last so that I do my best. I’m surprised and thankful for everything I get.”

© 2011, Serena Donadoni. All rights reserved.

Director: Thomas Bezucha | Writers: Thomas Bezucha, April Blair, Maria Maggenti | | Screen Story by Kelly Bowe | Adapted from the novel Headhunters by Jules Bass | Cinematography: Jonathan Brown | Music: Michael Giacchino | Production Design: Hugo Lucyzc-Wyhowski | Costume Design: Shay Cunliffe | Editing: Jeffrey Ford | Producers: Arnon Milchan, Denise Di Novi, Alison Greenspan, Nicole Kidman | Released by Twentieth Century Fox | Running time: 108 minutes | Rated PG

Cast: Selena Gomez (Grace Bennett and Cordelia Winthrop Scott), Leighton Meester (Meg), Katie Cassidy (Emma), Pierre Boulanger (Theo Marchand), Luke Bracey (Riley), Cory Monteith (Owen), Andie MacDowell (Pam), Brett Cullen (Robert), Catherine Tate (Alicia Winthrop Scott), Christophe Malavoy (Bernard Marchand), Giulio Berruti (Prince Domenico da Silvano), Bruno Abraham-Kremer (Police Captain), Romain Cottard (Desk Clerk at Hotel de Paris), Valerie LeMercier (Madame Valerie), and Marc Phelan (Man in Bathtub).