Selena Gomez spoke out about her experience as a child star on the Disney Channel again, clarifying the remarks she previously made that were distorted online. Gomez joked to reporters at the Television Critics Association, saying “I signed my life away to Disney at a very young age, and I didn’t know what I was doing. I was just running around on set.”
That joke was presented as a more serious remark in the press. In a new interview with RadioTimes.com, Gomez revisited her comment. When asked if she had any reluctance to return to television for her new series Only Murders in the Building, Gomez said, “No, definitely not. I was looking for another show to do. And by the way, I’m beyond proud of the work that I did with Disney as well. It kind of shaped who I am in a way.”
Her co-star Steve Martin added, “I have to jump in because I was there when Selena said that [at the TCA] and it was said in the most lighthearted, funny, jokey way. And then I see it gets interpreted—sometimes they’ll say she was joking and sometimes they have it as an ominous headline—but it was completely just all in fun. I’ve signed my life away to Marty Short, you think I like that?”
Gomez spoke to Vogue earlier this year about her time at Disney and the expectation to be a role model. “That was my job in a way—to be perfect,” she said. “You’re considered a figure kids look up to, and they take that seriously there.”
The actress and singer noted that she first started getting paparazzi attention when she was 15 years old. “We were all new to this, and they [my on-screen brothers David Henrie and Jake Austin] wanted to say things to the paparazzi, but you can’t, because that’s exactly what the paparazzi want. I remember going to the beach with some family members who were visiting, and we saw, far away, grown men with cameras—taking pictures of a 15-year-old in her swimsuit. That is a violating feeling.”
She added: “I think I spent so many years just trying to say the right thing to people for the sake of keeping myself sane. I’m just such a people pleaser.”
Alyssa Bailey
News and Strategy Editor
Alyssa Bailey is the news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton).
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