Let’s talk amelia perez with my ohio accent amelia perez um this is a difficult movie to explain yes which is part of what makes it wonderful aside from working with jacqu odard why were you drawn to this role why did you want to do this i found it incredibly compelling and to be honest i i’ve never really seen a movie like this before and knowing that i would obviously have the opportunity to work with jack i thought he would be the only one that could make this the right way so there was a lot of trust because this
Could have gone in any direction we deal with important subject matters in this movie and it needed to be told in a way that would make sense and would give it justice and i think he did a good job were you a little nervous or even scared going into it no once i met carla who is the lead of this movie she plays aelia i felt an immediate relief i felt like we were in the hand hands of someone that understood a journey that understood things that i’ve never experienced in my life and she was beautiful and bold and brave and she
Just knew what she wanted and she would give us 150 of her performance and we would have to meet her there and i think that made me feel better about what we were making what was it like for you on a day-to-day basis to shoot this like at the end of a shooting day what were you like what were you feeling usually a little sore from the dance numbers but i i was very happy i mean this whole experience was really transformative for me and i felt you know we lived in paris for a while while we shot it and the people i was around i
Couldn’t have been luckier with their support and their wisdom it just felt so right so i was i don’t think i’ve ever been this proud of something in um the acting field really yes why do you say that because the story is original but it’s also a story that a lot of people walk through so the way it was told was artistic and audacious and beautiful but it is a true element where people crave and have a desire to live their life authentically and whatever that looks like to them should never be judged and i thought that we did a good job
Encompassing that there are such powerful important messages in this film and yet at the same time there’s a lightness to it because of the music and the dancing did you feel that doing it it’s like this tug of this darkness and then this beautiful light yes and i think that was really special to play with you know the there’s one song i sing called mamino and it is it was actually so therapeutic for me to sing you know it’s basically an english translated to you know if i fall off this hill it’s my hill if i decide
To do this with my life it’s my decision and embracing womanhood if you will and i really appreciated that also when i read the script my character came across quite harsh in the beginning um jac was really wonderful with collaborating with me because i felt like adding a bit of softness to her would help so there are these moments in the movie where you can take a deep breath and enjoy the ride and then it brings you right back up to where the station are high there have been a lot of headlines recently about
Very enthusiastic headlines about your net worth and i know you don’t like to talk about money but i bring it up because it’s remarkable especially come from money at all yes is it surreal in a way i don’t know i um i’m going to give all this credit to my mom my mom’s never cared about the materialistic of what i do she’s always cared about the art and to be honest i’m just grateful that the choices i’ve made have embraced people that people have felt seen and people feel like they can connect to something real and contribute to if it is rare
Beauty to the mental health found with every purchase you know they buy percentage goes to our mental health fund and i think those are the main key focuses for me i don’t care about anything else i hope if there’s anything anyone can take away is that don’t let anyone tell you you can’t do something because that’s not how it works you want a little rejection in order to feel the urge to get to that place where you can say i i can do this and if anything that would be a message i would love for people to take away
From because that’s all i did you know i’ve had people look at me when i was 11 and said i would never be strong enough to carry my own show and three years later i did wizards of wly place so there were times that people told you oh you can’t do that abely yeah absolutely um but i felt like the rejection fueled me a bit doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt but it did fuel me in a way and i tried to just think to myself well maybe just that one person thinks that there has to be other people that see something that i know i could do did
That happen time and time again you mentioned when you were 11 people said oh you can’t have your own show did that happen in other times in your life where people said oh you can’t it’s not necessarily as harsh anymore but um you know i’ll be honest with you the element of um and i hate using this word but of fame sometimes has blocked me from things that i really desire to do not so much anymore but what i mean by that is directors may not be able to separate who i am versus this is a character i’m willing to transform to be
And i will give it my all so do you feel like maybe you lost out on certain parts because of the fame no because my mom always told me ever since i was younger when anyone would tell me no or i didn’t get the part she would always say to me that wasn’t for you that was for someone else and you should be happy for them because one day it will be for you and eventually that happened for me and i carry that with me to this day if it’s not for me it’s not for me it sounds like just reading about your childhood that you and your mom
Were a dynamic duo um but you struggled do you remember the times when it was tough to make ends meet to put food on the table of course of course my mom worked multiple jobs uh she al also was finishing high school and she was having me there was a lot of different elements that came into our life that were complicated but i don’t think either one of us would go back and change a thing i think the moments that have happened and will stay with me forever but when i’m when i’m doing something great today it just makes me more thankful for the
Lessons that my mother taught me and it’s kept me sane through this insane industry what’s kept you sayane the truth which is i’m not bigger i’m not better i’m not smaller than anyone we are all people we all feel we all understand what grief loss pain may feel like and nothing can separate us from the mutual understanding of human life of how life can just take you in a million different directions and um if anything she’s instilled hope in me hope yes you’ve talked about how there were times that you guys were
Going through the couch cushions looking for quarters yes well there was it only happened three times sorry mom to blast you but just one story brief we were on the highway and we ran out of gas so we pulled over and i remember being you know i’m sure i was maybe five and we were looking for you know just some change that we can make for gas and here’s the thing my mom never made me feel like it was a bad thing my mom made me feel like we had the world and we were very lucky to do that and sometimes it looked differently than maybe people
I grew up around having a bit more of a privileged um or just a different life than me i should say and those moments i look back at not with pain but with proudness knowing me and my mom definitely went through it but we’re we’re really grateful for where we are it sounds like she almost made it seem like it was an adventure rather than oh we should worry about this is that true it’s actually true my mom always thought life was bigger than where we grew up you know we tried to explore different places and she was very open to life in
General and she showed me that there is a life bigger than just being a girl from texas which i’m very proud of being but it is lovely to have someone that wanted more for me it’s wonderful um so you were on tv from the what the age of 10 seven seven oh my goodness can can you even explain what it’s like to have that the eyes of the world on you from the time you’re seven years old uh i don’t think i really thought about much of the opinion of others until i was older there’s an innocence about children that i admire and the
Sense of my little sister is coming completely enjoying every aspect of her life and not one person’s comment can affect what she feels now she doesn’t have to deal with it on the scale that i do but she inspires me and she’s 11 it wasn’t until i was older that i realized people started to hurt my feelings and sometimes i could believe it and then i’d say over the past like few years it’s not necessarily that it bothers me it’s more so the injustice of what people and society expect out of women and i think for myself speaking
Personally there is never going to be an time where i won’t stand up for women or any community that i believe in i don’t care if people think that you know maybe that’s a why did she comment or why’ she say something i i don’t really care because for me it’s it’s my voice and i will use it however i please was there a moment when you said you know what i’m not going to care about what people think or what what people say yeah i i think i feel that way now i think it’s more just in in justice of of what we have to
Experience as women and it’s very complex and you know could be difficult and fortunately might be more difficult and i think for myself i i really i really have to take breaks i think that’s what’s necessary taking breaks from social media completely honest to god i i don’t know the last time i’ve really googled it’s just social media can be a very dangerous place cuz anything you can just see in in a blink of an eye and that can be a little scary and you know i i feel de for the younger generation deeply because this does affect people
And especially younger audiences and i try my hardest to encourage people to realize that their whole life is not right here their whole life is when you put the phone down and you see everything else that’s so important for you to say because you have a huge following on social media and yet you’re saying this is not it folks no i mean i post my highlights and i’m very grateful for them but that isn’t what life is about there’s a whole world that wants you and there’s a whole world to explore even if it’s just taking one day off of it and
Taking a walk it it doesn’t have to be grandiose it can be something that’s simple and you made a point of taking breaks from social media saying that’s it i’m stepping away definitely and if anything i just hope and encourage people to maybe do the same thing again doesn’t have to be dire it can be something as simple as taking three hours away from it i just um i care deeply about mental health and i care deeply about our youth and my sister’s 11 and my generation younger than me and sometimes i want to encourage people
To understand that like life is beautiful and all of the words are just words but it does you know it worries me that i think so many young children you know do have to face a lot of harsh things it makes sense that it worries you since you’re so involved in mental health yes if you can talk a little bit about that journey you released this documentary my mind and me which i think should be required viewing for people um especially journalists actually you but everybody but you are powerfully vulnerable in that movie were you
Nervous about sharing that with the world little bit yeah i think i was nervous only because i didn’t know if it was the right move maybe people would judge me people would think i was crazy people wouldn’t understand me all of those questions raise and pop in your head and once i released it it felt like a hugee relief because i am a firm believer that one of the strongest things you can do is be vulnerable and that doesn’t mean you have to you know pour your heart out to everyone but i made that choice because
I knew i wasn’t the only one that felt that way and if my world was already out there for everyone to see i’d like to tell my part of the story story and i’m very proud of that now what i do want to say is that that was a time period in my life of six years i am beyond thrilled and happy that i still have my day but i feel more in control of of where i’m headed and um my feelings towards just life and i think it’s safe to say you know i i am the happiest i’ve definitely been but also equally it’s it’s a journey and i’m enjoying it and i i
Definitely say your 30s are fun cuz you got to like care a little less about things you say you’re happ is now why is that yeah i you know i’m so grateful for my family and their health and their safety and and to add on that it’s a dream what i’m doing you know i i’m not good with you know compliments but small things make me the happiest like being able to do a reboot of wizards of waverly place which was the show i was on when i was a kid those are the moments that make me proud and they make me happy and then obviously in my
Personal life i surround myself with really beautiful wonderful people and it doesn’t mean it’s a lot of people it can be a handful but they make me feel seen and they make me feel accepted that’s beautiful um i want to talk about your television success for a moment um only murders has done incredibly well um how has working with martin short and steve martin changed how you look at the world in every way these men steve and marty have been working longer than i’ve been alive but they are the first ones to be on set they are on time they are
Professional they are class acts their humor isn’t harsh and crude it’s smart and wise they take time to ask everyone they run into how their day is and on top of it they think everything through they’re also in a point in their life where their perspective actually means a lot little things i worry about from oh gosh i i wish i didn’t say that one time and something and they simplify things for me there’s nothing specific that they have said to me it’s simply by how they are they are wonderful people and they
Care deeply about what they do and they’ve helped me grow up in a lot of ways and you know it it’s been four years that these these guys have become my friends and allies and people i can ask advice from i couldn’t be more grateful to work with them do they give you advice on things like relationships yeah but they’re also very casual you know their their advice is almost um simplified in a way where you think oh yeah i should have thought of that you know like overthinking situations or sending a message or
Thinking this and they’ll just remind me for 5 seconds they they’ll just say it’s just a text it’s okay nothing’s going to happen and and i’m like oh you’re you’re right you’re right this is this is normal and what i’m feeling is normal so um they they they’re always there for me that’s great kind of the wisdom of perspective yes and i appreciate it you talked a bit about your personal life so i’m just going to ask a tin bit about people’s one of the sexiest men alive in people magazine that’s my man what’ you think when you heard that
You know it was very it was it was very charming i think for me i am beyond proud to know that there is someone in the world that deeply cares about every tiny detail about who i am and have someone support me encourage me inspire me and motivate me it brings me a joy and more than anything he’s just my best friend and i’m really really lucky so yeah when you talk about details i work with my husband and he when i was pregnant would make me in-n-out burgers we lived in new york city and so he did the imitation in
In in-n-out burgers cuz we could get them in new york good when benny was talking about how he makes you homemade taco bell is that not the most romantic i’m sorry it’s is it romantic yes talk about the details he is very very sweet i think for me he makes um it’s almost like u he’ll just make me these treats because it gives him joy and um you know of course mexican pizza and taco bell is one of my favorites but you know it’s also nice to have someone that can you know cook and teach me and it’s just it’s been it’s been the
Best you have all this incredible singing success hit after hit after hit and yet i heard you fairly recently tell someone oh i don’t think i’m the best singer yeah that’s true you don’t what do you mean i think that i’m i’m great at storytelling i think ballads are my strong point and i think it’s important to understand where my strong points are and to you know develop a skill in a way where i’m still learning about my voice my voice changes but i truly believe that i can convey a story through my voice and i’m very proud of it it
Doesn’t necessarily define anyone as a better singer or a worse singer than me i i don’t view it that way i think everyone has their strengths and i’m a huge fan of following all of like the powerful women in music who have their own individual style and i would just say that i have my own style as well um but i think that was simply said not in a negative way it was just more this is where this is where i feel i’m i’m best at and that’s okay what does songwriting do for you songwriting is very cathartic it feels really nice to be able to express
Whatever emotion i’m feeling but also have wonderful co- writers that can help me interpret that it’s usually just a bunch of words and thoughts that i can’t control and then narrowing it down to create and craft a really beautiful song is is like a complete high you get so happy from creating something that is beautiful and sometimes that’s you know a day or two or three days of work but one of my proudest moments um as a songwriter was lose you to love me and that took 45 minutes 45 minutes it was pretty it was the fastest song i’ve ever
Written with justin tranter and julia michaels and it was beautiful it was haunting and it was a huge release because music should be that for people they should feel hopefully um moved compelled and um not alone again i go back to that but that’s just because there’s a lot of people out there that i don’t want to ever look at my life and think that it’s perfect because you know everyone has everyone has something they go through so it’s important for you to say hey i’m like you yeah i mean of course because i am i don’t think there’s
Anything different i just talked about having taco bell the shoes i’m wearing like cozy from target i love my life i don’t i think people have misconceptions sometimes like life of people in my position um but i give all that credit to my my mom yet again she’s she just always made me realize that i am proud to be who i am and i should be you are intensely busy and there’s a part of me that feels bad because i know that this is probably not one of your favorite things to do to do the interview things and i’m taking your
Time um but how do you handle those intensely busy times now i think how i handle business is actually pretty helpful for me i think over the years i may have developed a bit of an addiction to my work and i have had to learn to enjoy taking breaks have you had to force yourself to take breaks i have um and they were a little uncomfortable so as exhausted as i may be and maybe it’s just a really rough day for me the moment i need need to take a seat and speak with someone i do it because that’s connection and one of the
Most powerful things to me as a human is connecting with people i think it’s crucial even if you’re asking someone how their day is i i just think having connection is is is beautiful so i’m able to show up i’m able to do my part and i respect you i respect others who have a a job to do and i would want nothing more than to give you my attention and to give you everything that i have and then when you say cut i go back downstairs and sleep so um that’s basically how i look at it that makes sense um i ask this of
Everyone and it’s a simple question but i still think it’s an important question what are you most grateful for i am most grateful for my health and my safety um i’d probably put my family before me things come and go materialistic stuff is here one day gone the next but the most important thing in the world to me is making sure that the people i love and that doesn’t have to be my family can be many people i don’t even know i think for me that’s exactly what i’m grateful for is hopefully bringing some sort of influence and and safety to
People that was my next question is out of all the things you’ve done can you center on one that you’re most proud of i’m most proud of my consistency and what i mean by that is that i feel i’ve always just no matter how uncomfortable growing pains are i have always tried no matter you know what any one things i have always tried to do my best and even at my worst moments dealing with things i i happen to deal with i always do what i can and i think i’m very proud of the fact that i’ve been working this long but
I’m no different than the girl that i feel like i grew up to be i love pranks i love scary movies i love taco bell i i still feel like i’m that girl and nothing can take that away from me and and there’s no you know there’s nothing wrong with of course every now and then you put on a pretty dress and you’re like okay i like this um so i’m not you know simply saying that’s the only thing but i think i’m i’m definitely proud of my connection with my specific you know uh community it’s interesting that you say you know you’re still that girl
And i was thinking about wizards of waverly place and the sequel um and how you fully have embraced your disney side your disney years not every kid who came from disney has done that why do you think you’re so comfortable with it uh you know i respect i think everybody has their own journey and and i think that i completely respect and understand how overwhelming it can be to be um on something that is you know pretty uh it’s a big platform i should say and when you’re younger you know i’m not going to lie when i hit 18 i thought
Okay well i’m desperate to do something different i’m excited to maybe not not be always associated with it however it never meant i was upset with what it gave me i think that i couldn’t have asked for a better upbringing than being on that set and that was because all of those people knew me before anything happened and they loved me unconditionally they taught me um so much about comedy and life and family and i will always be grateful for that but of course there was a period in my life that i think it wasn’t that i was
Upset with disney it was just the the misconception of that’s all i could do and then once i realized that i can break those barriers and i’ve tried my whole career to do that why wouldn’t i honor something that gave me all of this in the beginning and it brings me so much joy to be able to bring it back to a whole new audience but also you know give a little shout out to you know the crowd that grew up with me healthwise you shared with the world that you have lupus that you had a kidney transplant is lup is that
Something that you deal with on a daily basis how does that affect you daytoday uh i am very uh fortunate at the moment my purposes in remission i’m very grateful for that um however i tend to get very tired um easily sometimes my mind is thinking faster than my body so once it catches up i think understanding that it’s okay to be a little bit more protective of my you know time alone even when it’s just silence i appreciate that i think whenever i think about my lupus it’s something that i’ll forever have it
Affected every part of me and i am you know beyond humbl by the doctors and so many specialists that i was able to see and what i would want the whole world to have which is a true blessing and they were helpful and now it’s in remission and and i’m very grateful but doesn’t mean you know it’s not going to come back it’s just something i live with and i’m okay with that it’s a good way to look at it yeah going back to amilia perez you talked about the the singing and dancing scenes a little bit but i’m wondering just
Giving your background for the singing and dancing scenes were you thinking i got this no no simply because it was um it was a choice i could not be the pop singer it wasn’t that was that wouldn’t have made sense to the story to me and i had never quite you know frankly danced in a manner that was interpretive and aggressive and um and fun and vibrant and that was that was a whole new experience for me i mean i was moving my body and ways like flipping my head and it was just it was a blast i got to learn a lot from that so i had to leave
Behind what i’m used to and just kind of sucb to jesse my character and really let loose that way for those really emotional scenes there’s a scene where you’re left what did you drawn for those you know i actually felt really safe with the other actresses um and edgar um who was one of the actors in the film they all allowed me to talk to them about where i felt i should go meaning leaving home was a good example i had to leave my family and texas to come and pursue what i wanted to do and that was one of the hardest things that i’ve ever
Done in my life i luckily have convinced most of them to move here now but uh still a few i got to again i just think that that’s what i was thinking of in that specific scene where i knew this was my dream and my goal and i wanted and i was willing to just fight as hard as i could for this but it was at the expense of you know not necessarily seeing my family every day but i i see them now i can see that it’s okay to pursue something that you want to do if that looks different it scares you that usually means you’re on to
Something great but that must have been really scary cuz you were young and to strike out kind of on your own yeah and being 13 is already such a interesting age and you know puberty and going through life so i’ll never forget that moment but that’s actually specifically what i i kind of drew from when i was doing that specific scene that feeling of being alone yeah just saying bye to what you’re used to you’ve had so much singing success but is acting your first love i think that a lot of what i’ve said about both can be a little
Confusing yes when i was younger i truly had a passion and a love for tv and film that just made me eager to want to do it my mother was a theater actress so she would do a lot of plays i never got the experience of going to a lot of you know shows growing up but watching her was everything to me and i think that’s when i got the bug it was never her pushing me to say don’t you want to do this it was if anything it was her going are you sure you want to do this but i i loved it but music became something that was
Just a part of me it was it was a way of expression it was a way for me to stay above water sometimes when i felt like okay i can’t i’m losing out on maybe a few acting opportunities but being able to tell my story from who says the heart wants what it wants to lose you to love me i’ll never regret those moments in time so i think it’s a little con uh confusing and you’re allowed to love both i am allowed to love both and i think when i take breaks from one or the other people can maybe misconstrue that as me not caring um
About it but i love both deeply and i think there’s always time for each of them in the right moment and that’s what i’m figuring out you talked in the documentary and i’ve heard you say this before that for so long other people told your story and you want to be able to tell your own story right so it’s hard to sum it up in a few words sure but if you could what is the selena gomez story it is um pretty similar to a lot of what people walk through and it’s like kind of a hard question because you’re right it is
Weird to sum it up but i think that for myself personally i want to live my life authentically and people narrating my life that especially in moments where there’s no truth behind it really makes me want to stand up for myself and i think taking control of that saying okay you know you’re you’re not going to shame me for going through a difficult time i’m going to hopefully stand up and say yeah i’m i’m not doing that great but i’m okay and i’m going to get through it and i’m going to do all the steps necessary to
Get through it and that was my journey my journey has always been trying to show up trying to always explore life and you know my mental health is is everything to me and i think it’s one of the most crucial subject matters that sometimes we ignore and it’s very prevalent and i am i will always be a fighter for for those rights for people to have a better place and a safer place to say hey i need i might need some help right now you shared your bipolar diagnosis with the world at a time when a lot of people talking about that right
Might not have even understood what it meant m and i think that was okay for me um i’m not sure i need anyone to understand but i know that there are millions of people that do even if they’re not sure because for the longest time i wasn’t quite understanding of my emotions and trying to figure that out was very confusing at times it was hurtful it would be really sad but once i realized and had the knowledge of what was happening to me it actually made me feel so much better to have a diagnosis to have a diagnosis it made me have a whole
Level of compassion for myself that i never had before that i would be upset with myself for being sad i’d be upset that i wasn’t as happy as other people and then when i was able to work with people and figure out what that looked like and it came out with you know came up to being bipolar i didn’t find that scary did i think people would judge that of course unfortunately people still don’t understand it but i’m not going to be someone to stay silent on it i’m going to always be someone that is proud of doing everything i can to make sure
Especially a younger generation and mine they’re going to pave the way for the future and this is something they care about and if we miss this opportunity it could be detrimental these kids need our help and i will do everything i can to always be vocal about this and and care about it and the truth is while some people might not have understood i mean the reaction in general has been overwhelmingly positive hasn’t it sure maybe i i just i don’t i it’s it’s it’s not that i really need anyone’s approval i think i’m just
Really i’m okay with where i am and who i am and i’m i’m glad i’m glad that i finally got there anything else you want to say while we’re saying thank you for being amazing thank you h
