Selena Gomez told Vanity Fair as part of its 2023 Hollywood Issue that she no longer feels haunted by her Disney past. The “only Murders in the Building” actor rose to international fame as the star of Disney Channel’s “Wizards of Waverly Place,” but being a Disney star put a limit on what she could say in public and more. Gomez is feeling more liberated after the release of her 2022 Apple documentary “My Mind and Me.”
“I definitely feel free of it,” Gomez said about her Disney past. “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.”
When asked if there were times in her child acting career where she was prevented from speaking her mind, Gomez answered, “Of course. 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.”
In “Selena Gomez: My Mind and Me,” the actor and singer opens up in more detail than ever before about her mental health struggles. While Gomez was nervous about putting such honesty out in the world, she said the reception following the documentary’s release has been nothing but freeing.
“Now I don’t feel like I’m lying to people,” Gomez said. “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?”
“Selena Gomez: My Mind and Me” is now available to stream on Apple TV+.
