Selena Gomez Says Her 'Only Murders' Character Is a Grown Up Version of Alex Russo from 'Wizards of Waverly Place'

justjared.com:

Selena Gomez is opening up about her acting roles. In a new interview with EW‘s Awardist podcast, the 29-year-old actress opened up about improvising with her co-stars Martin Short and Steve Martin for her Hulu series Only Murders in the Building, as well as what its been like returning to acting. Click inside to read more… “We would have these freedom takes where they would throw something at me,” she said. “And my reaction was honestly what I think my character would do because half the time I’m like, I don’t get what you’re trying to do, but it works. … She’s rubbed off on me a little bit.

I love being quick, and I kind of steal Steve and Marty‘s jokes every now and then. She’s fun.” Having spent the past few years focused on music, Selena explained that she wanted to “take some time for my true love, which is film and TV.” “I’m not sure I was looking for a series, I was just looking for something in general,” she said. “This was just honestly a wonderful surprise. [My team and I] got the material and responded right away, and I thought it was so cool.

I definitely didn’t think it would do this well but I’m definitely happy.” She went on to say that she “a thousand percent” uses her skills from her Disney Channel sitcom Wizards of Waverly Place when working on Only Murders. “I feel like Mabel is an older version of Alex in a way,” Selena said with a laugh. “I adored being on that show so much.

I felt like I did learn a lot. We actually had great writers — we had two writers that were on Friends — and we had an incredible director that we used for most of our seasons.