Selena Gomez Says Post-Disney Role in Spring Breakers Was Her Most ‘Challenging’: ‘It Was Such a Crazy Detour’

Selena Gomez is looking back at her role in the provocative crime comedy Spring Breakers.  

The Emilia Pérez star sat for an interview with Elle alongside current costars Zoe Saldaña, and Karla Sofía Gascón in which she called her role in director Harmony Korine’s 2012 film her “most challenging.”

“I was only 18 or 19,” Gomez, now 32, explained. “It was the first thing I did right after my Disney show and it was such a crazy detour.”

The film’s September 2012 world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival came just nine months after Gomez’s Disney Channel sitcom Wizards of Waverly Place ended its four-season run. While Gomez played a devoutly religious good-girl foil to costars Ashley Benson, Vanessa Hudgens and Rachel Korine’s wild party girls in the film, the R-rated Spring Breakers was nonetheless a departure for the young actress, who had previously only appeared in Disney properties and other family-friendly flicks like 2010’s Ramona and Beezus.

According to Gomez, the film marked a turning point for her. “That’s when I knew I was going to fall in love with filmmakers and really gritty, fun stuff that was a little too graphic,” she told Elle.

Back in 2013, Gomez told The New York Times that Spring Breakers represented her “kind of taking baby steps” toward more adult roles. “I know that people will judge my involvement in the movie as a whole,” she said. “I’m prepared to accept that.”

Earlier this year, she told Variety that her mother, Mandy Teefey, 48, had been a fan of Korine’s previous work and was instrumental in helping her land the role in Spring Breakers. She described the film as “a project I’m proud of despite its uniqueness.”

With Emilia Pérez, Gomez has once again tackled a unique endeavor. French director Jacques Audiard’s Spanish-language musical drama centers on Gascón’s title character, a transgender Mexico City drug cartel leader trying to find a way out of her life of crime.

The film, which premiered on Netflix on Nov. 13, has received rave reviews, and Gomez, Saldaña, Gascón and costar Adriana Paz were named joint winners of the Best Actress award at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. The movie was also selected as France’s entry for the Best International Feature Film award for the upcoming 97th Academy Awards.