Selena Gomez says she is no longer haunted by her Disney past

WASHINGTON: American actor and singer Selena Gomez, who rose to global fame as the star of Disney Channel’s ‘Wizards of Waverly Place’ but was restricted from expressing her views publically, has stated that she no longer feels haunted by her Disney past.

According to Variety, an American media company, the ‘Only Murders in the Building’ actor has told Vanity Fair as part of its 2023 Hollywood Issue that she is feeling more liberated after the release of her 2022 Apple documentary ‘My Mind and Me’.

“I definitely feel free of it… 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,” Gomez said about her Disney past.

On being questioned whether she was prevented from speaking her mind during her child acting career, “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,” she added, reported Variety.

In ‘Selena Gomez: My Mind and Me’, the singer discusses her mental health challenges in greater depth than ever before.

While Gomez was concerned about exposing such vulnerability to the public, she claimed the response to the documentary’s premiere has been nothing but liberating.

“Now I don’t feel like I’m lying to people… 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?” Gomez said, as per Variety.