Selena Gomez is taking time to reflect on her star-making role on “The Wizards of Waverly Place” with the benefit of more than a decade’s worth of hindsight.
The Disney Channel series, which ran from 2007 to 2012, followed Alex Russo (played by Gomez), a New York teen who possesses magical powers and is training to be a wizard alongside her brothers Justin (David Henrie) and Max (Jake T. Austin). Over the course of its four-season run, the show received a host of critical accolades and won three Emmys.
This week, Gomez got a chance to reunite with two of her “Wizards of Waverly Place” cast mates, David DeLuise and Jennifer Stone, for a candid chat. The actor and singer appeared on Monday’s episode of DeLuise and Stone’s “Wizards of Waverly Pod” podcast, where she was asked about what she felt her “biggest mistake” was.
“Probably not staying in touch with you guys,” Gomez explained. “I think I slowly became kind of shamed. I felt ashamed of the decisions that I made.”
She went on to note: “I didn’t want you guys to see me in the state that I was in, because, A, you would have told me the truth, which terrifies me, and B, I didn’t want to let you down.”
Gomez didn’t elaborate as to what, specifically, she’d been ashamed of. Released last year, her Apple TV+ documentary “Selena Gomez: My Mind and Me” explores her relationship with mental health following her diagnoses with lupus and bipolar disorder.
Gomez’s revelation this week seemed to strike a chord with DeLuise, who played her character’s father, Jerry Russo, on “Wizards of Waverly Place.”
“I appreciate your saying that,” he said. “To be perfectly blunt, there have been times when I’m like: ‘Did we stop being friends because I didn’t tell her what she wanted to hear?’”
Though Gomez and her cast mates may have drifted apart, she nonetheless said she was “really grateful and happy” for her time on “Wizards of Waverly Place,” noting: “I think I felt safe, and that’s a really hard thing for me to feel.”
“You guys genuinely loved me, and that’s all I could have asked for,” she added.
Fortunately, fans can rest assured that the “Wizards of Waverly Pod” episode concludes with Gomez making arrangements to meet up with DeLuise and Stone when she returns to Los Angeles. She’s currently filming the third season of Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building” with Steve Martin and Martin Short in New York.
Catch the full “Wizards of Waverly Pod” episode with Selena Gomez below.