My favorite bits of Selena's interview for GQ
Selena Gomez, 23, touched on a lot of subjects during her interview for last month's issue of GQ Magazine. The article can be read in full here, and below are some of my favorite extracts.
Selena on the red carpet at the Met Gala, May 2
One obstacle that remains, she says offhandedly, is her face. And it’s true. She looks like a child in a painting; her face is so round and Raphaelite that she might as well be peering skeptically out of the corner of the Sistine Madonna. It’s given her a lot in life, her face: She acknowledges that. But she’s also sort of done with it. “I’m young, and I look younger. So the roles that I want to go for, it’s all about how the face is. I can play like I’m 16 still. Doesn’t really work for the things I want to do.”
What are the things you want to do? “I want to have an experience that I would go a little bit stir-crazy with. I like people pushing a little bit.”
Around this point, she excuses herself to use the bathroom and leaves her phone behind, and there’s something so trusting about that gesture, so simple and nonchalant, that I find myself thinking about it days later. It’s guileless in a way that’s almost frightening, and at the same time a kind of deeply considered “fuck you, I dare you.”
Selena meeting fans at WE Day in Inglewood, April 7
She tells me a story - the story of the first time she told a stranger about being diagnosed. I almost hesitate to retell it, because it’s an anecdote about a celebrity visiting a children’s hospital, which is a very admirable thing, but neither of us is naive, nor particularly inclined to live up to our respective clichés. But this is what Selena Gomez does.
“And there was this kid that wouldn’t look me in the eye at all. And I wear my emotions on my face, as you just have witnessed. And I don’t care, that’s who I am. I wanted to get his attention, even though maybe it was too much. So I just said, ‘Ask me anything you want.’ And he was the first person that I told, besides my best friend and family, because he asked me, ‘Have you ever dealt with anything like this?’ And I said, ‘I have lupus. I was in the ICU for two and a half weeks. I was in this exact same room.’ And it was the first time that he looked at me.”
Selena backstage at the iHeartRadio Music Awards, April 3
That transition from being a relatively well-known teen star to being an adult - why is that so hard? What is the demon or darkness that’s waiting for you guys?
She’s been patient, controlled, friendly enough, but now, I can hear the pure anger in her voice. “We’re easy targets. Every single kid who was brought up like this is an easy target. It’s disgusting, because it’s interesting to grown adults that these kids go through weird things because they’re figuring out, ‘Do I like this? Do I love this? Maybe I love this person. Oh, I’m exposed to this, people are reporting my every move and this and that because of Instagram and Twitter and you can find out everything.’ There’s a difference between being a fan - there’s a difference between that and what you have to do.”
Selena on the red carpet at the Met Gala, May 2
One obstacle that remains, she says offhandedly, is her face. And it’s true. She looks like a child in a painting; her face is so round and Raphaelite that she might as well be peering skeptically out of the corner of the Sistine Madonna. It’s given her a lot in life, her face: She acknowledges that. But she’s also sort of done with it. “I’m young, and I look younger. So the roles that I want to go for, it’s all about how the face is. I can play like I’m 16 still. Doesn’t really work for the things I want to do.”
What are the things you want to do? “I want to have an experience that I would go a little bit stir-crazy with. I like people pushing a little bit.”
Around this point, she excuses herself to use the bathroom and leaves her phone behind, and there’s something so trusting about that gesture, so simple and nonchalant, that I find myself thinking about it days later. It’s guileless in a way that’s almost frightening, and at the same time a kind of deeply considered “fuck you, I dare you.”
Selena meeting fans at WE Day in Inglewood, April 7
She tells me a story - the story of the first time she told a stranger about being diagnosed. I almost hesitate to retell it, because it’s an anecdote about a celebrity visiting a children’s hospital, which is a very admirable thing, but neither of us is naive, nor particularly inclined to live up to our respective clichés. But this is what Selena Gomez does.
“And there was this kid that wouldn’t look me in the eye at all. And I wear my emotions on my face, as you just have witnessed. And I don’t care, that’s who I am. I wanted to get his attention, even though maybe it was too much. So I just said, ‘Ask me anything you want.’ And he was the first person that I told, besides my best friend and family, because he asked me, ‘Have you ever dealt with anything like this?’ And I said, ‘I have lupus. I was in the ICU for two and a half weeks. I was in this exact same room.’ And it was the first time that he looked at me.”
Selena backstage at the iHeartRadio Music Awards, April 3
That transition from being a relatively well-known teen star to being an adult - why is that so hard? What is the demon or darkness that’s waiting for you guys?
She’s been patient, controlled, friendly enough, but now, I can hear the pure anger in her voice. “We’re easy targets. Every single kid who was brought up like this is an easy target. It’s disgusting, because it’s interesting to grown adults that these kids go through weird things because they’re figuring out, ‘Do I like this? Do I love this? Maybe I love this person. Oh, I’m exposed to this, people are reporting my every move and this and that because of Instagram and Twitter and you can find out everything.’ There’s a difference between being a fan - there’s a difference between that and what you have to do.”