Selena Gomez might not be your favorite pop star’s favorite pop star, but she’s probably got a track or two on their favorite playlist. She began her career as an actress on Disney’s Wizards Of Waverly Place, but despite sustaining a decades-long musical career with many Top 10 hits, she’s never quite escaped her former-Disney-kid image. She is quietly a billionaire, largely because of non-musical ventures such as her Rare Beauty makeup line and various luxury endorsements. She continues to be an actress, on notably outre projects, like the Oscar-nominated (albeit rapidly self-discrediting) film Emilia Pérez, and the Emmy-nominated true-crime series Only Murders In The Building with Steve Martin and Martin Short. This goes back to 2013, where Gomez damned her Disney past by starring in A24 and Harmony Korine’s sleazefest Spring Breakers (though she hedged her rep a little by having her character dip out before the real debauchery begins). But there, too, her past precedes her; last year Gomez told The Hollywood Reporter that she frequently sends casting directors anonymous tapes or has her agents withhold her name until she showed up to the audition, so they wouldn’t automatically reject her as Disney fluff.
