Selena Gomez and Joey King promote their new movie "Ramona and Beezus" with an autograph signing at Madison Square Garden. Gomez, whose 18th birthday is on July 22nd, received a large birthday poster from three adoring fans.
Thursday, Selena Gomez turns 18, officially entering into adulthood. But instead of partying, she'll be busy working, promoting her new film "Ramona and Beezus," which opens Friday and provides her first real movie role.
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Truthfully, Gomez has already been acting like a grown-up for a while. Four years ago, she began filming "Wizards of Waverly Place," the hit Disney Channel show about a girl with magical powers that has propelled her to the top ranks of teen stars. Today, like other young Disney powerhouses, she has become a bankable brand: She has a clothing line, is about to release her second album and is an ambassador to UNICEF.
Now comes her new film, based on Beverly Cleary's beloved children's books, in which she plays the iconic literary character Beezus Quimby. She chose the project because she felt it was an appropriate family-friendly vehicle that would be accessible to her fan base.
"I wanted something that was just perfect for my audience. I didn't want to do anything that was too much off the rail just yet," said Gomez last week, sitting in a trailer on the CBS lot, where she had just filmed a singing appearance on "America's Got Talent."
It was outside a trailer like this that Gomez greeted the group of admirers who would come looking for her daily on the Vancouver, Canada, set of "Ramona and Beezus," said the film's director, Elizabeth Allen.
"There would be hundreds of kids waiting outside set every day with these wide eyes I hadn't really seen before," said Allen, who acknowledged that during the casting process, she wasn't really aware of Gomez's star power. The actress first auditioned for the role when she was 15, when she wasn't "quite as popular," said the filmmaker. But the movie took a long time to get greenlighted, explained Allen, and by the time she was ready to cast Gomez, the teen had her pick of other films to work on.
"And she chose this, which was not a big payday, and she's a supporting role," the director said. "I think many other kids in her position would have taken the money and the leading role, but she felt there was a pedigree to the property, and she had never been in a feature film. She wanted to work with a high-caliber cast [including John Corbett, Ginnifer Goodwin, Josh Duhamel and Bridget Moynahan], and soak up all their abilities."
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SOURCE: The Los Angeles Times
Amy Kaufman | amy.kaufman@latimes.com
