Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Selena Gomez, pop star and member of Taylor Swift’s seemingly indestructible squad, has been getting a lot of heat lately. Most of the Selena backlash has been connected to the T-Swift, Kanye, and Kim Kardashian feud because what isn’t these days? But I’m not here to talk about that. I’m here to make the case for Gomez as an actor. Selena Gomez’s performances contain a delightful mix of cheesiness, confidence, and sass that we rarely allow in our actresses, and we need more of it.
I mean this as a compliment, by the way. Most of Gomez’s characters can be described as highly confident teenage girls. However, Gomez’s sarcasm is able to carry and steal scenes in a way that’s typically limited to male comedians in bro comedies. Gomez showed off her ability to give a simultaneously cheeky and sweet performance (while dropping oh-so-many F-bombs) in Netflix’s The Fundamentals of Caring, but her unusual on-screen presence has been stealing the spotlight for a while.
I used to babysit a lot in high school, and there was one show in particular that the kid I watched loved: Wizards of Waverly Place. This Disney Channel Original follows a group of siblings who have just discovered they’re wizards, but the existence of magic isn’t what’s remarkable about this series. This is one of the few Disney Channel Originals that is actually fun to watch. That’s all thanks to Selena Gomez’s character, Alex Russo.
Alex is essentially the most delightful version of the apathetic, troublemaking teenager trope. She’s a character that’s better written than most Disney Channel live action characters, but biggest reason Alex, and as a result the show, is fun has everything to do with Gomez. Disney Channel stars give a very specific type of performance. If you’ve ever seen one of these shows, then you already know what I’m talking about. There are a lot of cheesy one-liners, knowing side eyes, and breaks for laugh tracks. It’s a style that watches like neon-colored version of ‘80s and ‘90s sitcoms, like Full House and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. For most actors, that style either comes across as annoying or only amusing in the context of Disney Channel shows. However, Gomez is one of the few actors who can wear that candy-colored performance well. Her high levels of exaggerated sass don’t watch as annoying. They’re fun.
Gomez’s sorority president character in Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, which was reminiscent of Ariana Grande’s role in Scream Queens, was one of the sequels most amusing highlights. The character was everything it needed to be — cheeky, over-the-top, and a whole lot of fun. Likewise, her cameo on Inside Amy Schumer led to one of this seasons funniest and most bizarre sketches, but it’s The Fundamentals of Caring that shows off what Gomez is capable of bringing to the screen.
Selena Gomez brings a lot of fun to the screen during a time when characters who are fun and funny are almost exclusively male. It’s getting better. Both Ghostbusters and several women-led comedies (Inside Amy Schumer and Broad City come to mind) have proven that now is the perfect climate for more relatable and comedically over-the-top, on screen women. However, there aren’t many examples of young fun and funny female actors without strict comedy roots. Selena Gomez has the ability to be the female Zach Efron or Channing Tatum of the comedy world. Whether you love or hate her music, adore or roll your eyes at her squad, Selena Gomez is a really fun actor, and isn’t having more light-hearted sarcastic fun in the world always a good thing?
