Selena Gomez says she felt recognised as an actor when taking part in her new film Emilia Perez.
The Emmy-nominated actress stars in the drama musical which follows four women as they find their paths to the lives they have always wanted.
She tells Sky News acting in Spanish was a joyful challenge.
“It was very exciting. I’m not completely fluent, so for me, it was really incredible to be able to even just be around people who were speaking it. I found it to be a very proud moment for sure.”
The 31-year-old first began her acting career in 2002 after securing the role of Gianna in Barney & Friends alongside her future Princess Protection Program co-star Demi Lovato.
But it was her lead role as Alex Russo in Wizards of Waverly Place that cemented her position as a prominent figure in the industry and paved the way for the artist to pursue film, TV shows and a hugely successful music career.
Leaving the children’s TV channel in 2012, she decided to take on a role in the coming-of-age film Spring Breakers.
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She says being in the project with Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson and James Franco felt like the first time she was making something for her and not any external responsibilities she may have had at the time.
“I was only 18. It was a very odd choice for me at the time because I had just finished working on my show and I had this freedom.
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“So in a way I felt like I could rebel. And even though my character is pretty safe in the movie, it was just enough for me to get this hunger for art, for abstract and crazy colours and cinematography. It just became addicting.”
Since then, the creative has secured four Emmy nominations for acting and executive producing, two Grammy nominations for her music and has amassed a reported net worth of over $1bn through her make-up brand Rare Beauty.
She is also the second most followed person on Instagram, behind Cristiano Ronaldo.
Now starring in the Jacques Audiard film Emilia Perez, Gomez says she’s grateful for the path she has had in the industry and feels more “confident” to pursue roles that challenge her skills as an actor.
“I definitely don’t have any regrets. I genuinely think if anything, doing this movie has given me a little bit of a pat on the back and I felt encouraged.
“I feel eager and excited to go for material that I don’t think people would typically expect of me.”
Emilia Perez
The Spanish-language musical is set in Mexico and also stars Zoe Saldana, Karla Sofia Gascon and Adriana Paz.
Told through a mix of film genres, it follows a drug lord who wants to transition from male to female and her life afterward.
Zoe Saldana, one of the highest grossing actors of all time, says she’ll “never regret being a superhero” but being in this project allowed her to focus on the type of filmmaking she always wanted to do.
“Jacques Audiard is very much aligned with the kind of art that I like to consume, and I like to wish to be a part of.
“So for my career in Marvel and for [Selena’s] in Disney, to deliver us full circle to work with someone that we grew up sort of admiring, it means that the whole road was worth it every step along the way.”
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She added: “I never had the opportunity to reconnect with Spanish in my work through my craft because in my everyday life, as soon as these cameras go off, I’m only in Spanish. So I was happy.”
The Avatar star says she’s aware the film is “a niche of a niche of a niche” project and hopes people are “curious enough to watch this”.
“People are really taking to it and it just goes to show that it is good to bet on yourself and if the choices that you are making in your life are done with an open heart and their heart driven and you’re winning, then stay on that path.”
The voice actor behind Milhouse Van Houten – Bart Simpson’s very uncool friend – is stepping away after 35 years on the show.
Pamela Hayden, who also voiced Jimbo Jones, Rod Flanders, Janey and Malibu Stacy, will sign off from The Simpsons on 24 November in a Treehouse of Horror episode.
“It’s been an honour and a joy to have worked on such a funny, witty, and groundbreaking show,” the 70-year-old said in a statement.
Show creator Matt Groening said: “Pamela gave us tons of laughs with Milhouse, the hapless kid with the biggest nose in Springfield.
“She made Milhouse hilarious and real, and we will miss her.”
Tulisa Contostavlos has opened up about the moment she says her life “fell apart” after being “set up by a British newspaper” and charged with supplying drugs.
The charges against the singer were later dismissed after prosecution witness “fake sheikh” journalist Mazher Mahmood was found to have tampered with evidence during her 2014 trial.
“2013 was the year I was set up by a British newspaper, for concern in the selling of class A drugs,” she told fellow campmate Oti Mabuse.
“The guy’s name was Mahmood and basically, I was approached by a big movie company and they sent me a tweet or a DM from their official account to audition me for a movie role… I’d dabbled in acting, so this opportunity for me was huge.”
Contostavlos, 36, said the role was offering £3.5m and she was flown out for meetings with producers in Las Vegas but told former Strictly Come Dancing star Mabuse “it was a lie”.
She claimed the team behind the movie encouraged her to take on a real-life role of a “bad girl from London who was constantly up to naughtiness, rolling with gangs, up to all kinds of naughty stuff”.
Contostavlos said “they had me dangling on the end of a string”, claiming every time she met with the team they would tell her “we need some drugs”.
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“After months and months, eventually they got a number and it was of someone that wasn’t even a drug dealer, it was an aspiring movie producer and I wanted to make a hook up as well for that person, but I didn’t know anyone that could do that,” she said.
“The long story short is they ended up ordering £800 worth of cocaine from the number that I had given them.
“Then before I knew it, I was being arrested in the concern of the selling of Class A drugs and I was facing four years in prison.”
Contostavlos revealed she lost “all my endorsements” over the incident and “my life fell apart”, she said.
“When it came to the trial, I’d had a conversation with one of their drivers, I was being recorded but I didn’t know, I was saying how anti-drugs I am, so they were very aware of my feelings towards drugs.”
Contostavlos said the driver initially gave a statement confirming she was anti-drugs, however she claimed that as the trial loomed the journalist forced him to change his statement.
In 2016, Mahmood was jailed for 15 months after being found guilty of conspiring to pervert the course of justice relating to his actions in Tulisa Contostavlos’s court case.
Friends and family of Liam Payne, including his One Direction bandmates, have gathered to say goodbye at his funeral.
Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Zayn Malik were among the family and friends attending the private ceremony.
Simon Cowell, who put the band together on The X Factor, Payne‘s girlfriend Kate Cassidy, and former partner Cheryl were also there.
The 31-year-old died after he fell from a third-floor balcony at the Casa Sur Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 16 October.
Fans from around the world have held their own vigils over the past few weeks, and tributes have been left today in his hometown, Wolverhampton.
Payne’s dark blue coffin, topped with white roses, arrived for the service on a horse-drawn carriage, bearing flowers reading “son” and “daddy” – for his son, Bear, with Cheryl.
Her Girls Aloud bandmates Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh were also among those at the service, along with TV and radio presenters including James Corden, Marvin and Rochelle Humes, Scott Mills, and Adrian Chiles, and former professional footballer Robbie Keane.
US influencer Cassidy, who returned home from Argentina two days before his death, arrived with Damian Hurley, son of Elizabeth Hurley.
As Payne’s mother and father, Geoff and Karen, arrived at the church in the Home Counties, standing next to the carriage, silence fell among mourners outside.
A few locals and fans also gathered nearby, but in the main largely stayed away from the private ceremony.
Payne rose to worldwide fame alongside Styles, Tomlinson, Malik and Horan on The X Factor in 2010, when they were put together to form One Direction. They went on to become one of the most successful UK pop groups of all time.
After the band announced their hiatus, the singer launched his solo career, releasing his debut album LP1 in December 2019.
Prosecutors in Argentina have launched an investigation into Payne’s death and announced earlier this month that three people had been charged in connection with the incident.
One Direction tributes
Payne’s One Direction bandmates all publicly paid tribute following his death.
“His greatest joy was making other people happy and it was an honour to be alongside him as he did it,” said Styles in his statement. “Liam lived wide open, with his heart on his sleeve, he had an energy for life that was infectious.
“He was warm, supportive and incredibly loving. The years we spent together will forever remain among the most cherished years of my life. I will miss him always, my lovely friend.”
Tomlinson said he had “lost a brother” and offered to be an uncle to Payne’s son, Bear, if he “ever needs me”.
Horan, who had been touring in South America and saw Payne at his show in the weeks before his death, said: “I feel so fortunate that I got to see him recently. I sadly didn’t know that after saying goodbye and hugging him that evening, I would be saying goodbye forever. It’s heartbreaking.”
Malik said Payne had supported him “through some of the most difficult times” of his life, and said he always had a “positive outlook and reassuring smile”.
Cowell also paid tribute, saying he was “devastated” and “heartbroken”.
He continued: “I wanted to let you know what I would always say to the thousands of people who would always ask me. What is Liam like? And I would tell them you were kind, funny, sweet, thoughtful, talented, humble, focused. And how much you loved music. And how much love you genuinely had for the fans.”