Selena Gomez says ‘Spring Breakers’ was her ‘mom’s idea,’ found film liberating

Selena Gomez has decidedly shed her G-rated, family-friendly image, if not her bikini, by starring in “Spring Breakers.” Joining such a project might cause some parents concern, but not Gomez ‘s mother. In an April 4 article by The Guardian, the 20-year-old actress reveals doing the R-rated movie was her mother’s idea.

Harmony Korine’s “Spring Breakers,” is something of a cross between between “Girls Gone Wild” and an art-house commentary on the spring break ritual.

The movie focuses on four college-aged girls: Gomez, Ashley Benson, Vanessa Hudgens and Rachel Korine. They pay for their trip the old-fashioned way, armed robbery. They then get caught up with both spring break shenanigans and the plans of the rapper and drug dealer Alien, played by a grill-wearing, gun-wielding James Franco.

Gomez plays Faith, the aptly-named church-going girl who is the most level-headed of the quartet. Still, her sexy role and the film project aren’t quite the first choices one imagines for the former star of Disney’s “The Wizards of Waverly Place.”

"Oddly enough, it was my mom's idea!" Gomez told The Guardian. "She's a huge Harmony fan. She got the script and said it was totally what Harmony's vision was, summed it all up. So we watched all of his old movies and, I gotta say, I was a little hesitant at first. But I went to Nashville and met Harmony and I instantly became comfortable with him."

Gomez previously acknowledged to E! News that it was her mother’s appreciation for indie movies and directors that helped support and even push her toward doing “Spring Breakers.” But the young actress has also made clear her own interest in making movies that challenge her and even breaks with her wholesome, Disney-inflected image.

Indeed, both the film and media attention has played up the movie’s use of Gomez and fellow teen stars Benson and Hudgens, as well as the young actresses' desire to tweak their images. College Humor recently enjoyed a viral hit, for example, with its fake trailer for a Disney Princess sequel to “Spring Breakers.”

It’s easy to see why Gomez might view Korine’s movie as an opportunity to change her image, both with the movie’s release and during its production. Filmed in St. Petersburg, Fla. during spring break, “Spring Breakers” incorporates real partying that was either in progress or set up by Korine for the movie.

"The whole filming process was a party," Gomez recounted to The Guardian. "Parties that we were thrown into, real parties in these kids' apartments, their dorm rooms, their motel rooms – their party outside and ours inside, mixing them all up."

The blurred boundary between real life and reel life depicted in “Spring Breakers” may also speak to other blurred boundaries for Gomez, including between her professional and personal life. For example, fans and industry insiders continue to speculate whether her new music will address her relationship with ex-boyfriend Justin Bieber.

Professionally, the movie continues to enjoy box-office success, “Spring Breakers” might mark the first major step in Gomez making a successful transition from child star to starlet. After all, in tone and content, “Spring Breakers” clearly leaves behind her years “Wizards” and, before that, “Barney and Friends.” It’s clearly something Gomez, and her mother, are ready for.

And personally? During the press junked for "Spring Breakers," Gomez told US Magazine:

"I didn't really know what I was getting myself into but while we were there [filming “Spring Breakers”], it was incredible to create and to play and it was liberating."

Although she was talking, presumably, about her role in the film, it’s not too much of a stretch to think of Gomez might just as easily be talking about other aspects of her life.

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