LOS ANGELES – She's a wizard, but 15-year-old Selena Gomez knows that
just waving her wand isn't going to turn her into the next Miley
Cyrus.
Since word got out that the breakout star of the Disney Channel TV
show "Wizards of Waverly Place" is planning on recording an album
later this year, the "Future Miley" predictions have started to fly.
"I think it's an honor, it's a good compliment," says Gomez, looking
somewhat embarrassed by the comparison.
"But I think I might want to take a different route when it comes to
that," she continues, smiling shyly. "I love acting and that's my
passion. So I would love to do more movies and some serious things
like that. So maybe a different road with me." Plus, she says, she
plans on being part of a band later this year, not a solo singer.
But in the meantime, the teen star says she's having the time of her
life sliding through pools of chocolate, riding on magic carpets,
swinging from chandeliers and getting into every other outrageous
predicament that her character, teenage tomboy wizard Alex Russo, can
manage.
"Selena asks how we come up with this stuff, who would do these
things. And I tell her, 'If I were a 15-year-old girl, I would.' I was
always the class clown," says the show's executive producer, Peter
Murrieta.
As for Gomez, her parents keep a fairly tight rein on her, she says,
leaving little room to act like Alex when she is dividing her time
between homes in Los Angeles and her native Texas.
"I'm nothing like her," the alternately self-assured actress and
giggly teen says, laughing. "She's kind of mean and a little bit sassy
and I think I'd get in trouble for that."
In the show, which airs Sundays at 8:30 p.m., she's the middle child,
sandwiched between two brothers – 13-year-old Jake T. Austin's
mischievous Max and 18-year-old David Henrie's serious, often put-upon
Justin.
All three are wizards, having inherited their magical powers from
their father (David DeLuise), who had to give up his when he married a
mortal, played by Maria Canals-Barrera.
An only child, Gomez says Henrie and Austin "have become like my real brothers."
"By that I mean we fight and argue, too," she says, sitting at a table
in what the show's viewers would instantly recognize as the Russos'
family kitchen. "We do the whole, like, picking on each other
brotherly-sister thing."
"There's no competitiveness between us. We all love each other. We all
hang out together," says Henrie who, like Austin, hopes to eventually
move into writing and directing while Gomez pursues acting and music.
"Selena, David and Jake, they're all going to be doing other things,"
predicts DeLuise, the veteran character actor and son of Dom DeLuise.
"I'd be very surprised if they're not writing and producing their own
stuff in a few years."
Heading into its second season, "Wizards of Waverly Place" often
fights a seesaw ratings battle with Cyrus' "Hannah Montana" and
Nickelodeon's "iCarly" for most popular show among the 'tween
demographic.
That has led to more Miley-Selena comparisons, although a third
actress, Demi Lovato, is also being talked up lately as the next Miley
after having starred in the Disney movie "Camp Rock," which premiered
Friday.
If there is any rivalry among the actresses, you wouldn't know it from
talking to Gomez.
"That's my best friend!" she shouts excitedly. "She's been my best
friend since I was 7 years old and we did 'Barney' together."
Indeed, the co-starring roles opposite a big, purple dinosaur afforded
Gomez and Lovato, both from Texas where the show was filmed, their
first show-business breaks.
