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Selena Gomez started playing Alex Russo on Wizards of Waverly Place when she was 15, and returned to the character when she was 31 for the reboot series Wizards Beyond Waverly Place
Reflecting on how her time as Alex influenced her, Gomez, now 33, said the character “ultimately shaped who I am, because I feel like I am Alex”
The revelation then prompted her to realize she should maybe talk to her therapist about how connected she feels to the character
Selena Gomez owes almost everything to Alex Russo.
The actress, now 33, was just 15 when she landed the leading role on Wizards of Waverly Place in 2007, which she went on to star in for four seasons, until 2012.
Now, the Disney Channel series is being revisited in a reboot series, Wizards Beyond Waverly Place, that follows Alex’s older brother Justin Russo (David Henrie) and his family, and sees Gomez reprise her role in several episodes.
More than a decade after saying goodbye to Alex, Gomez still feels inextricably linked to the character.
Asked by Jake Shane on the August 7 episode of Therapuss about whether she feels happy or sad about the new chapter of Wizards, Gomez called the reboot a “new, refreshing take” as she reflected on what it’s been like returning to “an older version of Alex.”
Eric McCandless/Disney
David Henrie, Janice LeAnn Brown and Selena Gomez in ‘Wizards Beyond Waverly Place’
The character “ultimately shaped who I am, because I feel like I am Alex,” Gomez admitted.
“That’s so weird,” she then said of that revelation. “I feel like I should talk to my therapist about that.”
It’s been cathartic to step back into Alex’s shoes.
“I relate to her so much,” Gomez continued. “Stepping [back] into Alex has been a pleasure.”
“I don’t know how to explain it. I know it’s me living in a nostalgic period, but at the same time, I loved doing that,” she said.
“There is no Disney Channel anymore. It’s just, you know, my sister or like, my friends, sometimes, that was all we wanted to watch, right? It just was comforting.”
Eric McCandless/Disney Channel/Getty
David Henrie and Selena Gomez in ‘Wizards of Waverly Place’
Calling herself a “certified Disney kid,” Gomez also named the other shows that she loved watching growing up. “It was Even Stevens, it was Lizzie McGuire, That’s So Raven, Suite Life, of course I knew every Hannah Montana song. I was all in.”
Returning to her roots for the reboot series is the “best feeling in the whole world,” she previously said.
At the reboot’s premiere in October, Gomez told the audience of revisiting Wizards, “I was so genuinely happy to be able to just bring the nostalgia back.”
Eric McCandless/Disney
Selena Gomez and David Henrie in ‘Wizards Beyond Waverly Place’
“This is what gave me everything that I have today, and I’ll never forget that this is where I started,” she said of the show.
Henrie added that their mission for the show was for it to be “a love letter to you, a big warm hug, but also an invitation to pass the wand to a whole new generation.”
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Season 1 picked up with an adult Justin, who was leading a “normal, mortal life with his family” when Alex showed up at his door with a young wizard, Billie (Janice LeAnn Brown), in need of Justin’s mentorship.
Billie’s arrival forces Justin to “dust off his magical skills to mentor the wizard-in-training while also juggling his everyday responsibilities — and safeguarding the future of the Wizard World.”
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Wizards Beyond Waverly Place can be streamed on Disney+.
Read the original article on People
