Selena Gomez Was Initially Against ‘My Mind and Me’ Doc, Then Relieved and Now Vows to ‘Never Watch It Again’
Selena Gomez provided a rare, raw glimpse into her personal life in the 2022 Apple TV+ documentary series My Mind & Me, an inside look at six years in the singer/actress’ life, chronicling the highs and lows of fame, her struggles with mental health and body image and life after being diagnosed with the autoimmune disease lupus.
But according to The Hollywood Reporter, in a chat with Universal Music Group CEO Sir Lucian Grainge and Thrive Global CEO Arianna Huffington at Tuesday’s (Sept. 19) Thrive Global Music & Health Conference, the Only Murders in the Building star said if she had to do it over again she might have passed on sitting for director Alek Keshishian to spill her guts.
“I was very against it. There was a very long period of time where I just didn’t know if it was a good idea,” Gomez said of her first thoughts on the doc. “I knew, eventually, one day I wanted to maybe just be an actress for a while, and I didn’t know if it would jeopardize things in my life. I don’t know what I’m doing, letting people into my life. And then the moment it was released…I had no choice at that point. And I was relieved. I felt like a huge weight was lifted.”
The good part was that she got to say some things that had been on her mind for years, but Gomez said now it’s “very hard” for her to watch the series. That said, “I will never watch it again, but I’m very proud of it. I couldn’t have been luckier to have the people that worked on it with me,” she added.
With best-selling albums, a hit show in Murders and a successful Rare Beauty cosmetics line, the hosts wondered if Gomez might further expand her brand some day by writing a memoir. “Oh no, I don’t know,” she said. “I’m not wise enough. I don’t think I can do that. But does it mean that one day I wouldn’t be interested? I have fun things I would like to say but not right now.”
Gomez was also asked about how she thinks artificial intelligence might impact the music industry in the midst of the historic dual Hollywood strike by actors and writers, which is predicated in part on the striking artist’s desire to get assurances about how studios plan to employ AI creatively.
“I don’t think anybody in my field wants to feel like they need to lean on a computer in order to translate their story or what they’re trying to say,” she said. “It terrifies me, to be honest, the whole AI thing, but I don’t think you could ever replace what a human being can write… Lil Wayne said it really well, and he was basically saying that there’s no other human like who you are. And that’s all it should be.”
Gomez recently released the bouncy song “Single Soon,” which is expected to appear on her upcoming third studio album, whose release date has not yet been announced.
Gil Kaufman
Billboard