Selena Gomez: actress, producer, philanthropist and expert advisor. Dove Cameron recently reminisced about her Disney Channel days with buzz feed, and she shared the valuable advice she received from Selena early in her acting career.
ICYMI: Selena and Dove’s time at Disney Channel overlapped briefly. Wizards of Waverly Place aired its final season in 2012, just as Dove landed Liv and Maddie at 16. (The series then premiered in 2013 when Dove was 17.)
Timing wasn’t the only thing the two stars had in common, however. Speak with buzz feed At New York’s iHeartRadio Jingle Ball, Dove revealed that both she and Selena got started thanks to the same person: Gary Marsh, who was the head of the network when Dove joined the DC family. “I owe him everything he’s done for me and my career,” Dove said of Marsh. (Marsh existed Disney in 2021 having worked for the company for more than three decades.)
Speak with buzz feedDove shared that Marsh was the one who “discovered” Selena and brought her to Disney Channel — although it’s worth noting that the multihyphenate had previously starred in a famous role Barney & friendswhere she met Demi Lovato.
When Dove joined Disney Channel, Marsh wanted her to meet Selena, who was something of a protégé, so decided to arrange a meeting between the two. “He loved Selena and he said, ‘I really want you to do me a favor, would you go and meet up with Selena? ‘ says Taube.
Dove ended up visiting Selena at her home. “She was really nice,” the actor shared. “I had never done anything, I didn’t do any interviews or anything. We sat at her kitchen table for hours, I think she offered to make me a toast.” But of course Selena had more to offer than just toast. “She gave me some advice on what not to do and definitely things I should do,” Dove said.
After their meeting, the two stayed in touch. Dove shared that she even texted Selena “in a panic” for months when she didn’t know what to do. Per Dove, Selena’s wise response was, “Be yourself, everyone wants you to be yourself. You’re going to kill it.” Selena’s advice stuck with Dove, who admitted the message was “really important” to her, and the rest, as they say, is history.
In the past, Selena Gomez has been vocal about the pressures she felt as a Disney Channel star and how stepping into the spotlight at a young age irrevocably changed her life. She even touches on this topic in her Apple TV+ documentary My mind & I. “When I was younger I was exposed to all of that [fame]. It was just all these pictures and all that stuff, and I would just look at the mistakes,” Selena said on a podcast in 2019. “It is difficult. And I think you create that other personality of yourself.”