27 August Selena talks starring as Mabel Mora in Only Murders in The Building in the new interview with New York Times

Selena talks working with Steve Martin & Martin Short and starring as Mabel Mora in Only Murders In The Building in the new interview with New York Times!
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The series, in which Gomez, Short and Martin play mismatched residents in a Beaux-Arts building, drawn together by the death of a neighbor, is a comic whodunit that also inspires another, more basic question: How did this show come to exist?

The answer turns out to be not a computer algorithm or a dart board but a development process that played out over several years. Its end result is a series that drew Gomez, the actress and pop singer, back to television for her first scripted show since her early 2000s breakthrough on “Wizards of Waverly Place” — and cast Martin in his first continuing TV role ever.

Making “Only Murders in the Building” was a process of discovery for all three of its leads, one that showed Short and Martin that their well-honed routine had room for new tricks and new teammates, and also that Gomez could capably hold her own with her two seasoned co-stars.

As Gomez explained in a separate phone interview, performing alongside Short and Martin was an understandably intimidating task. “They don’t know what to expect from a 29-year-old, and they don’t know much about me,” she said. “We were getting to know each other.”

But she arrived with her own wry sensibility and a genuine enthusiasm for the crime genre, and, like her character, forged a surprising connection with her partners.

“In real life, if I had met two older men that were into solving mysteries, I would totally bond with them in the same manner,” she said.

Fogelman said that Gomez was an archetype the producers used as they sketched out the character — and later learned to their surprise that she was actually interested in the role.

Gomez, who is a fan of psychological thrillers and has attended Crimecon, a real-life gathering dedicated to solving cold cases, said she felt a certain kinship with Mabel. “I’m not as dark,” she said. She thought about this and added: “Actually, you know, maybe I am. But I’m not as intense as she is.”

“You can kind of tell in the first episode, where I feel like I was a bit timid,” she said. “You can also see throughout the season how I got more loose and comfortable.”

As filming for the series took place in New York this past winter and spring, Gomez said, she learned to stop idolizing Short and Martin as elder statesmen and to open up to them in human, quotidian ways.

“They’re like my crazy uncles,” she said. “They were wonderful with giving advice, even just about my personal life. I’d ask them all the questions that girls ask, like, ‘So, when did you guys first fall in love?’ I’d ask them about boys and dating. They’d be like, ‘Well, make sure he’s kind.’ They were just so sweet.”

Both Short and Martin praised Gomez for her comedic chops and for the ability to cut their quibbling, unhip characters down to size.

“Two people can be having a scene, but the laugh comes when it cuts to a third person who’s looking in,” he said. “Selena can really do that. She has this posture, like, ‘Are you two children?’”

Source: www.nytimes.com