Selena Gomez tells her young fans: "Dont see" Spring Breakers
The first time director Harmony Korine had Disney-developed teen queen Selena Gomez over to his house to pitch her on a role in his movie Spring Breakers, he went around first and flipped any artwork or photograph he thought might offend the hyper-wholesome star.
As the 20-year-old Gomez recounted the story to a packed press conference at the Toronto International Film Festival on Friday, she could only shake her head.
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He thought I was super, super Christian, said Gomez, clad in a strapless animal-print dress next to her co-stars and director.
I was like, If I was a Christian girl, I probably wouldnt have done this movie.
Amen to that.
Certainly, Spring Breakers is a dramatic departure for Gomez and co-stars Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Benson, all of whom were known primarily for family-friendly fare the 23-year-old Hudgens having graduated from Disneys High School Musical series and Benson, 22, being best-known for her role on the teen murder-mystery drama Pretty Little Liars.
Along with Korines wife, Rachel, the actresses portray a quartet of bored college kids who rob a restaurant with squirt guns to fund a debauched spring-break sojourn in Florida. Their boozy bacchanal is interrupted when theyre caught by police with a bouquet of drugs in their hotel rooms and when theyre bailed out of jail by a shady drug dealer played with sleazy panache by an unrecognizable James Franco, things really take a turn for the bizarre.
Although tamer than other films in Korines canon (which include Gummo and Mister Lonely as a writer-director, in addition to his 1995 screenwriting breakout Kids), Spring Breakers is simultaneously glossy and grim, descending further and further into bleakness as it runs.
But making the film was different. Shooting in Florida with hundreds of extras who really were on spring break, the cast got a taste of the out-of-control ant! ics depi cted in the film or, as Korine put it, they certainly got their fill of thick-necked jock dudes trying to rub up on them trying to grind on Selena.
Ive never been on spring break, and I dont think any of us have, really, Benson said. It was like, insane. It definitely felt like I was on spring break for a month.
Naturally, that led to some bonding as Hudgens succinctly put it during the presser: I trust these girls. I love these girls more than anything.
They also trusted Korine, and given the films unflinching sex and violence, that was probably essential.
You could probably get me to do anything its bad, Gomez said to the 39-year-old filmmaker, before later boasting about how she took to her onscreen misbehaviour.
I didnt think Id ever be able to smoke a bong.
But Gomez whose long-time boyfriend is Canadian teen-pop star Justin Bieber also betrayed some discomfort about making the transition into grown-up films.
The biggest challenge for me is that I do have a younger generation of fans that support me and that mean a lot to me, said Gomez, a pop singer whose three solo albums have each gone gold in Canada.
Plus, I think its hard for people to take me seriously in that way because of the brand that Ive been given, which Im grateful for, but you know people obviously (put) you in this little box.
And at one point during the presser, Gomez was asked what she would tell her young fans curious about the risqu film.
Dont see it, she replied, drawing a murmur of protest from her director.
I wrote a message on my social networking sites to them, saying kids my age my generation I think that they should see it because its very real, were not really sugar-coating anything. (But) I put underneath, its rated R, so please dont see it if youre under 18.
Thats as much warning as I can give to the parents and the kids. But you cant control what kids do.
The film is part cautionary tale, part candy-coloured MTV fantasy (Korine said ! he wante d the movie to look like it was lit with Skittles), and no character is more colourful than Francos Alien, an ostentatious thug with hair dressed in cornrows and teeth covered in shiny metal.
Simultaneously menacing and absurd (at one point, he brags about his array of colourful shorts), hes the type to decorate his bedroom wall with machine guns and nunchucks.
Drawing on everyone from Yelawolf to Lil Wayne, Franco dissolves into the role and that was the point.
I think Harmony just wanted to transform me, and make it so you didnt recognize me, said Franco who, unlike his beautifully outfitted co-stars, dressed casually in a blue T-shirt.
The Oscar-nominated 34-year-old was put on the spot, however, when a journalist asked for his favourite Gomez song drawing a groan from the singer herself.
Well, Love Song of course is my favourite. Is that what its called, Love Song? he said, referring to Love You Like a Love Song.
I first heard that on New Years Eve, Selena sang it at MTV. I was there, and I was just taken like everyone else.
While the press gathering was mostly an upbeat affair, one journalist asked Korine to respond to the viewers who were rattled by the grim bikinis n balaclavas tale. He cheerfully replied that he welcomed all responses, adding: If youre offended by it, I think thats great. If you love it, I think thats great.
But Hudgens said she hoped the films message did get across, that female viewers felt empowered and fearless after seeing the movie.
Just to know that, if you set your mind to something, you can get it done. Whether or not its robbing someone, she said with a laugh, or starting your own business.