Just days before the second season of Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building debuts, Selena Gomez is opening up about her character.
The 29-year-old actress stars alongside comedy legends Steve Martin, 76, and Martin Short, 72 in the series, which returns for Season 2 on June 28.
The actress spoke with the Awards Chatter podcast, where she revealed that her character was originally envisioned as a male.
Martin co-created the series with John Hoffman, though landing Short was essential to getting Martin to come aboard as a star.
‘My understanding is that Steve said he wouldn’t be in it unless Marty was in it,’ Gomez began.
‘So we got Marty and that was the beginning before I was involved. Steve met with John Hoffman and they spoke and it was actually some of the producers’ collective idea of having a female but not only a female, someone completely generations off. And Steve said he loved the idea and thought it was really fun,’ she added.
After landing the role, Gomez said, ‘the next part was them hoping I wasn’t going to be annoying. That’s honestly the truth. They didn’t know.’
She added, ‘They tell people all the time, “I guess we didn’t really know what to expect, someone coming in who’s younger.”
‘But I couldn’t have been luckier because they called me. I talked to everyone for a while and I just told them all about my fascination with the true crime. It happened and I can’t picture the show with three men,’ she added.
Gomez also shared that she started delving into both of her new co-star’s classic movies.
‘So I think Steve and Marty knew of me. I don’t know if they necessarily knew any of my work. Not necessarily the same, because I watched all the classics with my mom growing up but it had been a while and I had not seen nearly enough because they had both done a lot,’ she said.
She added Short’s character Jiminy Glick, ‘who was one of my favorite characters so I knew Marty from that and then obviously Steve from multiple different things I watched growing up. So I knew.
‘Then once I started working with them, I started watching Plains, Trains, and Automobiles and started watching all the other little ones. I’d come on set the next day and be asking him questions about the movie. He would just get a kick out of it because it’s so fun to see what they’ve done. They are the original gangsters,’ she said.
Selena Gomez also discussed working with the two comedic legends to People last year, revealing how they both made her feel welcome.
“They immediately made me feel like I was a part of a trio,” she said. “They’re just the best. They are extremely humble and kind, and they just have a different human perspective on life than anyone I’ve ever met.”
“I asked them about how life used to be, and it was always so interesting to hear about the industry and what it used to be like,” she went on. “I felt like a sponge, just absorbing everything I could. We’re all on a group e-mail chain
Only Murders in the Building season two premieres on Friday, June 28 on Hulu.
