Selena Gomez compares her role as Alex Russo and Mabel Mora

Selena Gomez is all grown up, but her role as Alex Russo in Wizards of Waverly Place is very close to her heart. “I feel like Mabel is an older version of Alex in a way,” the 29-year-old actress, singer, and businesswoman told Entertainment Weekly’s Awardist podcast.

“I adored being on [Wizards of Waverly Place] so much,” she added. “I felt like I did learn a lot. We actually had great writers — we had two writers that were on Friends — and we had an incredible director that we used for most of our seasons.”

According to Gomez, although she is always busy working with Rare Beauty, her music, and tv shows, sometimes she takes time to go down memory lane. “We got really lucky. I still look back at that and laugh at certain things just because I thought it was so fun, and we tried,” Selena said.

Selena says portraying Mabel in Only Murders in the Building alongside Steve Martin and Martin Short allowed her to enjoy spontaneity and discover her similarities with the role.

“We would have these freedom takes where they would throw something at me,” Gomez explained, “and my reaction was honestly what I think my character would do because half the time I’m like, ‘I don’t get what you’re trying to do, but it works.’”

She continued, “She’s rubbed off on me a little bit. I love being quick, and I kind of steal Steve and Marty’s jokes every now and then. She’s fun.”

Gomez just premiered the second season of the show, co-created by John Hoffman, and welcomed Cara Delevingne to become the love interest of Mabel Mora in the Hulu hit comedy series.

Cara plays the role of Alice, an art gallery owner that puts Mabel “in touch with a side of herself she’s been somewhat neglecting since the show began,” Hoffman revealed to Vanity Fair.

At the time, Hoffman referred to the on-screen kiss of Cara and Selena. “Would anyone in the world not like to kiss Selena?” the model responded during a recent interview, after she was asked about her experience on the show. “It was just fun,” Cara explained, adding that they both felt comfortable on set, and “it was just hysterical.”

“It was just fun,” she recalled, “It’s just one of those things, especially when you know someone so well, it’s the comfortability and you kind of have fun with it.”