Selena Gomez didn't try to sing like she usually does in her upcoming movie, Emilia Pérez—and she says her experience was actually “therapeutic.”
On Sunday, Gomez joined the rest of the Emilia Pérez cast (which includes Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofia Gascón, Adriana Paz, and Edgar Ramírez), for a Q&A about the film at the Telluride Film Festival and discussed the process of learning and recording her character Jessi Del Monte’s song, "Mi Camino," which she says started out as a "totally different song."
Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldaña discuss 'Emilia Pérez' at the Telluride Film Festival.
"It had a bit more of a rough sound to it and over the course of, you know, working with [singer-songwriter] Camille on the song intimately, it became almost like a ballad," Gomez explained, according to People. "It was more of a story about a woman and phases of life that she goes through and it just was beautiful.”
Recording the track ended up being chance for Gomez to experiment as an artist and push herself singing as her character.
“I watched it, I was in the studio for hours and hours and it was just so much fun, but also not trying to sing the way that I would normally sing,” Gomez continued. “I had to try and, you know, in my mind to think, ‘Okay, this is what were the limits I could reach within my character.'"
In the end, she says, the process was "really therapeutic" and "so beautifully done.”
Emilia Pérez, which is set for a limited theatrical release on November 1 before it premieres on Netflix on November 13, tells the story of a cartel leader who tries to fake her death.
The film might also mark the start of a career shift for Gomez, who said in January that she thinks she'll quit music after "one more album.
“I started having a lot of fun with music and then touring was really fun,” she said on an episode of the “Smartless” podcast (which was obtained by E! News). “But I was doing my TV show [Wizards of Waverly Place] at the same time, and I just found it really fun, so I just kept going. But the older I get, the more I’m kind of like, ‘I would like to find something to just settle on.’”