BOTH NOW SIDES

SELENA GOMEZ is seriously in loveand making the best work of her career. With the audacious Emilia Pérez hitting theaters and Only Murders in the Building returning to TV, the actor, singer, entrepreneur, and mental health advocate talks, about the climb

- YOHANA DESTA

To say it’s unmistakable would be putting it mildly: You try going incognito sounding like Selena Gomez.

“Yeah, it doesn’t work,” she tells me. “Literally one time I was in line for something. I was fully in disguise, and I was talking to someone. I don’t even remember what I said. And then the woman in front of me goes, ‘My God, it is you! I thought I heard your voice!’ ” That was years ago. “I was like, oh God, what do I sound like to people? And then I also feel so silly once I get busted.”

Gomez has long since given up on wigs and hats as cloaking devices. In the 25 years since she debuted on Barney & Friends at the age of seven, she’s actually tried to let go of every kind of disguise and be the same person in public and private. It’s a gutsy endeavor for someone who, thanks to Instagram, has the slightly scary-sounding distinction of being the most followed woman on earth. For three years Gomez has been part of the delicious hit series Only Murders in the Building, and she’s just given the rawest performance of her career in the audacious movie musical Emilia Pérez. Gomez plays a Mexican drug lord’s terrified but wildly resourceful wife. When the movie hits theaters in November, her work will surprise the many, many people who didn’t know what a fiery actor she could be.

We first meet in Los Angeles at the makeup company she founded, Rare Beauty. It’s a slow, gray afternoon, but Rare Beauty is flush with positivity, from the product names (lipsticks in shades like Worthy and Strong, eye shadow sticks called Integrity and Well-Being) to the little slogans on the bathroom mirrors like, “Find comfort in being rare.” It’s all completely in earnest, and the company’s products are seriously good, as are the rewards: Rare Beauty is reportedly worth $2 billion.