‘Wizards Beyond Waverly Place’ stars say Selena Gomez is ‘Emmy worthy,’ unpack season 2 finale

(SPOILER ALERT) A huge secret about Selena Gomez‘s character, Alex Russo, was revealed in the season 2 finale of Wizards Beyond Waverly Place.

All season 2 episodes of the Wizards of Waverly Place sequel series arrived on Disney+ on Wednesday. This includes the two-part finale, which revealed Alex is the mother of the young wizard and star of the sequel series, Billie (Janice LeAnn Brown).

Brown and David Henrie, who stars as Justin Russo, spoke to ABC Audio about the emotional finale.

The truth of Billie’s parentage is revealed after Alex cries while seeing Billie in pain. Her tears cause the spell that wiped the Russo family’s memory to break, allowing everyone to remember Billie is Alex’s daughter.

“Very emotional thing to film for me,” Brown said. “Ms. Selena was so great, so it was really easy to feed off of her. She was such a great scene partner, and I’m just so excited for everyone to see the lore. I myself was shocked.”

Henrie says Brown “and Selena brought Emmy-worthy performances. Seriously, like, I think we’re gonna win an Emmy this season. And if we do, it’s in large thanks to you and Selena’s performance at the end there.”

The actor said watching Gomez perform the emotional scene was a full-circle moment going back to the 2009 film Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie.

“There’s an end scene in that movie where she has to get very emotional because she realizes that my character forgot who she is. It’s a tear-jerking moment and she couldn’t get the tears going on set,” Henrie said. “She got it eventually, but [it] was difficult. And now, present day, the script said her tear had to be a certain place on her cheek, and she is now so good, and her talent is so honed in, that she got the tear on the place where it was written to be on her cheeks. That’s how good she was.”

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