Selena Gomez and Austin Butler are some of the biggest names in Hollywood, obvi. But before Elvis, Only Murders in the Building, Golden Globe and Grammy Award noms and wins galore, the two actors starred on the Disney Channel together.
In 2010, Austin guest starred in a season 3 episode of Wizards of Waverly Place, titled “Positive Alex.” Austin played George, the school’s band leader whom Selena’s character, Alex Russo, had a crush on. Their star powers have simply *skyrocketed* in the 13 (!) years since Austin’s guest spot on the Disney series, but their friendship has stood the test of time.
In Austin’s February 15 Vanity Fair cover story — which also featured Selena — the actor recounted a sweet exchange between the two, which took place back when Austin was filming the King of Rock and Roll biopic.
“When I was filming Elvis, Selena found this photograph of the two of us when I did a guest-star thing on her show Wizards of Waverly Place,” Austin shared. “And she sends it to me, just going, ‘Wow, remember this?’ It feels like another life.”
“When you’re a child actor, you see so many people come in from Texas or something, and at a certain point they may quit or go back,” he continued. “We’re just so fortunate to have careers in this industry for this amount of time.”
Later, in an interview with Extra, Austin said that he’s “really proud” of Selena, and praised her Apple TV+ documentary, My Mind & Me.
“We’ve, you know, I've known her for so many years, so it is nice to get to share space with somebody for a long period of time, you know, and I'm just so proud of her,” he said. “Her documentary really moved me as well. Getting to see that, I thought that was so brave. I feel really honored to be in her company.”
BRB, crying over this incredibly sweet friendship. *sobs*
***
This article originally appeared on Cosmopolitan.com. Minor edits have been made by the Cosmo.ph editors.
