The singer and executive producer dished on the hotly anticipated second season of the Netflix drama.
Selena Gomez is opening up about the powerful reaction to the Neftlix original series 13 Reasons Why, which she executive produces, and the highly anticipated second season.
Speaking with Elvis Duran and The Morning Show on Monday, the singer and actress said she was "definitely overwhelmed with the reaction" she'd gotten following the release of the first season.
"We had the rights to the book for seven years, so we knew we wanted to do the book justice because it already had a following," she recalled. "The content is complicated, it’s dark and it has moments that are honestly really hard to swallow."
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"I understood that we were going into something that is difficult, but these kids today are so exposed to things that I would never even comprehend when I was eight," she added. " I feel like if this is what we are going to talk about, we might as well do it in a way that’s going to be honest, it’s going to be real and it stays true to the book."
Gomez also addressed some of the backlash the show has faced from viewers who criticized the series for its controversial content and, as some have claimed, possibly glamorizing suicide.
"All the questions that came up and all the talk about it was all valid and I understand it," Gomez said. "But I think with season two we’re going to actually answer a lot of those questions and a lot of resolution with the characters are going to come."
The 24-year-old artist also defended the content arguing, "This is happening every day, so whether or not you wanted to see it, that's what's happening."
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Gomez said she also hopes that the show has helped spark a conversation about its sensitive subject matter. "I think that stuff is uncomfortable for people to talk about, but it is happening and hopefully it opened the door for people to actually accept what’s happening and actually go and change it, talk about it," she explained.
The singer went on to tease that the second season, which is currently in pre-production, and is going to develop the characters further and explore their emotional evolution.
"I went to the writers' room the other day and I felt like I was watching a movie because I was freaking out on where they’re going [with the season]," she recounted. "It’s actually really encouraging and empowering and so we’re going to take a little inspiration from the first and bring it into the second."
Gomez, who took a brief break from the spotlight last year, has also been back at the helm of her music career, releasing new singles and working on a new album.
Last month, she dropped her latest track, "Bad Liar," which she said she had been working on and refining for nearly a year. According to Gomez, "It was my favorite song I’ve ever done, for sure."
The singer went on to explain that the song was actually informed by the feelings she had as a single woman, at the time. "The funny thing is I was very single when we were working on the song, but it was that feeling that I was missing. I’m very obvious when I have feelings for someone and we were talking about that feeling," said Gomez, who is currently in a relationship with fellow musician The Weeknd.
Regarding "Bad Liar," which borrows its baseline from the Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer", Gomez said, "It was so much fun because we sampled one of the greatest bands of all time, and when we got the approval from David Byrne and Talking Heads, it was such a surreal moment. If they didn’t approve it, and we didn’t get their blessing, the song wouldn’t exist."
Check out the video below for more about the singer's sultry new single.