Selena Gomez says taking 'Spring Breakers' role was influenced by her mom

Selena Gomez admits a big reason she decided to join the cast of Spring Breakers is because of her mother, who is a big fan of director Harmony Korine.

While at South by Southwest promoting the film, which she co-stars in with Vanesssa Hudgens, Rachel Korine, Ashley Benson and James Franco, Justin Bieber’s ex-girlfriend told MTV News “my mom is actually a big Harmony Korine fan, and we got the script through my agency.”

She added, "I read it, I watched all of his movies with my mom and [watched] interviews, and I wanted to be a part of it.”

Gomez said she met with Harmony and his wife Rachel, did some read-throughs of the script with her, and the rest is history.

As for wanting to show audiences she wasn’t all cookie-cutter Disney, she said "It wasn't necessarily about the reaction as it was just for me wanting to do something that was creatively challenging for me, because acting is everything to me," adding,. "And it's the reason why I'm here."

She continued she wanted to "really challenge myself and to see how far I could go,” thinking “Harmony was the perfect director to trust. And these girls were amazing, and James [Franco] is obviously incredible in this movie, so it was kind of a no-brainer for me."

Spring Breakers hits theaters March 22, but comes out in a limited release this weekend. It debuted at South by Southwest.