Is Selena Gomez Still Close With Jennifer Stone?

Few things are more heartbreaking than finding out that the characters you love so much and wish to be friends with in real life do nothing but bicker when the cameras stop rolling. They may act all chummy on the show you're watching, but behind the scenes, they may as well be sworn mortal enemies. For instance, Megan Mullally and Debra Messing were believable as friends on "Will and Grace," but they actually despised each other in real life. The same thing goes for Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Cattrall in "Sex and the City," and George Takei and William Shatner in "Star Trek."

Of course, there are also times where co-stars actually hit it off and treat each other as a family both on and off the screen. That is the case with the cast of the Disney show "Wizards of Waverly Place." While it ended in 2012, Selena Gomez, David Henrie, Jake T. Austin, Jennifer Stone, Maria Canals Barrera, and David DeLuise remain very good friends. In 2017, when Henrie got married, the "Wizards of Waverly Place" cast reunited after five years and showed that they're still tight as ever.

In fact, even Gomez and Stone, who starred as best friends Alex Russo and Harper Finkle, have extended their friendship beyond the show and appear to still maintain their BFF-ship.

Actors tend to drift apart after wrapping up a show or movie, but not for Selena Gomez and Jennifer Stone. Although Stone had taken a step back from acting to pursue a career in nursing and Gomez went on to be a global superstar with her simultaneous acting and music careers, the two made sure they did not turn into strangers. In a 2018 interview with J-14, Stone revealed that they never lost contact with each other.

"We've definitely kept in touch. I love the fact that she is still that down-home Texas girl ... Even with all of the publicity and all of the stuff going on in her life, whether it's the good or the challenging, she's always just that girl that grew up in Texas," she said, who's from the same state and admitted she "can always get down with a good Texas girl."

Stone also shared their unusual form of bonding — horror films. "We met at the audition because we read together in the audition. Then, when we really bonded was she came over to my house in Texas for a sleepover," she recalled. "We watched this scary movie and my dad decided it would be a good idea to go outside and bang on the window. We were both scared crapless! I think if you can make each other laugh and be scared together, I think that really bonds you." Apparently, it really did.

Apart from bonding over scary flicks, Selena Gomez and Jennifer Stone had another unexpected thing to have in common — health battles. Gomez has always been open about various health problems, including her lupus diagnosis and experience with bipolar disorder. In 2017, she also famously underwent a kidney transplant.

Struggles with health are never easy to share with people beyond your close circle, but Gomez's transparency about her journey inspired people to be open with their struggles, too. Stone just happens to be one of them, which led her to share her experience with diabetes with the public. "It always inspires me the way people are transparent about the challenges and the things they face in their life," she told International Business Times. "I feel with social media, and the digital age we live in, I feel like everyone is used to sharing their highlight reel rather than the difficult things we go through."

As for a "Waverly Place" reunion? Stone said that there are no plans in the works, but she'll do it in a heartbeat if asked. "My dream as to what it would be? I would ... love to do a 'Where are they now?' kind of reunion," she told J-14. That way, fans could see how the "characters have developed beyond the series," according to Stone. Now that she's in, how about Gomez?