Jennifer Lopez wasn’t the only actress who impressed viewers and critics in her portrayal of Selena Quintanilla in the 1997 biopic. Rebecca “Becky” Lee Meza starred as a young Quintanilla in the film and had young girls around the world imitating her in their bedroom mirrors.
It’s been 23 years since the film’s release and fans have wondered what happened to the young star. After trying her hand at a singing career after the film, Meza traded in her entertainment dreams for a family life and also became a business owner.
Becky Lee Meza as young Selena Quintanilla in the biopic
Meza grew up in Texas not too far from where Quintanilla was raised. Growing up as a Latina girl, she related to Quintanilla because she was the first superstar who looked similar to her. In school, Meza said she was surrounded by “blond-haired and blue-eyed” girls and felt like that’s what she needed to be also – until she saw Quintanilla.
“This was somebody I could look up to, somebody who looked like me. There weren’t a lot of role models back then for little girls like me,” she said in a 2007 interview.
Meza was heartbroken to learn of Quintanilla’s death. “It was the worst day of my life… I just figured it was an early April Fool’s Day joke — the worst kind,” she said. “I just lost it. She was the first person I ever knew about that had died.”
When Meza heard of auditions to star as a young Quintanilla for the biopic, she jumped at the chance to audition. She left a lasting impressing during the casting call in Houston and beat out over 20,000 other hopefuls when she landed the role.
Meza shined in the role. The film grossed over $60 million at the box office and received rave reviews from both fans and critics.
What did Becky Lee Meza do after her role in ‘Selena?’
Despite Meza’s breakout role, getting acclimated back to normal life after the film proved to be a difficult task for the 10-year-old as she would reveal in a video on her YouTube channel in 2017.
I had a lot of people that hated me, children and adults. Death threats, you name it. It was not cool. It was really, really hard to come back and be normal, I never was normal. I truly believe God had other plans for my life and I feel that I was supposed to experience the filming of the movie and experience the short-lived fame, to humble me and just show me a lot of things that I probably wouldn’t have learned, had it not been for the movie.
Meza tried continuing in entertainment and recorded two albums of her own. She moved to Austin to pursue music but her career did not take off as she imagined it would.
She later opened her own business, Rebecca Lee’s Flowers and Bridal Boutique. She is now a married mother of five and re-dedicated her life to the Christian faith with her family. Meza still lives in Texas and remains a huge fan of Quintanilla, doing her part to honor the singer’s legacy along the way.
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