Los Angeles, Sep 27 (IANS/EFE): Singer and actress Selena Gomez is distancing herself from her "Disney girl" label and will star in "Hotel Transylvania" in the US, an animated comedy in which she provides the voice for Count Dracula's daughter.

In the film, which hits movie theaters Friday, Dracula (the voice of Adam Sandler) decides to throw a big 118th birthday party for his daughter Mavis (Gomez) at his home.

Invited to the party are Frankenstein's monster and his girlfriend, the Mummy, the Invisible Man, a family of wolfmen and other horror-genre characters that find themselves threatened by the appearance of a normal young human traveler named Jonathan who falls in love with Mavis, something that Dracula is very much against.

"All fathers are very protective, including Dracula. That always happens," the actress told EFE. "When you're a teenager and you're growing up you aspire to have more freedom and independence."

Gomez rocketed to fame in the 2007-12 Disney series "Wizards of Waverly Place" and as the vocalist for Selena Gomez & The Scene.

She has always proudly worn the "Disney girl" label, but little by little she has wanted to jettison it. She will do so definitively next year with "Spring Breakers", a film in which she will completely shed her longstanding angelic image.

"I was frightened of doing a role like that but I thought that it was the right time. I wanted to do something risky and see where it could lead. I think that it's the right move for me," she said.

She is now at work on her fourth album on which she hopes to include a couple of songs in Spanish.

"I'm starting right now, seeing which direction to take," said Gomez, who - according to media accounts - could enlist her boyfriend Justin Bieber to help with the new album.