In 2008, AOL named her the twentieth greatest witch in ti vi history.[3] Selena Gomez, who portrays Alex, is one of the only two cast members to appear in every single episode of the series to date; the only other cast member to appear in all episodes that have aired so far is David Henrie, who portrays Justin Russo.
Personality
Alex Russo is part Mexican and part Italian, much like Selena Gomez is in real life (and as such, Gomez is the only one out of the three actors playing the Russo children to be of the same mixed racial makeup as their character; though in real life, Gomez is of Italian heritage through her mother and is of Mexican heritage through her father, the opposite of how Alex's racial heritage is in the series). Alex is typically portrayed as a mischievous troublemaker. She is usually unintentionally mean and exercises mocking judgment towards others she isn't very familiar with. Her parents describe her as someone who only cares about herself, and Justin describes her as a "snarky, apathetic slacker[4]". She is usually seen with her wand in her bít tất, sock hoặc shoe.
She appears to hardly ever think of anyone other than herself and can be seen occasionally as a spoiled brat, though it is quite the opposite, caring deeply for her family members and other close loved ones, willing to sacrifice many a great things to make them happy and secure physically and mentally. When asked bởi her father why she could not be thêm like Justin, Alex sarcastically replied in good humor, "'Cause I don't wanna grow old alone."[5] Such statements made bởi her towards Justin are frequent, because she secretly wants to be like him but doesn't know what to do about it. In the season three episode "Alex's Logo", while she is under a truth spell, it is revealed that the reason that Alex acts mean is simply because she wants to be liked and actually fears being hated.
Alex is hardly ever shy when it comes to boys; she once went as far as to Kiss a ngẫu nhiên boy named Matt to get back at Justin (David Henrie), after he discovers that Alex had never had her first Kiss in the season one episode "First Kiss".[6] Alex claims everyone takes her Lời khuyên as she knows a lot about fashion, relationships, girls, and guys, but above all she can be very sneaky and tricky.[6] So much, that she's even willing to admit that she's usually up to no good, and feels disturbed when others say the opposite. Her best friend since childhood is Harper (Jennifer Stone), who often tries to keep her out of trouble. In the episode "Third Wheel", Alex says to Harper that she is like her sister. Her temporary best friend at Wizard School is Hugh Normous (Josh Sussman), as she đã đưa ý kiến in one episode, that he was "the worst best friend ever". Though she continues to torment her older brother Justin, the two seem to have a close bond that neither seem to have with any other character on the show. Her enemy since kindergarten is Gigi Hollingsworth (Skyler Samuels), ever since Gigi spilled nước ép, nước trái cây on Alex's blanket and told everybody that Alex had an "accident" during nap time in their kindergarten years which but Alex still hasn't got over it.[2]
Alex often uses magic to solve her problems, which frequently ends up giving her even thêm problems than she began with. Her tendency to use magic without permission is often caused bởi her lack of work-ethic and respect for the rules she deems unnecessary. Alex hardly ever considers the consequences of magic and is often unprepared when the situation goes haywire, which requires the help of her thêm sensible brother Justin when she finds she can't fix them bởi herself, often grudgingly accepting his offer to work together. Alex has not advanced as far as Justin, but she is very skilled at "Make-'em-Ups", when a wizard can make up their own emergency spell. It is revealed in "Doll House" that Alex didn't know about magic when she was five.
Riley (Brian Kubach) had been Alex's crush for most of the first season, and to impress him, she calls herself his good luck charm and manipulates Justin without him figuring out to magically win his — and Riley's, as she was always quick to emphasize — baseball game, though when Justin stops once their father makes him realize what Alex has been doing, Alex has to use magic herself bởi the bleachers in order to be Riley's date, cleverly managing to win the game for Riley even with Jerry and Justin's attempts to foil her magic, further hiển thị how skilled she can be at magic bởi the way she countered Justin's magic so easily and discreetly at the baseball game where humans who didn't know about magic were, despite Justin's and Jerry's knowledge of magic, when it clashes with her understanding of it — however small her amount of understanding of it may be at the start.[7] She had also got Riley jealous bởi enchanting a mannequin to come alive and ngày her—after he breaks up with her—in the episode "Alex's Spring Fling".[8]
She is a Daddy's Girl and according to her father, Jerry (David DeLuise), she uses her cún yêu, con chó con dog eyes to get out of trouble. She can't tell when her dad's being overprotective, she just thinks he's being crazy and doesn't make the situation better bởi saying she's growing up. In "You Can't Always Get What bạn Carpet", however, she tells her dad she will always be his little girl. She isn't fazed very much — if not at all — when he's overprotective and still does whatever it is he doesn't want her to do. For example in "Alex's Brother Maximan", Jerry hears Alex tell her mom that her boyfriend, Dean (Daniel Samonas), wants to Kiss her, and he says "Kissing? Who are bạn kissing?" and begins to freak out. Later in the episode, she does Kiss Dean, but when her dad các câu hỏi it, she tries to change the subject bởi saying something about him being proud of his children.[9]
Alex is often depicted as a slacker, somewhat thêm so with regular high school than in wizardry and witchcraft school. If Alex does not want to do anything that is school-related, she will make an excuse hoặc scheme about why she does not want to do it, and how unnecessary she finds it hoặc will just simply not do it. She will often rebel against mandatory assignments with Glee and has displayed little, if any, ambition, freely admitting that she always arrives in school during third period and never cares [4]. She has even resorted to trying extreme measures in order to get out of a school project despite the cost being much greater, once going as far as attempting to injure herself on purpose bởi jumping off the stage after she is named as Harper's replacement as Tinker chuông, bell in the school production of Peter Pan (this after she already auditioned to be Harper's understudy, thinking that she would not have to do anything in the play), when Harper accidentally falls off the stage during rehearsal. Art is her yêu thích school subject and is pretty much the only class she takes seriously, and excels greatly at, being the best in her class and even being the co-art teacher.[10][11]
Despite her frequent unkindness and pranks, Alex is far from heartless. She deeply cares for Harper, going so far as to reveal her secret to her in "Harper Knows" out of guilt for lying. She also loves Justin dearly despite their constant antagonism. Alex can also feel remorse and guilt for her actions and has apologized and taken responsibility for them, and often goes out of her way to set things right whenever her disregard for the consequences directly affect her Những người bạn and/or family. Though these instances are rare, Alex does occasionally use magic unselfishly hoặc with good intentions, such as in "Taxi Dance", where she repairs Cab 804 to allow herself and her family to continue to cherish the memories of her birth. Additionally, in "The Good, the Bad, and the Alex", she apparently joins forces with Stevie, a fellow wizard, and starts a revolution to end the wizard competition, but this is revealed to be a ruse; just as Stevie is about to succeed, Alex transforms her into a rock-like substance and shatters her. Alex is also very much like her aunt Megan, as both tình yêu art and hate hard work. In fact, Max đã đưa ý kiến that Megan is just like Alex's twin only older in "Retest", though the key difference between the two is that Alex is capable of apologizing for her actions, something that Megan never learned to do.
In Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie, Alex says that Justin was everything that she ever wanted to be and she was jealous of how smart he was and how kind he is, while Justin responds in kind saying how he is jealous of how everything comes easy to her, especially magic, which is why he strives so hard to be perfect.
After her parents complain how she never has never been in any school clubs, she lied and đã đưa ý kiến she was in đọc club and tried to steal the award from Justin's room and scratch out his name and put hers. Justin, however, is fed up with her always getting passed his defenses to keep her out of his room and stealing his stuff, so he created Frankie (FrankenGirl) to guard his room, but Alex still managed to shut down Frankie when she figures out that Frankie's brain worked like a computer, and when Justin made Frankie immune to shutting down like a computer and cast a spell to make her think of Alex as her best friend — much to Alex's disdain — and Alex was then forced to put up with her before noticing that Frankie fit a lot of her best friend requirements, and became fast Những người bạn with Frankie. Justin then put a spell on Frankie to like cheerleading and she wanted Alex to be on the squad with her. It's rather interesting though that Justin was never reprimanded for his use of magic, hiển thị how biased her parents know became in judging them. In "Monster Hunt", Alex gets jealous of Justin when he moves phía trước, chuyển tiếp in wizard training so she creates a spell song where she can remember the spells she learn, hoping to catch up with him.
Alex and Justin act as foils, as the two are near-polar opposites in terms of personality; Justin is responsible, kind, unselfish, sensible, and hard working, fair in judgment, though not very witty with his words nor outgoing, mostly like that just because he secretly competes to be the best at magic since he loves it but is easily insecure at witnessing Alex and her great magical feats accomplished so effortlessly bởi her. Alex is lazy, carefree, witty, funny, sarcastic, stubborn, and biased when it comes to herself hoặc her loved ones against other people, magical hoặc not, not very good at expressing herself in terms of emotions and frustration-causing desires on her part like wanting to be like Justin, cunning, mischievous, and a complete natural at magic despite not being as serious as Justin when discussed hoặc performed, his performance full of constant measuring and intense concentration, while hers laid-back and careless. Their similarities though, are surprisingly many, despite how rarely they hiển thị themselves, as they are very strong during the moments they do shine through.
[edit] Alex's tình yêu interests
Brad Sherwood (Shane Lyons, season 1) – seen in "Potion Commotion"; Alex tried to get Brad to like her with a tình yêu potion, but she accidentally drink both halves of the potion and fell in tình yêu with herself. Later, Brad came over to her house and gave her chocolates, on the same night of Justin's interview for the World School Summit. She soon found out that Brad only came over just to sabotage Justin's interview. Alex then broke up with him, even though they were never going out.
Riley (Brian Kubach, season 1) – long term; first seen in "I Almost Drowned in a Sô cô la Fountain", where he and Alex went on a so-called 'date'. In "The Supernatural", Alex got Riley to believe that she was his good luck charm in baseball, and Phép thuật the ball so his team would win each time. They broke up in "Alex's Spring Fling", but Alex made Riley jealous bởi dating mannequin she brought to life, and they got back together. Apparently they broke-up, cause Riley hasn't been seen in season 2. And Alex dates Dean Moriarty in season 2.
Manny Quin (Matt Smith, season 1) – A male mannequin that Alex used magic on to come to life, and briefly dated to make Riley jealous in "Alex's Spring Fling".
Dean Moriarty (Daniel Samonas, season 2) – long term; first seen in "Smarty Pants", last seen in "Wizards vs. Vampires: Dream Date". Dean discovered Alex liked him in "Graphic Novel", and admitted he liked her in "Racing". They started dating in "Alex's Brother, Maximan". Dean apparently moved away (though has not been mentioned since "Saving WizTech") and he came back in "Wizards vs. Vampires: Dream Date" (because Alex was using magic to control his dreams to go on dates with him). They broke up because Dean wasn't diễn xuất as romantic as he was in his dreams Alex was controlling. When she broke up, at first he acted all cool, but when Alex went into yet another dream, but let Dean control it this time, he says the reason he acted that way was because he was hurt. They break up properly and Dean disappears in his dream.
Ronald Longcape, Jr. (Chad Duell, season 2) – seen in "Saving WizTech". Alex liked Ronald when they met, but she was still in a relationship with Dean. Ronald then shape-shifted into Dean (he froze the real Dean inside gelatin) and broke up with Alex so he could convince Alex into coming to WizTech with him. Ronald used her as part of his evil plan to take over WizTech, but his plan was foiled bởi Alex's tình yêu for Dean.
Mason Greyback (Gregg Sulkin, season 3) - long term; first seen in "Alex Charms a Boy". He is a transfer student from England, perfect in every way except for his artistic vision. Alex casts a spell on Mason, so that she becomes the inspiration for all the art he creates in their school art class. In season 2 episode "Future Harper", Harper from the future asked Alex if Mason has already broken up with her, but Alex hasn't met him yet. In "Wizards vs. Werewolves", it's revealed that he is a werewolf and he knows Juliet for 300 years and when he sees her, he shouts out that he loves her. After that, Alex is left crying on her family's shoulders. Then he tells her that the chuỗi hạt, chuỗi hạt cườm shaped in a tim, trái tim that he gave her it doesn't glow on batteries, but it's magical. So he takes her back to Transylvania, where she threw the necklace. Alex puts the chuỗi hạt, chuỗi hạt cườm on Mason and the tim, trái tim glows, which means that he loves her. But it's too late, because he was bitten bởi Juliet (a vampire), and is transformed to a wolf, forever.
George (Austin Butler, season 3) - He appears in the season three episode "Positive Alex" as the school band leader. He is asked out bởi Alex, but refuses because of her pessimism but becomes attracted to her when she starts diễn xuất positive to prove him wrong. In the end ,she got too positive because of the magical marker she used to become positive, and he got turned off.
