Jennifer Lopez is finally getting her long-awaited movie musical moment, but it’s been a journey nearly three decades in the making. During a post-screening Q&A on Wednesday night for her upcoming film 'Kiss of the Spider Woman,' Lopez shared a story from her early career about auditioning for 1996’s 'Evita.'
She had poured herself into preparation, rehearsing for weeks to audition for the film’s director, Alan Parker. “I went to audition for 'Evita' for [director] Alan Parker,” she told the audience. “I had been practicing for weeks and I sing my heart out and he goes, ‘You’re amazing. You know Madonna has the part, right?’”
Laughing, Lopez recalled how she responded in that moment: “I said, ‘OK, bye-bye. Nice to meet you.’” At the time, the role of Eva Perón had already been awarded to Madonna, whose performance in 'Evita' went on to earn five Academy Award nominations and a win for Best Original Song. Parker, who directed the film, passed away in 2020 at the age of 76.
While Lopez, now 56, didn’t land the part, the memory clearly stuck with her. Earlier this year, she also reflected on that moment in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, recalling not only auditioning for Evita, but also coming close to 'Chicago' and 'Nine.' “There was a lot of things that I had always hoped that I could do and just wasn’t the right time. But this is the right thing,” she said at the time.
Now, nearly 30 years later, Lopez stars in her first-ever movie musical, 'Kiss of the Spider Woman,' directed by Bill Condon and hitting theaters Oct. 10. The film is based on the 1993 Broadway musical by John Kander and Fred Ebb, adapted from Manuel Puig’s novel.
Lopez plays Ingrid Luna, a glamorous fictional screen icon. Set during Argentina’s Dirty War in 1981, the story follows two prisoners, a gay window dresser, Luis Molina (played by Tonatiuh), and a political activist, Valentin Arregui (Diego Luna). Trapped in a brutal South American prison, the two escape reality by imagining the vivid world of Ingrid’s films.
Tonatiuh introduced the screening before catching a flight back to New York. During a previous interview, he praised Lopez’s performance. “She’s breathtaking and transformative in so many different ways,” he said.
“I remember there was a moment where we were rehearsing for the first time, and it was just a table read. She had the first line in one of the songs and she starts going full out. I had my iPad and my glasses on thinking it would be a straight table read. I was like, ‘Oh, if we’re going full out, hold on.’ And I just remember Bill watching this and seeing his mind go to work.”
The musical numbers were done the old-school way, all in one take. “He was like, ‘Nope, no coverage,’” Lopez recalled Condon saying. “I was like, ‘F--k me! I better get it right then.’ Like halfway through the take it’s going perfectly and then you trip on your dress or whatever so it’s like, maybe we start over. It was challenging. It was challenging in that way, time wise, as independent films can be, right? It’s the time, it’s the prep, it’s the, you know, budget. All of it were constraints for us.”
But that challenge only made it more special for Lopez, who said she was “living [her] childhood dreams.” She told People earlier this year that she often filmed entire musical sequences in one shot. “And it's pretty amazing when you do see it and you go, ’Oh, that was all one shot right there,’” she said. “And okay now they cut, but it's fascinating, you know, you go, ’Oh I didn't realize that even when I was watching the musicals when I was younger.’”