Jennifer Lopez turned to landing her starring role in the film adaptation of the 1996 film Evita.
“I went to an audition for Evita for (director) Alan Parker,” Lopez said Wednesday night after a Q&A for her new film musical, Kiss of the Spider Woman. “I practiced for weeks and I sang my heart and he said, ‘You’re amazing. You know Madonna has that role, right?”
Lopez laughed: “I said, ‘OK, goodbye. Nice to meet you.”
Now, Lopez is finally getting a musical moment in the film with his big screen adaptation of “Another Side of Tonatiu and Diego Luna” on the big screen of Bill Condon’s “Kiss of the Spider Woman.”
Lopez plays Ingrid Luna, the film star whose most famous role is the role of a spider woman, who can kill her lover with a kiss. In 1981, gay department store dresser Luis Morina (Tonatiu), who sentenced to prison during the dirty war in Argentina, imagines her film to escape the horrors of today. He and political activist Valentin Allergay (Luna) become unlikely friends when they are forced to share a cell together.
Lopez said he had dreamed of appearing in musicals since he was a child after watching “West Side Story” on TV in his family’s “Little House in the Bronx.” She also recalled auditions for the musical films Chicago and 9 previously. In 2016, it was announced that she would be appearing in the NBC live production of “Bye Bye Birdie,” but the project was eventually discarded.
Lopez recalls Condon. Condon adopted the film’s script, informing him that the elaborate musical numbers for “Spider Woman’s Kiss of the Spider Woman” will be filmed in one take. “We were like, ‘Are we going to do some reporting?” “He was like, ‘No, there’s no news.’ I was like, “I’ll do it right.” As it is fully advanced, you are on your dress, we were so challenging, it is a preparation for us.
She continued. “But we put our hearts and souls in and rehearsed like crazy in the times we had.
Tonatiuh introduced a screening before heading to the airport and jumped on a plane back to New York for another job commitment.
Lopez received a standing ovation as he walked the stage for a Q&A.
The music of “Kiss of the Spider Woman’s” is by John Kander and Fred Ebb and is based on Manuel Puig’s novel and The Book of the Musical by Terrence McNally. It premiered during Sundance in January.
While promoting his action thriller “Carry On” in December, Tonatiuh told me about his work with Lopez. “She’s breathtaking and transformative in so many different ways. I remember there was the first time we were rehearsing. It was just a table reading. “I had an iPad and glasses thinking it would be read on a straight table. And I remember seeing Bill see this and seeing his mind go to work.”
During Wednesday’s Q&A, Condon said he and the casting department saw about 800 people before choosing Tonatiuh.
After the screening, Lopez attended a reception at Chateau Marmont.
Lionsgate’s “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” Roadside Attrackions and LD Entertainment will be in theaters on October 10th.
