The superstar opens up about chasing her musical movie dreams, the pressure of one-take performances, and finally getting her spotlight role.
Jennifer Lopez finally gets her long-awaited musical movie moment — and she did much of it in one take.
Lopez, who once auditioned for Alan Parker’s 1996 Evita and says she also tried out for Chicago and Nine, laughed about early near-misses during a post-screening Q&A for her new film Kiss of the Spider Woman.
She recalled auditioning for Parker and being told, after “singing her heart out,” that Madonna already had the part. “OK, bye-bye,” she joked — but decades later she’s front and center in Bill Condon’s big-screen adaptation of the Tony-winning musical, playing Ingrid Luna, a glamorous movie star famous for portraying a spider woman who kills lovers with a kiss.
Set during Argentina’s Dirty War in 1981, the film centers on Luis Molina (Tonatiuh), a gay department-store window dresser imprisoned for his sexuality, and Valentin Arregui (Diego Luna), a political activist. Molina survives the brutality of prison by escaping into fantasies of Ingrid Luna’s films, and Lopez’s character becomes the cinematic refuge that fuels his imagination.
The story, adapted from Manuel Puig’s novel and Terrence McNally’s musical book, uses lush fantasy numbers by John Kander and Fred Ebb to contrast the harsh realities outside the cell.
Jennifer Lopez recalls auditioning for “Evita.” @JLo #justforvarietyhttps://t.co/AW1qWtC3zm pic.twitter.com/qr3gtrHl8D
— Marc Malkin (@marcmalkin) September 11, 2025
One big production gamble: Condon told Lopez the musical sequences would be filmed in single, uninterrupted takes — no coverage, no extra angles to hide mistakes. Her reaction was blunt: “F— me! I better get it right then.” The one-take approach meant that mid-take flubs — a stumble on a dress, a missed beat — often required starting over, and the film’s indie constraints (time, prep, budget) intensified the pressure.
Still, Lopez said the cast and crew “put our heart and soul into it” and rehearsed relentlessly, calling the final result “a beautiful thing” and noting how it fulfilled her childhood dream after watching West Side Story on TV in the Bronx.
At the Q&A, Lopez received a standing ovation. Co-star Tonatiuh introduced the screening, praising Lopez as “breathtaking and transformative” and recalling an early rehearsal where she instantly went “full out,” leaving director Bill Condon visibly impressed.
Condon also revealed the exhaustive casting process: the team auditioned roughly 800 people before choosing Tonatiuh for the role of Molina, underscoring how carefully the filmmakers assembled the cast.
Kiss of the Spider Woman premiered at Sundance in January and is now generating buzz for its blend of political drama and escapist fantasy, anchored by Lopez’s show-stopping musical presence. For Lopez, who once landed and then lost potential musical breaks — including a scrapped NBC live Bye Bye Birdie — this film feels like a full-circle moment: a risky, ambitious staging that finally lets her live the musical-film dream she’s chased since childhood.
The movie, produced by Lionsgate, Roadside Attractions and LD Entertainment, opens in theaters Oct. 10.