The Sundance Film Festival began last week, and Jennifer Lopez came to Park City, Utah to promote her latest film. Last year, she filmed Bill Condon’s Kiss of the Spider Woman on-and-off for months – this was what she was working on when her marriage to Ben Affleck fell apart. I never would have thought that J.Lo would end up at Sundance, but here we are. She didn’t feel the need to dial down the glamour either – while she was bundled up like she was on a ski holiday for much of her time at Sundance, she ended up wearing some slinky couture for the premiere. She wore a “spiderweb” dress by Valdrin Sahiti and she looked great – tiny, but great. She’s lost weight, hasn’t she? J.Lo told reporters that she feels like this was the role she was born to play:
Jennifer Lopez is braving the Sundance snow to tease her buzzy new project — which, as she noted, is her very first movie musical.
At the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, on Sunday, Jan. 26, the actress-singer, 55, discussed her upcoming project Kiss of the Spider Woman alongside director Bill Condon and costar Tonatiuh as part of the Los Angeles Times Talks series, presented by Chase Sapphire Reserve.
“I never felt in my life that I was born to play a part ever. And I really felt that with this,” Lopez said of her character, screen star Ingrid Luna. “Love is just love and people are just people. And for me, that resonated very deeply because of my own life and my own children. And so I really took to it so immediately and was so excited.”
A reimagining of the 1993 Tony Award-winning musical and 1985 movie of the same name, Kiss of the Spider Woman stars Diego Luna as Valentin Arregui, a political prisoner during Argentina’s civil war in the 1980s. Incarcerated alongside him is Luis Molina, portrayed by Tonatiuh, 30.
Getting to sing the songs from musical creators John Kander and Fred Ebb — and with Chicago and Dreamgirls director Condon, 69 — was “a dream come true,” said Lopez, who is also among the film’s producers.
“I did [Selena Quintanilla-Pérez biopic] Selena years ago, but it was not my voice,” she noted. “They wanted to use her voice. I did dance a little, but there wasn’t much choreography. So this was my first musical.”
The fact that Bill Condon is the director and he reimagined the musical makes me think that this will end up being really good. I’ve seen some Sundance reviews and they’re saying the same thing, that this is a very interesting adaptation and Jennifer is great in it. Additionally – because we’re talking about Jennifer Lopez – she appeared at a pop-up party and performed a couple of songs, just for the hell of it. A new J.Lo era!!
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
