AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Since she was a little girl, Jennifer Lopez has always wanted to star in a musical because musicals could transport her anywhere.
JENNIFER LOPEZ: Just, like, imagining all different kinds of beautiful places in a different world than your own reality.
CHANG: Now, decades into her career, her dream has come true. Lopez stars in the new film "Kiss Of The Spider Woman."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN")
LOPEZ: (As Ingrid Luna, singing) Sooner or later you're certain to meet. In the bedroom, the parlor or even the street. There's no place...
It feels like you've escaped into a magical, little world where people express themselves through music and dance. I mean, what - as an artist who is a singer and who is a dancer and who is an actor, what more could you ask for?
CHANG: Lopez plays La Luna, a golden-age movie star whose picture hangs on a prison wall of two cellmates. They were jailed during Argentina's military dictatorship in the early 1980s. And as they're gazing at La Luna's portrait, one reenacts her greatest film to the other in this story about courage and love - which is where Jennifer Lopez and I began our conversation.
LOPEZ: It's not your typical musical. It is a love story. It is more of a drama that has all these musical numbers that they escape into.
CHANG: Yeah.
LOPEZ: And it is, at the heart, a love story between these two people who are from very different, you know, backgrounds, different political views, different ends of the gender spectrum - one cis man, one queer and - trans character, actually - and how two people who are so different can kind of get past all of those labels and really see the humanity in another person. So if you're asking me, like, what the message of the movie is, I think the message is if you just allow yourself to see the humanity in people, that you could fall in love with them, no matter how different from you, you think they are.
CHANG: Yeah. You have been an entertainer for so many years. What did it feel like to finally star in your first musical, after wanting...
LOPEZ: (Laughter).
CHANG: ...To do a musical for years and years?
LOPEZ: I know. I know. It's wild because you have a long career if you're lucky enough. But these roles like this, for me, and for people like me, don't come around every day. You know, the last time I had a big role like this, filled with music and just an epic story, was "Selena."
CHANG: Yes. Exactly.
LOPEZ: And I've done a lot of beautiful movies in the meantime.
CHANG: And just so people understand how challenging this was, this movie was filmed in just a matter of weeks, right? So...
LOPEZ: Yeah.
CHANG: ...All the musical numbers had to be shot in single takes. How hard was that?
LOPEZ: I think even if we would have had more time, Bill Condon, the director, who was very, very adamant that we shoot this musical in the style of a '50's musical - and what they would do is they would create these long shots. So he was like, I - one of the reasons that I wanted you so badly for this role was because I know you can perform a number from beginning to end. Like, you could do it from top to bottom perfect.
CHANG: It was exquisite. Did...
LOPEZ: Oh, thank you.
CHANG: Did this whole experience in any way change your own understanding of what you are capable of?
LOPEZ: Here's the thing. I wanted to do it so badly. Like, there was nothing that was going to keep me - it's like Tonatiuh, who plays Molina...
CHANG: Yes.
LOPEZ: ...The lead in the movie, said, when you get a role like this, it's like, you can leave no crumbs on the floor. Like, you have to dig so deep into it. So I guess it showed me we could do it quickly, you know, and that you don't have to have all the time to make something a really great piece of art. But it would have been nice to have a little more time.
(LAUGHTER)
CHANG: Well, I want to talk about how you breathed life into what could have been a two-dimensional character, right? Like, La Luna starts in this movie as just some face on a poster on the wall...
LOPEZ: Right.
CHANG: ...Of a prison cell - this two-dimensional idea of a movie star. And it's...
LOPEZ: Right.
CHANG: ...Your performance that brings her to three-dimensional form. And I...
LOPEZ: Right.
CHANG: ...Couldn't help but connect that two-dimensional idea of the movie star of La Luna to you and perceptions people may have of who J.Lo is, right? Like, there was this larger parallel for me when I was watching.
LOPEZ: Right.
CHANG: Do you sometimes feel that the public tries to flatten you, like, confine you to some two-dimensional image of what they think you are or should be?
LOPEZ: You know, it's funny. I hear two different questions. I don't feel, as an actor in the business, that they've been able to kind of do that to me. I think the thing that has kind of always set me apart is that I really held on to I'm Jennifer Lopez, a Puerto Rican girl from the Bronx. That's who I am. And I think I didn't have to lose that to star in romantic comedies. But I think another part to that question is, do people kind of make you into something or someone that's not real?
CHANG: Or pressure you to pick a lane and be just a certain aspect of who Jennifer Lopez is. Do you know?
LOPEZ: Yeah, I have to say I don't feel that. I feel more that people put on you what they think you might be like. I feel like I've always been so consistent as a person that obviously people get who I am. And I think they do. But there's always this, like, little bit of, like, noise that's going on that's negativity in the world.
CHANG: And does that noise, does it affect the work that you pick to do next? Like, how much the public...
LOPEZ: No.
CHANG: ...Defines you. Are you ever saying...
LOPEZ: No.
CHANG: ...To yourself, oh, yeah, you think that's what I am? Well, I want to defy your expectation...
LOPEZ: No.
CHANG: I want you...
LOPEZ: No. No.
CHANG: ...To learn this is also who I am.
LOPEZ: No. When you start doing that, I think you're in huge trouble. You know, honestly, I think the thing that has saved me is that I've been able to keep my feet on the ground, and I know who I am. And I've been able to evolve and grow that part of myself. So I've become more and more solid in who I am as a woman and as a person. I found that that has become very unshakable. And so I don't concentrate on like, what do I have to prove to anybody anymore? What I do is I go, what project excites me that I feel that I could put more love and goodness and happiness and joy into the world?
CHANG: So when you think about who you are, do you ever think about the story you want people to tell about you and your career? Like, if it were your face...
LOPEZ: (Laughter).
CHANG: ...On a poster, on a wall, in a musical...
LOPEZ: Yeah.
CHANG: ...Not La Luna's, yours...
LOPEZ: Right.
CHANG: ...And people started dancing and singing about you, what is the story that they would tell about you and the art and the love you gave to the world?
LOPEZ: Yeah, I think what I would want is for them to say, you know, she was resilient. She was a hard worker. She was kind. She made me laugh. She made me cry. She made me dance. She made me sing. She made me jump up and down. And, you know, most importantly, she was a good mom (laughter).
CHANG: Yeah.
LOPEZ: You know...
CHANG: Yeah.
LOPEZ: ...Things like that. Those are the things that I think - if somebody's talking about me after I'm gone, like, she was a good mom, and she was a showgirl. She was an entertainer, and she loved what she did, and she was passionate about it. And she was a good, exemplary person who I would want my daughters to look up to.
CHANG: Well, I love watching you tell your story. Thank you...
LOPEZ: Oh...
CHANG: ...So much.
LOPEZ: ...Thank you.
CHANG: Jennifer Lopez stars in the new movie "Kiss Of The Spider Woman." It is in...
LOPEZ: Go see it at the theaters now.
CHANG: ...Theaters now (laughter).
LOPEZ: Yes. Please go to the theater. It is visually stunning, and you will...
CHANG: It truly is.
LOPEZ: ...Enjoy it. I promise.
CHANG: Thank you so much, Jennifer, for this conversation. I so...
LOPEZ: Thank you.
CHANG: ...Enjoyed talking to you.
LOPEZ: I appreciate you. Thank you so much.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HER NAME IS AURORA")
LOPEZ: (As Aurora, singing) I cannot tell you how you'll meet him, or when... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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