One Take JLo

There was a screening for Kiss of the Spider Woman last night in LA and also a Q&A with director Bill Condon and Jennifer Lopez. The film’s lead, Tonatiuh, was there for the introduction but had to leave to fly to NYC for another commitment. Kiss of the Spider Woman first premiered in January at Sundance and was generally positively received for the performances. This is expected to be Tonatiuh’s breakout role and critics were also quite high on JLo in her first musical. 

We all know JLo. We all know what she wants. She’s told us what she wants. And she always goes for what she wants. But in her case, going for it doesn’t mean she’ll get it. JLo is considered a longshot for an Oscar nomination for this performance. And the hustle continues. 

During the panel, JLo talked about how remarkable it is that we’re only just now seeing her in a musical. And another musical she had wanted to be part of. 

@enews

Jennifer Lopez gets real about never being offered a musical role during a Q&A after a screening of "Kiss of the Spider Woman."

♬ original sound - E! News - E! News

This is a good story, a story that reminds us that JLo wasn’t always JLo. And that there’s been a lot of rejection in her career. It’s also a little risky to be pulling out these kinds of anecdotes because, as we know, Jennifer Lopez is despised in some corners of the internet. And here she is invoking Madonna and the classic gossip about her and Madonna. 

It all comes back to that infamous Movieline interview from back in 1998, which has become iconic, no hyperbole, for how amateur and candid JLo was with her answers. When asked about Madonna, this is JLo said: 

"Do I think she's a great performer? Yeah. Do I think she's a great actress? No. Acting is what I do, so I'm harder on people when they say, 'Oh, I can do that--I can act.' I'm like, 'Hey, don't spit on my craft.'"

Unfortunately for JLo, that quote will never get old. Fortunately for those who hate her, that quote will never age. The internet will do what they do with it, I’m sure. 

But to go back to my point, it’s taken this long for her to be offered a musical. And when it finally happened, this was her reaction. 

@disway800

Well deserved! #jenniferlopez #jlo #kissofthespiderwoman #theaterkid #musicaltheatre

♬ original sound - Disway80

As for the campaign part of all this, I wonder if they’ll push the “one take” angle. This is the headline in a Variety report published this morning about the screening and the Q&A. 

“Lopez recalled Condon, who also adapted the script for the film, telling her that the elaborate musical numbers in “Kiss of the Spider Woman” would be filmed in one take. “I was like, ‘We’ll do some coverage?’” she said. “He was like, ‘Nope, no coverage.’ I was like, ‘F-ck 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.”

One take with all that choreography is, pardon the pun, definitely a dance, a degree of technical and artistic difficulty that is a good selling feature. Whether or not that actually gives JLo a legitimate chance at a nomination remains to be seen.