Jennifer lopez movies selena

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And it was like, ‘She’s worth this,’” Lopez told Variety. “It was a Latin movie, starring a Latin girl, playing a Latin artist and a Latin director. After her strong work as the passionate lover of Jack Nicholson in the current “Blood and Wine,” here she creates a completely different performance, as a loyal Quintanilla who does most of her growing up on a tour bus with her dad at the wheel.

She’s very close to Susie and Abie, and finds a trusted confidant in her mother, but when a talented young guitarist named Chris Perez (Jon Seda) joins the band and she falls in love with him, there’s trouble.

When Lopez (and Selena) are left alone to simply sing, the results are electrifying.

“Selena” is smart in not letting the singer’s death dominate the story of her life. She’d had No. 1 hits, won a Grammy, and was about to go on tour to promote her first English album. [The protesters] should be celebrating that we have an all-Latino cast and that Jennifer Lopez, one of our own, is becoming a star.”

Lopez traveled to Corpus Christi to meet with Selena's family

Despite the criticism — and perhaps spurred on by it — Lopez took a deep dive into understanding Selena’s life.

“Right after I got the part, I knew I would be traveling to Corpus Christi and spending time with her family, but that wasn't going to be for a few weeks, so they sent me tons of tapes to watch,” she told Billboard.

“This stops right now!” Abraham thunders, firing the kid. “You have to think of the whole story and how you fit into that story and at the same time, who is that character, what makes them tick, all the way down to their mannerisms and what drove them emotionally.”

But watching footage wasn’t enough.

It was very emotional. “I know a few people were protesting,” Lopez told Entertainment Weekly. it's a special thing that Selena had. “The fact that she was so young and doing all of these things that people go through that maybe she wasn't ready for. I like Donna Summer.” Abraham tells her she has to sing from the inside, from what she is, and she is Mexican-American, between two worlds, and that’s tough: “The Americans jump all over us because we don’t speak perfect English, and then the Mexicans jump all over us because we don’t speak perfect Spanish.” So Selena learns from her father to sing Spanish and eventually to speak it, and becomes a regional star of Tejano music–the unique South Texas blend that formed in the early 1900s when Mexican bands mixed in the accordion music of their Czech and Polish neighbors.

The movie opens with Selena singing “I Will Survive” to a packed house in the Houston Astrodome, and then flashes back to the early life of her father, who formed a rock ‘n’ roll group named “The Dinos.” Like his daughter many years later, he found himself caught between two worlds: Anglo clubs didn’t want Chicano bands, and Mexican clubs wanted Spanish dance music.

Lopez poured her soul into researching the role — even sleeping in Selena’s bed — to understand the tragically short life of the Queen of Tejano Music.

People protested Lopez playing Selena

When Lopez first landed the role in 1996, the scars from Selena’s death in 1995 were still fresh. I was shocked. That's why we're still talking about her 20 years later.”