Jennifer Lopez is finally stepping into her spotlight in a movie musical with Kiss of the Spider-Woman, but as she recently revealed, that dream was decades in the making, and nearly included the iconic role of Eva Perón in Evita.
During a post-screening Q&A for Kiss of the Spider-Woman on September 10, Lopez, 56, opened up about a particularly deflating moment early in her career. She recounted her audition for director Alan Parker’s 1996 film adaptation of Evita, in which she had poured weeks of preparation into singing for the role, only to find out that Madonna had already been cast.
“I went to audition for Evita for Alan Parker,” Lopez recalled. “I had been practicing for weeks and I sing my heart out, and he goes, ‘You’re amazing. You know Madonna has the part, right?’ I said, ‘Okay, bye-bye. Nice to meet you.’”
Madonna, now 67, would go on to receive critical acclaim for her performance in Evita, which earned five Academy Award nominations and won the Oscar for Best Original Song in 1997. But Lopez’s moment with Parker, though brief, remains a telling snapshot of how roles in Hollywood can often be locked in long before cameras roll, regardless of how much heart or hustle an actor brings to the table.
The Dream Deferred
Lopez’s reflection highlights a recurring theme in her journey through Hollywood: near misses and unexpected detours on the way to building a multifaceted career.
This wasn’t the only major movie musical she came close to landing. At the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where Kiss of the Spider-Woman had its world premiere, Lopez told The Hollywood Reporter she also auditioned for Chicago and Nine.
“I remember auditioning for Evita, I remember auditioning for Chicago and for Nine — getting very close on Nine,” she said. “There were a lot of things that I had always hoped that I could do and just wasn’t the right time. But this is the right thing.”
Now, nearly 30 years after Madonna’s Evita, Lopez is finally taking center stage in Kiss of the Spider-Woman, her first-ever movie musical.
A Role Worth Waiting For
Directed by Matthew López and co-starring Diego Luna and breakout actor Tonatiuh, Kiss of the Spider-Woman is an adaptation of the 1993 Broadway musical of the same name. The film centers around two men imprisoned in a repressive South American jail — a political revolutionary and a gay window dresser — who bond through the shared fantasy of a vintage Hollywood musical, starring a fictional diva named Ingrid Luna, portrayed by Lopez.
As Lopez told PEOPLE earlier this year, she approached her musical numbers in the film with old-school discipline.
“We did a lot of the musical sequences in one take, like the old musicals authentically were done,” she said. “And it’s pretty amazing when you do see it and you go, ‘Oh, that was all one shot right there.’”
“It’s a little extra challenge, but also exhilarating,” she added. “Like, you gotta get it right. And when you nail it, everybody’s like, aah.”
Themes and Cultural Significance
Viewers will find Kiss of the Spider-Woman especially meaningful, as the story is steeped in identity, repression, and resilience. Tonatiuh’s character — a gay man imprisoned for “immoral behavior” — becomes the emotional anchor of the film, bringing poignancy to its musical dream sequences and a powerful reminder of the many queer lives criminalized under authoritarian regimes.
For Lopez, portraying the glamorous and imaginary film star Ingrid Luna is more than just a role, it’s an homage to the larger-than-life icons she grew up watching. It’s also a full-circle moment: after decades of being passed over for movie musical roles, she’s finally starring in one with rich queer subtext and artistic ambition.
From “Bye-Bye” to “Spotlight”
The anecdote about Evita may be humorous in hindsight, but it’s also emblematic of Lopez’s resilience. Where some would have stopped auditioning or given up on landing musical roles, she pressed on — taking risks in rom-coms, thrillers, dramas, and even launching a successful music career in the process.
And now, with Kiss of the Spider-Woman arriving in theaters on October 10, Lopez is not only stepping into the musical genre she longed to conquer, but doing so in a film that celebrates fantasy, endurance, and queer liberation, all wrapped in lush choreography and glittering spectacle.
Whether or not she ever plays Eva Perón, Lopez has certainly earned her place in the pantheon of pop culture icons who made their own way, even when the part had already been cast.
