'Selena' director remembers Jennifer Lopez's first audition

Yahoo Entertainment
Updated

In 1997, writer and director Gregory Nava released the movie "Selena" a tribute to the Queen of Tejano music Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, who was murdered two years earlier. In the title role was newcomer Jennifer Lopez, who according to Nava “captured the spirit of Selena." He held an open casting call and tells Yahoo Entertainment 21,000 women came to audition. “It's the biggest search for the role, even bigger than the one that was done for Scarlett O'Hara for "Gone With the Wind.” During the audition, Lopez did one thing that no one else had done. “I remember Marcella [Selena’s mom] gasping and saying, "Oh, she dances just like Selena,’” Nava explains. “She has the talent, the ganas and the passion.” "Selena" is available for the first time on Blu-ray as part of The Warner Archive Collection.

Video Transcript

[MUSIC - "BIDI BIDI BOM BOM"]

- Hey. Yeah. [RIFFS AND RUNS] Hey, hey.

GREGORY NAVA: There's a lot of actresses who wanted to play Selena, you know? I mean, not just Jennifer, but many other Latina actresses wanted to play her. But the family wanted to see, you know-- they'd never made a movie before-- they wanted to see who was going to play their daughter.

I really understood that and so did the studio. So we had an open casting call and we were overwhelmed and shocked when 21,000 young women came to audition for the role of Selena. This is the biggest for the role-- even bigger than the one that was done for Scarlett O'Hara for "Gone With the Wind."

I mean it was overwhelming. Everybody was taken by surprise. We finally narrowed it down to 12. I designed a very difficult test where the actresses has to lip sync to Selena's voice, dance, and also do dramatic scenes. And there was just no question-- Jennifer Lopez could capture the spirit of Selena.

You know, she did things that nobody else did. When everybody else danced, they danced like themselves. Jennifer is a great dancer, but she was the one who didn't dance like herself. She had studied the tapes of Selena dancing to dance exactly like Selena and imitate her movements.

And I remember Marcella gasping and saying, ah, she dances just like Selena. And we went, she's the one. She has the talent, the "ganas," the passion. I did want Jennifer, or whoever played Selena, to really be able to do the lip sinking so perfectly. That's hard to do.

But Jennifer did it so well that people think it's actually her singing. But it is Selena's voice. And when we did "I Could Fall in Love," that lip syncing is so perfect that we can put the camera right here and just move it around back and forth.

Let's do the whole number. We weren't originally going to do the whole number. Her lip sync it was so perfect. You watch that scene-- you're this close on her lips. It's extraordinary.

[MUSIC - "I COUD FALL IN LOVE"]

- I could fall in love with you.

GREGORY NAVA: That's how strong Jennifer's performance was-- how deep she went in order to capture that young woman. I felt she not only should have been nominated, but she should have won an Oscar for that part. Most people think it's the greatest performance in the history of musical biopics and it really is I feel.

I was sitting with the heads of Warner Bros. and I said, let's do an Academy campaign for Jennifer. That performance is amazing. And they go, it is amazing. She deserves it. But the Academy will never nominate her. They'll never nominate a Latina. It's a waste of money.

So they did not put money into an Academy campaign. Today, I don't think there'd be any question. She would win. I have a lot of incredible memories from making "Selena," but one of the greatest memories-- probably the most emotional memory is when we did the Houston Astrodome concert scene.

[MUSIC - "DISCO MEDLEY (LIVE FROM ASTRODOME)"]

This was the first musical number that Jennifer did. 35,000 people showed up. They packed the stadium. Jennifer-- can you imagine, just 24 years old, all the pressure on her to perform? And this is the first time that Jennifer had performed in front of a crowd. She'd never done it before.

And it was shooting that scene that gave her the idea to have a musical career. Because before that she hadn't thought of it. We worked so hard to make this film and to capture Selena's spirit in this film, you know? And I feel like her spirit was with us when we made this film.

She had this light that touched everybody's heart. She crossed over all these barriers which have always been against us-- she moved through them like they didn't exist. Selena's life, more than anything, exemplifies "si se puede," and I think that that touches us all and it inspires us to keep going and to find our place-- which isn't an easy thing in the society and the community that we live in.

[MUSIC - "DREAMING OF YOU"]

- Still can't believe that you came up to me and said, I love you.