‘Selena’ turns 25: Jennifer Lopez celebrates ‘the magic that is this movie’

Twenty-five years after “Selena” hit theaters on March 21, 1997, Jennifer Lopez fondly revisited her acclaimed efficiency because the late Tejano icon.

In honor of the biopic turning 25, Lopez posted a sequence of clips from the movie in addition to soundbites from interviews discussing her star-making flip as Selena Quintanilla, who was killed two years earlier than the film premiered.

“What a really special occasion,” Lopez wrote Monday on Instagram.

“In the present day we have fun and honor Selena’s legacy and music. This film means a lot to me … Selena and her household imply a lot to me, and I used to be so fortunate to be chosen to play her. I’ll always remember this time in my life and it’s an honor as an artist to have been a part of the magic that’s this film.”

Among the many footage Lopez shared was a snippet of her 1997 look on “The Oprah Winfrey Present.” The performer, who was 27 on the time, appeared on the hit daytime program alongside the Quintanilla household to speak about honoring the trailblazing entertainer on the massive display.

Selena’s family members have been on set “each day,” Lopez instructed Winfrey on the time. “It was robust, however I knew I had a troublesome job forward of me. From the second I acquired the position, it was nonstop. I used to be engaged on one other film on the time, and in my trailer, it was music all day, movies all day simply to actually soak up who she was.

“She was a really, very completely happy and alive individual. I simply absorbed as a lot as I may of her, tried to grasp what made her tick, what made her completely happy, what made her unhappy — issues that have been necessary in her life … Don’t get me incorrect, it was nerve-wracking. However having them there and having them care concerning the undertaking was a stupendous factor for me.”

In one other, newer interview, Lopez recalled a bit of recommendation she acquired from her onscreen father, Edward James Olmos — who portrayed Abraham Quintanilla — after tirelessly finding out Selena’s each transfer out of worry of messing up. Earlier than starring in “Selena,” Lopez had acted solely in a handful of flicks and nonetheless had but to launch her debut studio album.

Olmos “got here to me and mentioned, ‘You already know every part. Simply let it go. Don’t assume — simply let it go and be,’” Lopez remembered. “And we filmed that massive scene within the Astrodome with the purple outfit, and it was magic. However it’s important to let go sooner or later. You must let go of every part and simply do your factor.”

The quarter-century milestone comes shortly after Abraham Quintanilla revealed that his household is collaborating with Warner Music on a brand new Selena album. The document will characteristic the voice of younger Selena, digitally edited to sound “like she did proper earlier than she handed away” — a controversial method that has sparked debate among the many Tejano legend’s loyal followers.

To commemorate the movie’s silver anniversary, the Quintanilla household additionally introduced this month that “Selena” is returning to theaters throughout the nation April 7. Precise areas and showtimes have but to be introduced.

In one other clip from the “Selena” press tour resurfaced by Lopez, the “Let’s Get Loud” hitmaker mirrored on what Selena meant to the Latinx group, in addition to how she got here to embody the musician by way of her motion, vocals and wardrobe.

“One of many big appeals of Selena and one of many causes she was so massively fashionable was as a result of she didn’t change herself,” Lopez mentioned.

“Generally whenever you activate Spanish tv, you see quite a lot of ladies with their hair dyed blond and all these items, and Selena wasn’t like that. She would arise there, and you’ll lookup at her, and in case you have been Latin within the viewers, you’ll go, ‘That’s me. That’s me up there. That’s what I appear to be.’ She was simply herself, and that was sufficient … to get her there.”