Bet You Didn’t Know: Secrets Behind The Making Of “Selena”

Preparation

In preparation for the role, in addition to studying every piece of tape and film of Selena in action she could get her hands on, Jennifer Lopez spent two months living with the Quintanilla family. Surprisingly, Lopez said learning Selena’s steps was one of the most challenging parts of the role. “It’s very hard to unlearn everything your body is accustomed to doing and that it does naturally. I had to learn what Selena did, which is very different from my own dance instincts.”

Initially, Lopez thought Chris, Selena’s husband, would be the person who would be able to provide the most information about who Selena really was, considering he knew her differently than the rest of her family. But that wasn’t the case. In another Film Scots interview, she said:

When I first got the part, I thought to myself Chris was the real insight into the way Selena was, because he knew her away from the family. But once I met Chris, I felt like I didn’t want to bother him; he had a great loss and he’s still dealing with it. He’s very quiet, as he is in the movie, and very sweet. I just didn’t to push that. Greg had interviewed Chris in depth for the film, Jon Seda, became very close to him, so I got a lot of my insight on Chris through Greg, Jon and their relationship. I just did not want to press that button. I thought I was a reminder for him and I just didn’t want to go there, you see what I mean? I talked more often with Abraham, Marcella, Suzanne, the rest of the family and friends. Of course, they have different views. Obviously, she was a wife to one person, a lover, and to Abraham, she was his little girl.