Jennifer Lopez may be one of the biggest names in music and film today, but early in her career she faced plenty of audition heartbreaks—one of the most memorable being Evita.
During a Q&A for her new movie musical Kiss of the Spider Woman on Wednesday (September 10), Lopez, 56, revealed that she auditioned for the 1996 adaptation directed by Alan Parker, only to find out the role of Eva Perón was already locked in.
“I went to audition for Evita for [director] Alan Parker,” she said, per Variety. “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?’”
Lopez admitted she left the room defeated but polite: “I said, ‘OK, bye-bye. Nice to meet you.’”
This wasn’t her only near miss. Earlier this year at Sundance, she told The Hollywood Reporter she also auditioned for Chicago and came “very close” to landing a part in Nine.
“There was 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,” she said, referring to Kiss of the Spider Woman.
Since then, Lopez has carved out her lane in movie musicals, appearing in El Cantante (2006), Marry Me (2022), and now Kiss of the Spider Woman, which hits theaters October 10.
