Jennifer Lopez Details Frustration of Losing ‘Evita’ Role to Madonna After Auditioning Too Late

Jennifer Lopez was ready to give it her all when auditioning for Evita, but had no idea Madonna had already landed the part.

“I went to audition for Evita for [director] Alan Parker,” Lopez, 56, said during a Wednesday, September 10, Q&A following a screening of her new movie musical Kiss of the Spider Woman, per Variety. “I had been practicing for weeks, and I sing my heart out.”

She continued: “And [Parker] goes, ‘You’re amazing. You know Madonna has the part, right?’”

Lopez looked back on the moment with laughter now, but at the time she was devastated.

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“I said, ‘OK, bye-bye. Nice to meet you,’” she recalled.

Madonna, now 67, played Argentinian first lady Eva Perón in the 1996 film adaptation of Evita, which originated as a musical. The pop star won a Golden Globe for her performance. The movie received five Oscar nominations and took home the award for Best Original Song.

Madonna in ‘Evita’. Buena Vista Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection

While starring in the movie musical wasn’t in the cards for Lopez then, she now gets the chance to showcase her talent in n. The movie is an adaptation of the Broadway production of the same name. Lopez portrays Ingrid Luna/Aurora/The Spider Woman, who was once played by legendary Chita Rivera on stage.

Lopez gushed about how thrilled she was for Kiss of the Spider Woman to be the “first time” she starred in a musical adaptation.

“It couldn’t have been a better one for me,” Lopez reflected on Wednesday. “I was really, really glad to be able to do it and step into Chita Rivera’s shoes.”

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In addition to Lopez, Kiss of the Spider Woman stars Diego Luna as Valentín Arregui/Armando, Tonatiuh as Luis Molina/Kendall Nesbitt, Tony Dovolani as Johnny Desiderio, Josefina Scaglione as Marta and Bruno Bichir as The Warden. The film follows Valentín, a political prisoner, as he recounts the plot of a Hollywood musical starring his favorite actress to a fellow inmate.

Earlier this year, Lopez opened up about how joining the Kiss of the Spider Woman cast was a “dream come true.”

“I’ve been waiting for this moment my whole life,” she said at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, in July. “The reason I even wanted to be in this business is because my mom would sit me in front of the TV and [West Side Story] would come on once a year. I remember I was mesmerized and was like, ‘That’s what I want to do.’ That was always my goal. This is the first time I actually got to do it. This man made my dream come true!”