Jennifer Lopez Credits Her Role of Selena With Helping Her Break Barriers For Latinas
Jennifer Lopez is one of the most recognizable Latinas in the world and the singer, actress, producer and entrepreneur credits her role of Selena Quintanilla-Perez with helping her achieve that status and making positive changes for Latina entertainers.
In a video interview with Variety and PBS "Actors on Actors," Lopez discusses breaking barriers while playing Quintanilla, including becoming the highest paid Latina for a film role.
"It was a big leading role for me at that time," the 46-year-old star told actress Felicity Huffman in the video. "It was much ado about what I got paid and a Latin actress never being paid that before."
Last year Lopez performed at the 2015 Billboard Latin Music Awards with Los Dinos in honor of Quintanilla's life and career, twenty years later.
Lopez spoke to Billboard about Quintanilla's importance in pop culture and explained that, while people are always looking for someone to pick up the iconic star's mantle, there will never be another artist like her.
"There is never going to be another Selena. And as far as music goes, that's what's beautiful about artistry. Somebody is going to come along and move the world in a different way," she explained.
"There was Celia Cruz, there's Gloria Estefan. I'm still around. Marc Anthony is an iconic Latin artist, Ricky Martin. But it's not something that happens all the time. It's a special thing that Selena had. That's why we're still talking about her 20 years later."
Watch Lopez discuss her role in "Selena" here:
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