Chris Pérez, Selena's widower, says the late Tejano singer may have known who Jennifer Lopez was before the actress played her on the big screen.
In a recent interview with Fox 26 Houston’s Coco Dominguez, Pérez looked back on an unexpected twist from the early days of touring with his late wife’s band, Selena y Los Dinos.
Dominguez brought up how many people first got to know Lopez through the iconic 1997 Selena movie.
“Yes, we saw [her as] the 'Fly Girl' in In Living Color, but that was different," the guitarist said.
Pérez then revealed that before Selena’s death in 1995 and years before the biopic was even conceived, the band was already watching Lopez regularly.
“What’s crazy is, and I don’t know if I [said it] because at the time I hardly spoke about anything, you know, or much less spoke to Jen,” Pérez began near the 35-minute mark in the video linked above.
“The funny thing is … when we were on the bus, we used to watch In Living Color all the time. I forgot who it was, but they’d record every single episode and then we would get the VHS tape and take it into the bus, and Selena would watch it, too.”
He added, “Little did we know, one, obviously the tragedy that was going to come about, but that we were watching somebody who’s going to portray her … in the movie. It’s so weird how things turn out sometimes.”
While Pérez didn’t mention it, Selena had previously cited Janet Jackson as one of her musical influences and occasionally performed covers of Jackson’s songs, including “What Have You Done For Me Lately” and “When I Think Of You.”
In another interesting coincidence, Lopez appeared as a background dancer in Jackson’s 1993 music video for “That’s The Way Love Goes.”
Lopez performed as part of the Fly Girl dance troupe on In Living Color from 1991 to 1993. Two years after Selena’s tragic death in 1995, Lopez portrayed the “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom” singer in the 1997 film the catapulted her to stardom.
“I was young, I was 26 when I played Selena,” Lopez said during a 2022 interview with Apple Music 1, calling it a “beautiful blessing for my life on so many levels.”
She continued, “I didn’t realize, at the time, the responsibility that I had, all I wanted to do was do her memory and that moment justice … I soaked up everything, I watched every interview that I could. I slept in her bed at home. I talked to the whole family. I spent time with them. It can be melancholy and beautiful at the same time … She taught me so much on how to navigate this business because I played it in the movie.”