MovieChat Forums > Selena (1997) Discussion > Jennifer Lopez

Jennifer Lopez

posted 12 years ago by greek-fan
7 replies | jump to latest

Just a small intro... I found out about Selena by playing SongPop on facebook. Youtubed her songs and the googled her and found out about her death and all that. I read the entire wiki post about the murder, watched many videos related to her death and of course I watched the movie which I think was amazing.

Now I read comments about JLo not resembling Selena. I have to disagree here. The make up artists did a great job on JLo and I think she resembles Selena quite a lot. I googled photos of Selena and there were also photos of JLo from the movie and guys, it always takes me a few seconds to realize that the woman on the photo is actually Lopez and not Selena... At least it's harder to tell who is who on the photos. On the videos of course it's clear.

[–] tracylynns 12 years ago

I agree that the makeup artists and hair stylists did a fantastic job. The costumes also seem to be identical to ones that Selena actually wore. I thought the clothing, hairstyles, and excellent costuming really helped her look more like Selena for the film. They were even able to completely copy her hairstyle for the Grammy scene, and it's kind of a messy updo that hard to recreate, imo.

[–] Kelea7 12 years ago

Maybe I'm wrong but I think the more you see Selena, the person, the more you'll be able to see the differences. It seems for people who aren't familiar with Selena it's harder to distinguish the two. I personally don't think Jennifer looks much like Selena, but I will admit they did a great job of creating the illusion of them looking alike. When Jen's in full costume or when she smiles a certain way (in the movie/promo pics) she bears a certain resemblance to Selena.

I compare it to Denzel Washington playing Malcolm X. Denzel doesn't look much, if at all (head shape maybe, haha) like Malcolm X. But because of the styling, makeup, wardrobe and of course his incredible performance he embodies Malcolm. You buy him as Malcolm. Obviously Jen wasn't as convincing or as good as Denz but she did a damn good job.

[–] tracylynns 12 years ago

I recently saw some pics of Jennifer Lopez filming a commercial or something in florida and she was doing the hand gesture that Selena did, with her arm extended straight up and pointing up to the sky. JLo copied it well while portraying Selena doing in the concerts scenes in the movie.

I've never watched JLo's music videos and haven't seen her singing. Does she do that finger pointing thing herself or did she kind of steal it from Selena or is it a common gesture?

[–] Kelea7 12 years ago

I'm sorry. For some reason I'm having a hard time picturing what gesture you are referring to. It may be something she adopted after doing it in the movie, maybe as a homage. Do you know which commercial this was? Or do you have a specific scene in mind?

I'm going to try to find something from the movie to help me out. I feel like I should know this!

Edit: Oh wait...do you mean at the very end of a performance?

Rest in Peace Chris Kelly

[–] tracylynns 12 years ago

IIRC, in the movie, Jennifer Lopez does the finger pointing to the sky gesture during the Houston concert scene.

Selena does it a couple of times at the Houston concert while singing Si Una Vez.

I was reading dailymail.co.uk a few days ago and they did a little entertainment story about JLo filming a "music video" on the beach in Florida, but it looked like a Kohls commercial to me because it had a bunch of items with the Kohls name and logo on them in the pics that dailymail posted. You have to scroll way down in the following article to find the pics that show JLo doing the finger point thing.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2320089/Jennifer-Lopez-stuns-naked-swimsuit-set-new-music-video.html

[–] Kelea7 12 years ago

Oh, ok. Well, I can't say definitely because JLo's music career was catapulted by this movie as you probably already know so there's really no before to compare it to. Anyway, while I've seen her do it, I'm not sure it's something she does often. Also I have seen plenty of artists do the finger point, it's quite common as you suggested. What's more or less unique to Selena is the way she points during the performance, and I haven't seen JLO do that specific notion much. When the commercial is released perhaps we can see it more in context, and we'll be able to tell if it was homage or not.

Sorry if I wasn't much help but I wanted to be sure I wasn't missing anything. Thanks for the link.

Rest in Peace Chris Kelly

[–] fiatlux-1 11 years ago

I thought Jennifer Lopez looked a lot like Selena. In some shots (a couple at the end of the film even!), she looked EXACTLY like her... I could not tell them apart there!
That said, at certain times in her life, she looked very little like Lopez.

But she was a good casting choice for her, NO ONE is going to look exactly like someone else.

"I'd say this cloud is Cumulo Nimbus."
"Didn't he discover America?"
"Penfold, shush."