Jennifer Lopezis celebrating the milestone of a film credited with helping launch her career.
In anInstagram postMonday, the 52-year-old star shared her excitement about the 25th anniversary of the iconic filmSelena, which followed the life and tragic death of the late Mexican-American singerSelena Quintanilla.
Lopez played Quintanilla in the aforementioned1997 biopic, back when she was only 28-years-old.
“What a very special day,” Lopez wrote on Instagram. “Today we celebrate and honor Selena’s legacy and music.”
“This movie means so much to me … Selena and her family mean so much to me, and I was so lucky to be chosen to play her,” Lopez continued. “I’ll never forget this time in my life and it’s an honor as an artist to have been part of the magic that is this movie.”
Alongside her words, Lopez shared a gallery of photos and videos including some featuring her playing Quintanilla and others of the Queen of Tejano music herself.
Daniel Zuchnik/Getty; Vinnie Zuffante/Getty.
“Yeah, it was tough, but I knew I had a tough job ahead of me from the second I got the role,” said Lopez. “It was nonstop. I was working on another movie at the time and in my trailer it was like, music all day, videos all day just to really absorb who she was.”
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Selena Quintanilla-Perez.Arlene Richie/getty images
In March 2020, Quintanilla’s father Abraham opened up to PEOPLE about how thefamily is keeping Selena’s legacy alive. “When Selena passed away, I told my family that I was going to try to keep her memory alive through her music,” he said at the time. “And 25 years later I think we, as a family, accomplished that.”
“We can be fine, and then someone wants to share where they were when they heard that Selena died, and that’s very difficult,” added Suzette, Quintanilla’s sister and former bandmate. “I have to dig deep in my soul to figure out why. Then I realize it’s their way of sharing, that they feel that connection, they’re sharing that they felt lost.”
source: people.com
