Jennifer Lopez recalls losing an iconic role to Madonna

Jennifer Lopez is looking back at a time she lost an iconic ’90s musical role to Madonna.

The actress made the admission at a screening and Q&A in Los Angeles for her upcoming project, Kiss of the Spider Woman—her first movie musical in 30 years.

“I went to audition for Evita for Alan Parker,” Lopez said in a video posted by Variety. “I had been practicing for weeks. I sang my heart out and did my thing. And he goes, ‘You’re amazing. You know Madonna has the part, right?’”

The audience erupted in laughter, and so did Lopez. “I said, ‘OK, bye-bye. Nice to meet you,’” she recalled her awkward exit from the audition for Alan Parker’s 1996 adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s stage hit.

Madonna’s performance as Argentina’s First Lady Eva Perón went on to earn her a Golden Globe and helped the film score five Oscar nominations, including a win for Best Original Song.

Lopez admitted she then chased a musical role for decades. “My mom would sit me in front of the TV to watch West Side Story on Thanksgiving,” she said earlier this year at Sundance. “I was mesmerised. I thought, ‘That’s what I want to do.’”

She revealed Evita wasn’t her only near miss—she also auditioned for Chicago and came close to landing a part in Nine.

Now, nearly 25 years later, Chicago screenwriter Bill Condon—who wrote the Spider Woman adaptation—offered Lopez the role of Ingrid Luna. “She has a legitimate voice and a larger-than-life personality,” Condon told Entertainment Weekly.

Lopez says she has made peace with the long wait by calling it perfect timing. “It couldn’t have been a better one for me,” she said of Spider Woman. “I’m really, really glad I could step into Chita Rivera’s shoes.”