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Jennifer Lopez has “a wonderful eye” as a film producer, according to Bill Condon.
The writer-director behind Kiss of the Spider Woman spoke to PEOPLE exclusively at the Monday, Oct. 6 New York City premiere of the movie musical (in theaters Friday). “The thing is, she knows so much about everything,” says Condon, 69.
Lopez, 56, stars in Kiss of the Spider Woman as movie-within-a-movie star Ingrid Luna opposite Tonatiuh and Diego Luna as Argentine political prisoners dreaming of her singing and dancing in Technicolor. The actress-musician is also among the film’s producers, a group that includes Ben Affleck and Matt Damon of Artists Equity.
Condon says that Lopez was knowledgeable about “musical performance, choreographers, dance, so she always had a wonderful eye for everything that was going on and casting everything.”
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The Grammy-winning superstar “was a great sounding board,” adds the Chicago screenwriter.
Lopez’s leadership skills also had an “immediate” effect on actorly chemistry, continues Condon. Luna, 45, “came into this as a non-dancer, and he’s a great, great serious actor. But, you know, he shared his insecurity with Jennifer and she gave him a wonderful note: ‘You’re a great actor, play the part of Gene Kelly.’”
The cast and crew, he recalls, “saw her take him under her wing. And then slowly, as the movie progressed, they would just spend more time together talking about stuff and it was beautiful to watch.”
As for what fans of his past movie musicals like Beauty and the Beast and Dreamgirls can expect, Condon tells PEOPLE that Kiss of the Spider Woman is “a tribute” to the mid-century films it evokes. “But it’s also a very serious movie, so there are two movies in one,” he says of its politically driven prison drama and lavish musical fantasy.
“You want movies to give you the full meal,” he adds. “When you go to a restaurant, you just don’t want a dessert or an appetizer. You get a deeply emotional experience, but then there’s this big dollop of entertainment that makes it easier to accept.”
Courtesy of Roadside Attractions
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Kiss of the Spider Woman, which first premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, is a reimagining of the Broadway musical from Terrence McNally, John Kander, and Fred Ebb, as well as the 1985 Brazil-set film; all are adapted from Argentine writer Manuel Puig’s 1976 novel. The new movie is in theaters Friday, Oct. 10.
