Q&A: Jennifer Lopez (@JLo), & @Maluma, Speak About The Love Story, The Role Social Media Plays & The Music Behind #MarryMeMovie, & #OwenWilson Speaks About Working Once Again w/ JLo & Alongside Maluma. @MarryMeMovie @PeacockTV
Esta pasado fin de semana nuestro editor, y critico de cine, Rafy Mediavilla dijo presente por Criticologos.com en la conferencia de prensa global de la pelicula de Universal Pictures, “Marry Me’, protagonizada por Jennifer Lopez, Owen Wilson, y el cantautor Maluma haciendo su debut como actor de cine, y acontinuacion pueden leer un poco de lo que nos contaron. La pelicula ya en cines en Puerto Rico, y mañana viernes en USA, y en Peacock TV el dia de San Valentin.
Packed with original songs by JENNIFER LOPEZ (Hustlers, The Boy Next Door) and global Latin music star MALUMA, Marry Me stars Lopez as musical superstar Kat Valdez and OWEN WILSON (Wedding Crashers, Wonder) as Charlie Gilbert, a math teacher—total strangers who agree to marry and then get to know each other. An unlikely romance about two different people searching for something real in a world where value is based on likes and followers, Marry Me is a modern love story about
celebrity, marriage and social media.
Jennifer Lopez (Kat Valdes)
Who is she in your eyes and how does her life change from the moment she decides to follow the impulse to marry a stranger?
Jennifer Lopez:
I mean, to me, in my eyes, Kat Valdes is a very kind of self-assured, you know, artist, recording artist, veteran in the in the industry who has built herself, you know, into something that and her life into something that you know, she’s proud of, but also in a way because of her personal life has is become a bit unsatisfying. And I think for her, you know, there’s a there’s a beautiful journey here.
Once Owen comes into her life and you know, the character that oh in place, Charlie comes into her life and really changes it forever, changes her perspective, changes her ideas of being caught. Sometimes you feel kind of caught like, OK, I’m trapped in this fame. I’m trapped in this life. This is all I can do. And I really don’t get to have a life like everybody else or love like everybody else. And I think what Owen teaches her own scary character teaches her is that she can and that it is possible and that there is hope. For her, and she could have a real love and a real home, which she’s never had.
Can you talk about the experience of making an album and a movie at the same time?
Jennifer Lopez:
Yeah, yeah, that was a first for me, which was such a pleasure. It’s like my two worlds coming together. But making the album it was it was great because, you know, I got to really allowed me to input into where and when and what these musical moments would be for this character. They really look to me to be like, OK, how would this be and how could we make this feel real and actually picking the music for the arc of the characters? Nobody who understood the character more than I did and nobody who understood what you know it was to be kind of a musical art artist and be this person within this movie.
And so picking the songs for the moments was such a pleasure for me. And then to have Maluma, you know, kind of fill in the blanks for his character. And he did such a great job with the two songs that he did on Enemy, Young and Segundo for the moments that he introduces himself and then for the moment where he’s asking for a second chance. You know, I always thought like, Oh, so you know, I was too on the nose. And then when I heard the song and what he did with what he came up with, I was so pleased and I felt the same way with all of the songs Love of My Life after Love on My Way. The title song Marry Me. I just felt like we really found the characters within those songs.
Speaking of the character, how much of that is in you and how much of you is in Kat?
Jennifer Lopez:
I think there’s a lot of us in each other. There is, I mean, I, you know, there wasn’t this wasn’t a role where I had to research what it was like to be a famous recording artist who does branding and who has all of that. I understand what all of that is already. I think the difficult part was kind of the metal part, which was, you know, the idea of showing what it’s really like inside my bedroom when something goes wrong and you suffer a heartbreak like this in front of the whole world and the media kind of goes to town on you, you know, to kind of unearth the story and understand it and kind of poke fun at it. And, you know, in that way and what that really feels like. And in some of those moments, you know, even with scenes with me and Owen where he’s asking, like, don’t you want to just give up on the whole of the, you know? You know, it was just that philosophy that she has like, I understand, like, no, if there’s a one in a billion chance, no matter what the numbers are, you’re a math teacher, you know? That’s worth it, that’s worth it, because I think what she has craving is, is that love in that home. And so there was a lot of moments there where we I was able to bring a truth to the character in the in the emotional life that was really authentic and real.
Social media is important in the film, and it kind of has Kat has to deal with the pressures of social media, right? That’s a very real thing today.
Jennifer Lopez:
It is a real thing. You know, it used to be just the tabloids or the press, and now it’s social media as well, which can be, you know, even just as if not even more anxiety provoking for people in the public eye. But I think that’s what’s also makes this one a little bit more modern is that you have that element in it. What that’s like to have, you know, a heartbreak and a huge embarrassment in front of the world and how it travels so quickly. Like before I was like, Oh, it’s going to come out. The story is going to come out. This is what’s going to happen and we’ll we’ll see if it gets picked up. It’s like, there’s no doubt if something happens, somebody is going to see it.
They’re going to get it on camera. They’re going to talk about it, they’re going to share it. It’s just like, you know, and navigating that as a person in the public eye is can be tricky. And especially when you know, difficult things happen in your life like cat suffers in the beginning of this movie, which I don’t wish on anybody.
Maluma (Bastian) & Owen Wilson (Charlie Gilbert)
You both play two characters that are key in the life of a musical superstar Kat Valdes, Charlie and Bastian. How do you see them and what do you like the most about them?
Owen Wilson:
Well, I think just from that kind of introduction, we are also kidding. Earlier, just the names Master and Charlie. I think you get a lot of character information just from that Charlie’s sort of ordinary kind of, I guess that would be sort of a man of the people. And then, you know, Bastian is this singing sensation and engaged to Kat Valdes and sort of through circumstance, somehow I wind up there at the concert and you know, the next thing you know, I’m on stage getting married and it’s such a it was. It’s such a leap of faith that when you read it, you’re kind of I wonder how that’s going to work. But yet in the movie, sort of everything that leads up to it, I think you kind of go along with it. I felt it was kind of believable.
Maluma:
Yeah. And I think of the character in the movie is great, perfect for my first movie, too. You know, that is the first time that I do this kind of acting, and I feel pretty related to the to the character as well because we have this similar things we love. We both love music. We both love touring performance and everything. So I feel pretty connected. But at the end of the movie, you can tell that I don’t really like dad bashing, right? Because is super douchebag, right? He did an awful thing.
You know, just trying to to be with Kat’s assistant, right? And that’s the only part that again, related to the to the to the character, of course. But yeah, I mean, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed a lot the experience of being in the movie and everything was great. Even the music making the music was beautiful to how was it to work so closely with her on this feelgood romantic musical comedy.
Maluma:
It was great, man. I felt comfortable, you know, because for being like my first movie, I was getting kind of nervous, you know, I don’t know what was going to happen. I didn’t know how, how it worked. You know, like it was my first time and then when when I was there with Jennifer, she was like, Yo, we’re going to do this, you’re going to kill it, just get a focus. You know, she gave me a bunch of advisors also. Also, Owen, he was there for me, the first scene. I remember that I had to yell at him like crazy and saying bad words in the first scene that we were shooting together.
And then he at the end of the of the scene, he came to me and he was like, Yo, man, I really felt that acting. And for me, it meant it meant the world for me, you know, because it was my first scene. And of course, I was kind of nervous and everything. So so yeah, working with Jennifer and the whole team was was beautiful. Everything, everything was organic. Everything was was natural to me.
Owen Wilson:
And then as for kind of working with Jen, for me, it was very relaxing. I think, because Jen, you know, it was nice because she kind of assumed so many responsibilities. It was kind of like, I didn’t have to worry about anything. She, she and Elaine were kind of, you know, I think they had to sort of bear the brunt of kind of, you know, the stress of everything. But for me, it just and a lot of times when you work on a movie, you kind of hear it in your head or you have casting ideas in and with this everything the way I sort of heard it and imagined it.
I felt like the casting was just everybody was just really spot on. And I don’t know, it was a relaxing movie for me because I wasn’t worried about anything. I felt it was, you know, that it was working while we were doing it.
Why was it important for you to be a part of the soundtrack and to bring your Latin essence into it too?
Maluma:
Well, first of all, because I love singing, you know, I love touring and I love performing. I’ve been doing this for 14 years in a row almost, so I wanted to be part of the soundtrack, not even acting I wanted to to bring my Latino culture to the movie too, because I know that there is a lot of people from Latin America that are going to they’re going to feel attached to the movie to, you know, not only because of the way we’re acting. We’re talking about this main character that is called Bashan, and he’s from Latin America, and it didn’t happen often, you know, so. So for me, it was pretty important to show the world that that we as Latin people, we feel proud of it too, and we can we can make it in the big screen too.
And is it true that Jennifer came to your concert and that’s in the movie?
Maluma:
Yeah, I had, I was touring, actually. I was touring the in those months I was shooting the movie. I was sitting here in the states and well, the idea just came to the table to bring Jennifer to the country, and maybe we could shoot one of the scenes there. And it was a great idea. I mean, it was kind of hard because it was in the middle of the concert. So I had to get ready and mike for the for the for the movie. And then I had the all the all the microphone there was for me, for the concert and then cameras.
There was another camera from the movie, there were cameras for the concert. You know, everything was like crazy. People were yelling at the the sound because they were not understanding what was going on, you know? But that was beautiful. Everything was worth it. The scene for me, that scene is one of my favorites, to be honest. We were performing. Mary made the main track of the movie there in the Madison Square Garden, full sold-out 18000 people. So, so yeah, It was pretty nice.
The movie really plays into the idea that opposites attract. Do you believe that in real life?
Owen Wilson:
Well, to an extent. I think opposites in the sense from, you know, different backgrounds in and seemingly, you know, very different. But I think in terms of your spirit, I think there has to be some sort of overlap in and, you know, either in humor or the way you look at the world or what you’re curious about or sense of adventure and so in those ways, I think sometimes it helps to have a little bit of overlap. You know, for that attraction to work.
Did Maluma or Jennifer at any time ask you to sing or dance?
Owen Wilson:
Well, you know, I I’m not on the soundtrack for this movie. I did actually have a song on Starsky and Hutch and I remember that was a real challenge for the producer. He said that I broke three Auto-Tune machines trying to get trying to get my voice right. So I’m not. Unfortunately, I’m not a natural singer.
