Jennifer Lopez Teases ‘First Musical’ “Kiss of the Spider Woman” at Sundance: 'Very Tiring but Exhilarating'

Jennifer Lopez is braving the Sundance snow to tease her buzzy new project — which, as she noted, is her very first movie musical.

At the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, on Sunday, Jan. 26, the actress-singer, 55, discussed her upcoming project Kiss of the Spider Woman alongside director Bill Condon and costar Tonatiuh as part of the Los Angeles Times Talks series, presented by Chase Sapphire Reserve.

"I never felt in my life that I was born to play a part ever. And I really felt that with this," Lopez said of her character, screen star Ingrid Luna. "Love is just love and people are just people. And for me, that resonated very deeply because of my own life and my own children. And so I really took to it so immediately and was so excited."

A reimagining of the 1993 Tony Award-winning musical and 1985 movie of the same name, Kiss of the Spider Woman stars Diego Luna as Valentin Arregui, a political prisoner during Argentina's civil war in the 1980s. Incarcerated alongside him is Luis Molina, portrayed by Tonatiuh, 30.

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Getting to sing the songs from musical creators John Kander and Fred Ebb — and with Chicago and Dreamgirls director Condon, 69 — was "a dream come true," said Lopez, who is also among the film's producers.

"I did [Selena Quintanilla-Pérez biopic] Selena years ago, but it was not my voice," she noted. "They wanted to use her voice. I did dance a little, but there wasn't much choreography. So this was my first musical."

"It was watching a mastery of work to see you before every single time," Tonatiuh told his costar. "Mind you, we literally were shooting a number a day. We would go in, we would shoot the number, and then the set would be gone the next day and we would go off to the next one."

"I would've liked to have had a whole year to do a big musical like this, but we didn't have that, this independent film," agreed Lopez. Indie films, she said, are "labors of love."

"Our proper rehearsals and learning the actual choreography was, I mean, weeks. And it was challenging," she added.

Speaking to Condon, Lopez said: "You were also very upfront about the fact that you wanted to do it like a traditional musical from the '40s and '50s where they would do the whole number in one shot, sing it and dance it all the way through. And he's like, ‘One of the reasons I want to do it is I know you can do that.’ It was very tiring, but exhilarating as well."

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An official Sundance Film Festival synopsis for Kiss of the Spider Woman describes the movie as "a textually rich historical and political drama with the flashy technicolor extravagance of an old Hollywood musical… Jennifer Lopez is an astonishing scene-stealer in a career-highlight performance as Luna/Aurora, with showstopping musical numbers that underscore the exuberant prowess of her dancing and voice.”

Related: Jennifer Lopez Makes 'Incredible' Clothing Donation for L.A. Fire Relief: 'Beyond Grateful'

Kiss of the Spider Woman does not yet have a distributor or release date. One of the production companies behind the movie is Ben Affleck and Matt Damon's Artists Equity.

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