Brie Larson and her unexpected vindication of Jennifer Lopez: ‘You’re the reason I’m an actress’

Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner’s snuggles and Selena Gomez’s gossip with Taylor Swift competed for the spotlight with the other Golden Globes viral episode: Brie Larson’s fan moment with Jennifer Lopez. While Captain Marvel, Golden Globe nominee for the series Meals with Chemistry, was being interviewed, JLo appeared and the excitement broke out. Brie Larson was fanning herself with her hands and threatening to burst into tears, “Oh, my god. Oh, my. I’m gonna cry. “I actually can’t. She’s the reason I wanted to be an actor. I can’t. No, I’m gonna cry!” Larson confessed to the reporter as the singer approached. Finally, the two met and Brie Larson was able to tell him in person that it was after seeing her in Selena that she decided she wanted to pursue acting: “Your work ethic is so important, thank you. … I’ve been wanting to say that to you for a long time,” she told her. One of the night’s most viral moments also made Jennifer Lopez emotional, as it reminded her of herself as a child, she recounted on Jan. 10 in an interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music 1. “I remember being a little girl and watching West Side Story and seeing Rita Moreno and knowing what that meant for me… I saw myself, and I saw the little girl, and to think that I did that for somebody was really, really overwhelming,” she said.

Last year marked the 25th anniversary of the release of Selena, the biopic about the Latin artist who was murdered at just 23 years old by the president of her fan club, Yolanda Saldívar, in 1995. Two years later, in 1997, the film telling her story was released. The titular role was played by an almost unknown actress with Puerto Rican roots, which was highly criticized at the time by those who claimed that a Mexican should have played the role. Jennifer Lopez’s excellent performance surprised everyone, putting her name on the map in Hollywood. The role changed the actress’s life; it not only made her the first Latina actress to earn $1 million for a starring role, but it also taught her a lot about the price of fame: “It’s been like that since Selena,” Jennifer Lopez explained to a W Magazine reporter who joined her for an interview and witnessed how a crowd followed the artist wherever she went: “I never thought about fame until then. After that film, I would have panic attacks. I remember walking down the street, and someone yelled, ‘Jennifer!’ and I didn’t know who it was. I ran home. From that point forward, I realized I couldn’t be alone in public. I don’t think I’ve been alone on the street in over 20 years,” she said.

Not only did Selena serve as a before and after in Jennifer Lopez’s career, but it has also represented a symbol for the Latino population in the United States. It was after the movie’s premiere that Hollywood began to include more Latino actors and to produce series and films related to this community. In 2021, a petition was made for Selena to be included in the National Film Registry of the United States, in the hopes that this would pressure Hollywood to increase Latino presence in the industry away from the stereotypes that usually define the roles played by Latinos, such as hypersexualized women, gang members and drug traffickers.

Last year, when the film celebrated its quarter-century anniversary, it returned to theaters in the United States, playing in over 500 of them. “It’s a testament to the magic of Selena that the movie is coming back. “It surprised all of us; it’s more popular today than when we originally made it. It means so much to everybody,” the film’s director, Gregory Nava, told NBC News. Nava also recalled one of the film’s most emotional scenes, the last concert Selena gave in Houston in front of 35,000 people: “There’s no visual effects on that scene in Selena. Those are all real people, really filling that stadium...As a director, you’re sitting in front of this huge crowd. Jennifer comes on stage, and she performs amazingly. The crowd went crazy; they’re crying, and they’re celebrating. Her family was there...I’ve never experienced anything so emotional in my life, in any film I’ve ever made.”

Brie Larson was 8 years old when the film was released, and judging by the Golden Globes anecdote, Selena was one of the most exciting moments of her life as well.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition