"A Movie Like This Is A Miracle To Get Made": Why Jennifer Lopez's Adaptation Of Iconic Play Means So Much To Cast & Director Of Sundance Darling
They also praise the movie's authenticity.
Forty years after the previous film adaptation released to widespread acclaim, Bill Condon's Kiss of the Spider Woman has debuted at 2025's Sundance Film Festival and is also off to a strong critical start. Condon wrote and directed the latest adaptation of Manuel Puig's novel of the same name, though this time has shifted towards also adapting Terrence McNally, John Kander, and Fred Ebb's stage play version of the story. Even still, Condon worked closely with his cast and crew to ensure that the movie was staying authentic to its Argentinian setting and Latin American themes and characters.
Kiss of the Spider Woman focuses primarily on Luis Molina, a gay hairdresser, and Valentin Arregui Paz, a Marxist, who are imprisoned in an Argentinian prison in 1981 during the Dirty War for different reasons. In their efforts to disassociate from their traumatic captivity, they spend their time debating and imagining classic films led by a classic actress named Ingrid Luna, while also slowly developing an unlikely bond. Andor's Diego Luna and Carry-On's Tonatiuh lead the Kiss of the Spider Woman cast as Valentin and Luis, alongside Tony Dovolani, Josefina Scaglione, Bruno Bichir, Aline Mayagoitia and Jennifer Lopez as Ingrid, as well as executive producing.
RelatedKiss Of The Spider Woman Review: Jennifer Lopez Wows As An Alluring Diva In This Sensational Yet Flawed MusicalThrilling, sharp dance numbers, glitzy costumes & campy dialogue all come together to create a dazzling musical that has a few flaws.
As part of the film's Sundance Film Festival premiere, ScreenRant interviewed Tonatiuh, Aline Mayagoitia and Bill Condon to discuss Kiss of the Spider Woman. The stars all reflected on the importance of getting to be in the new adaptation of Puig's novel, with Mayagoitia in particular recalling a unique family connection to Kander and Ebb's stage play, while Tonatiuh recalled his bond with Luna on set. Condon also reflected on the strides he took to make sure the movie was authentic to the experiences those akin to the characters went through in real life.
Tonatiuh Found His Kiss Of The Spider Woman Experience To Be "A Gift""...Diego Luna's so charming, how can you not fall in love?"While having been an actor for some time now, including having recurring roles in Promised Land and Vida, Tonatiuh's Kiss of the Spider Woman role is one of his biggest yet, while also having come on the heels of the record-setting success of Netflix's Carry-On. In reflecting on his experience with the film, Tonatiuh called the movie "a gift" and praised his collaboration with Luna in their prison scenes, recalling how they built it "scene by scene, trauma by trauma":
Tonatiuh: Honestly, it was a gift. I love it. It was a hard, hard job, but, man, it was an absolute gift to be able to show three different iterations of the same person. Well, we shot two films, right? There's the musical component, and there was also the prison component. So the musical side, [our characters] had conflicts, because we were both vying for Aurora's love. But on the prison side, the first scene, the first moment when we lock eyes as Molina and Valentin is the first time that we ever said any words to each other. And Bill gifted us — we shot everything in sequence, so we built that relationship, scene by scene, trauma by trauma. So, by the end of it, we were just locked in and bonded. And also, Diego Luna's so charming, how can you not fall in love?
Kiss Of The Spider Woman Has Been With Mayagoitia Her Entire Life"It just started a great chain of events for me to connect with that book."Similar to Tonatiuh, Mayagoitia finds herself landing one of her biggest roles yet in Kiss of the Spider Woman, having come fresh off an appearance in Max's rom-com series Love Life. In reflecting on her and the movie's journey to get to Sundance, the star expressed her feeling that it's the type of movie that needs "a miracle to get made", let alone make its world premiere at the film festival:
Aline Mayagoitia: Oh my god, I feel like a movie like this is a miracle to get made. So, I think it's a testament to the magic of Diego Luna and Jennifer Lopez that this could get made. And it's a movie about the magic of cinema. I mean, truly, it's about two people that find themselves in a horrible situation, and through the magic of narrative and storytelling and fantasy and escapism, they get to fall in love with each other.
So, to be a part of that, I'm the target audience for this movie. It's a queer, Latino revolutionary musical. I would be a fan of this no matter what. [Chuckles] I'm the world's biggest Bill Condon fan, because I think Chicago and Dreamgirls are the best movie musicals ever. So, to be a part of this and to have been there on set, God, was the best eight days of my life, honestly.
With the movie having multiple forms of source material, with the book, stage play and William Hurt-led film, Mayagoitia found that she largely turned to Puig's novel and the play in order to immerse herself in the world of Kiss of the Spider Woman. She also recalled her family's own sweet connection to the play, with her mom having seen the musical while pregnant with the star and even basing her style off of original star Chita Rivera for a while:
Aline Mayagoitia: So, I went back, and I read the original novel, which I actually had only read in English, but I went back and read it in Spanish. What's really amazing about the novel is it's really dialogue. It's just two characters talking, and it's kind of like a screenplay. So I think it's very dialectical in that way that they just have these debates about these three movies, that are real movies also. So then, going through and doing all the research and looking at those movies, one of them actually is a Nazi film that they talk about, and they have a whole debate about the propaganda-ness of that. So, I just found that so rich. And I've been really reading more Latin American literature and trying to connect with my roots.
It just started a great chain of events for me to connect with that book. It's so beautiful, highly recommend to anyone. Manuel Puig, fierce. And then, actually, my mom, when she was pregnant with me, she saw the original musical in 1994, so I literally feel like the Kander and Ebb music is like in my DNA. Actually, my mom cut her hair like Chita Rivera based off of that musical, we were just obsessed with it. So, for me, this score and these songs and the iconic white outfit that Chita wears on the Tony Awards now adapted to be Jennifer. It's everything I love rolled into one.
Given the story's Argentinian setting and Latin-American cast, it's fair to wonder whether Kiss of the Spider Woman will largely be comprised of Spanish dialogue, particularly after Luna's recent Hulu miniseries La Máquina, which was entirely in Spanish. Though Mayagoitia confirmed her scenes are in English, she did tease that Luis and Valentin's scenes may not be:
Aline Mayagoitia: Yeah, well, the movie within the movie that I'm a part of is in English, but you're gonna have to wait and see about the other timeline that Diego and Tonatiuh are in.
Condon Turned To His Entire Cast & Crew To Make The Movie Authentic"...I was always looking to my collaborators..."With the movie and Puig's novel being thoroughly rooted in Hispanic and Latin culture, the New York City-born-and-raised Condon acknowledged that adapting Kiss of the Spider Woman for the screen was "a challenge". That being said, he praised his collaboration with his cast and crew for keeping the movie authentic, including noting that he was "surrounded by people who had relatives who'd been" in similar situations to the characters in the film:
Bill Condon: It was a challenge. There was a lot of research, and also I was always looking to my collaborators, starting with the actors. But, we made most of the movie in Uruguay, so I was surrounded by people who had relatives who'd been affected by the stories that are told in the novel. So it was, I think for me, talking to as many people as possible, researching and also making people into collaborators.
Check out more Sundance 2025 interview coverage here, including:
Kiss of the Spider Woman premiered at Sundance on January 26 and is currently in a bidding war for a U.S. distribution deal.
Source: ScreenRant Plus
Your RatingKiss of the Spider Woman Release Date January 26, 2025 Runtime 128 minutes Director Bill Condon Writers Bill Condon, Manuel Puig Producers Barry Josephson, Ben Affleck, Benny Medina, Diego Luna, Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, Jennifer Lopez, Kevin Halloran, Matt Damon, Sam Weisman, Greg Yolen, Michael Joe, Tom Kirdahy, Pamela Thur, Dani BernfeldKiss of the Spider Woman follows the evolving relationship between ValentÃn, a political prisoner, and Molina, imprisoned for public indecency. Sharing a cell, their bond strengthens as Molina narrates a Hollywood musical featuring his favorite diva, Ingrid Luna, offering an escape from their harsh realities.
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