Jackie Guerra wanted the part of Suzette Quintanilla so badly that she lied at her audition, saying that she was an experienced drummer, when in fact she had never played the drums. When the truth was revealed, Suzette Quintanilla herself gave Guerra private lessons.
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To prepare for her role, Jennifer Lopez lived with Selena Quintanilla-Perez's family.
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When Jennifer Lopez signed on to play Selena, she expected to be providing her own vocals. However, it was felt that since the movie would be released so soon after Selena's death, her fans would not approve of hearing any voice other than hers. So, Lopez was coached to lip-sync instead of being provided the vocal coaching she expected, although she did sing the intro to "Como La Flor" in the Monterrey concert scene.
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The studio where "I Could Fall in Love" is recorded in the movie is Studio A in Q-Productions, where Selena actually recorded her English album.
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Jennifer Lopez became the highest paid Latina woman in Hollywood history by playing Selena Quintanilla-Perez, earning a then-unheard of $1,000,000.
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In the scene where Chris Perez (played by Jon Seda) first appears, the close up of his hands playing the guitar are in fact the hands of the real Chris Pérez.
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The Houston Astrodome concert scene was actually filmed at the San Antonio Alamodome, and 35,000 extras were not paid but actually given coupons for free Coke products.
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More than 20,000 girls auditioned for the roles of Selena at different ages.
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Jennifer Lopez and Constance Marie play mother and daughter in this movie. In real life, they are only four years apart.
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According to an interview on ET with Abraham Quintanilla Jr. and Suzette Quintanilla, Abraham confessed that the scene where Marcella teaches Selena the washing machine didn't actually happen, but it is true that they would all sit on the beach by the ocean together as a family.
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The real Selena was a big Faberge egg fan so that is why Yolanda Saldivar thought that the egg ring would be a perfect present for her.
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In real life, Selena, who was from Texas, had a mild but obvious southern accent (and can sometimes be spoken fairly strong with some words). Jennifer Lopez, who is from New York, (with help from the family) portrayed this accent in the small subtle ways you would hear from Selena in her interviews.
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This film used approximately 64,000 fans/extras, especially in the case of the stadium scene.
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Lupe Ontiveros, who was 54 years old in 1997, played Yolanda Saldivar, who was only 34 years old at the time of Selena's death in 1995.
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Constance Marie, who played Selena's mother in this movie, originally auditioned for the role of Selena.
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At the end of the film, when archive footage of Selena is shown, there are shots of fans mourning her and holding pictures of the actual Selena Quintanilla-Perez.
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The real Abraham Quintanilla (Selena's father (who served as executive producer)), wanted the scene of Selena and Chris Perez getting married out of the film because he didn't want Selena's younger fans to get the wrong idea about marriage. He was later convinced by director Gregory Nava.
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In this movie, Jennifer Lopez and Jacob Vargas play the children of Edward James Olmos and Constance Marie, but in the movie My Family (1995), they play the younger versions of their parents.
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News media and fans criticized choosing Jennifer Lopez to play Selena, as Jennifer was a Puerto Rican from New York and was portraying a Mexican from Texas. There were protests calling for a recast.
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Salma Hayek was considered for the role of Selena Quintanilla-Perez, but she refused because she wanted to play Frida Khalo in Frida (2002) and did not wish to play two different Mexican heroines. Jennifer Lopez would call Hayek's claim "an outright lie" in a Moveline interview.
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Almost the entire cast (Jennifer Lopez, Edward James Olmos, Jacob Vargas, Constance Marie, and Lupe Ontiveros) previously starred together in director Gregory Nava's film My Family (1995).
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Selena's real life parents, Abraham and Marcela Quintanilla, reportedly started crying while watching the film at the premiere.
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The Mexico scene was filmed at the main branch of the San Antonio Library in downtown.
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Rob Reiner was approached to direct, but was then turned down after the critical and box-office failure of North (1994).
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In 2021, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
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Yolanda was a bridesmaid in Suzette's wedding
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Despite being 46 days younger than Jackie Guerra, Constance Marie played her mother in this movie.
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Among the actresses considered to play the title role were Leticia Miller, an unknown who bore a striking resemblance to Selena, and Bibi Gaytán, a Mexican soap opera actress. Coincidentally, Selena Quintanilla-Perez had guest starred on a soap opera Gaytán starred in, called "Dos mujeres, un camino."
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Warner Bros. released the film for the first time on Blu-ray In 2020 under their Warner Archive Collection label, on the 25th anniversary of her untimely death.
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Selena's historic Houston Astrodome concert was recreated at the San Antonio Alamodome.
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Jennifer Lopez accepted her then-boyfriend Ojani Noa's engagement at the wrap party for this movie, at the Hard Rock Cafe in San Antonio, TX.
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The mall scenes were filmed at Ingram Park Mall in San Antonio, TX.
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"La carcacha" was Selena's first homemade music video.
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The part in the movie when Chris and Selena are walking on the pier together was shot in Aransas Pass, Texas at an old company called "Gulf King."
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Selena's death occurred five days after that of Eric "Eazy-E" Wright, who was the subject of another music biopic - "Straight Outta Compton" (2015). Eazy-E died 26 MAR 1995; Selena was killed 31 MAR 1995.
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Jennifer Lopez wore 5 different wigs throughout the film.
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Sara, who was played by Alex Meneses, was based on Selena's real life cousin of the same name.
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Jennifer Lopez's first movie portraying a real life person.
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Panchito Gómez played a young Abraham Quintanilla while actor Edward James Olmos played the older version. In the movie American Me, Panchito played the character Montoya Santana as a young version and Edward James Olmos played Montoya Santana as the older version.
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At 38:15 in Edward James Olmos looks right at the camera for a split second.
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Steven Spielberg was initially considered to direct the film but turned it down for Amistad (1997).
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Jacob Vargas previously appeared in Get Shorty (1995) and Jennifer Lopez later starred in Out of Sight (1998), both films of which are adaptations of Elmore Leonard novels.
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Selena's real family were left sobbing with emotion after the scene filmed at the San Antonio Alamodome, because Jennifer Lopez's performance was so convincing they thought they were seeing the real Selena again.
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There was a hint that Selena's father was aware of Selena and Chris's relationship...said hint was her and Chris exchanging romantic gestures before Selena went on the stage to perform.