Jennifer Lopez’s star-studded This Is Me… Now didn’t include all of the A-list talent she wanted. In The Greatest Love Story Never Told, the documentary that profiles how the musical experience was made, Lopez reveals that Anthony Ramos almost participated in the project.
While speaking to wardrobe supervisor Shawn “Beezy” Barton at rehearsal, Lopez revealed, “Anthony Ramos was going to do this. The guy from In the Heights. He was going to do the ‘Rebound’ number with me… And he was like, ‘Ah, I’m friends with Marc.'”
Marc, of course, is Lopez’s ex, Marc Anthony, to whom she was married from 2004 to 2014, and with whom she shares 16-year-old twins Max and Emme.
The doc then flashes to Lopez calling Ramos, and telling him, “I didn’t know that you and Marc were good friends. I didn’t know that. That’s nice.”
Lopez went on to assure Ramos that, while the song delves into the haunting reality of abusive relationships, Anthony is “the father of my kids, obviously. I’m never going to do anything that’s going to really pinpoint him out.”
She did acknowledge, though, that the musical experience “is very meta.”
“It is about kind of the 20-year journey between that last album and this album,” she told Ramos. “A lot of things happened. There were a lot of relationships that I was in. That thing that you’re playing in it is representative of many relationships, not one specific relationship.”
Back at rehearsal, Lopez told Beezy that, as she explained to Ramos, she’s not even playing herself in the musical experience.
According to Lopez, the actor responded by saying, “Yeah, I just think that people are going to think that… you know how the media is.” As for how Lopez responded to that, she recounted, “I said, ‘But if we only did our art thinking about what the media’s going to say, what the f**k are we doing?'”
Ramos wasn’t the only star to turn down the project. During a scene in the documentary it’s revealed that Taylor Swift turned down the opportunity to appear, while Jason Momoa, Jennifer Coolidge, Lizzo, Ariana Grande, Snoop Dogg and others were unavailable.
At one point, Lopez told choreographer Sienna Lalau that she’d envisioned Khloe Kardashian in a certain role, but the reality star opted not to appear for reasons unknown.
“People scared, scared to put themselves out there,” Lopez remarked. “I get it. Took me a long time. I’m scared. I don’t act like I’m scared. That’s the secret to my whole f**king career.”
Plenty of stars did appear, though, including Jane Fonda and Derek Hough, both of whom were unsure they’d be able to participate at one point. Trevor Noah, Kim Petras, Keke Palmer, Post Malone, Sofia Vergara, Jay Shetty, Jenifer Lewis, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Sadhguru and Fat Joe also made cameos in the musical experience.
The Greatest Love Story Never Told will begin streaming on Prime Video Feb. 26 at 7 p.m. ET.
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