Jennifer Lopez reveals she was insistent on casting a Latin artist in ‘Marry Me’: “I wanted to make a bilingual album”Jennifer Lopez reveals she was insistent on casting a Latin artist in ‘Marry Me’: “I wanted to make a bilingual album”

Courtesy of Universal Pictures

Jennifer Lopez stood her ground when casting the main characters for the upcoming Marry Me movie and revealed she said no to some of the biggest acts in music when casting Bastian, a role that eventuall went to Maluma.

“So many names came up. All the big musicians you can think of right now,” the “On the Floor” singer told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. “But not one Latin name came up. And I was like, ‘You know what? I really want to make a bilingual album for this for a mainstream Hollywood movie. Why don’t we pick a Spanish artist, a Latin artist. Somebody who just is in Spanish, and let’s talk Spanish in the movie.'”

Jennifer, who plays pop superstar Kat Valdez in Marry Me, continued, “I wanted to make a bilingual album,” and says hiring a Latin artist was her top priority. “When we were talking about that part, a lot of different names came up. We need somebody who’s a musician, superstar, super swag, could play this character. And all of the nuances that he has could be lovable,” she described.

Although the part called for “the perfect, right guy,” Jennifer adds there was a caveat: the person also had to be “the guy who you don’t want to marry, and who could that be?”

Maluma was eventually hired to play Bastian, Kat’s boyfriend who cheats on her the day they’re supposed to wed.  Jennifer adds of Maluma, “The two songs that he wrote specifically for the movie, not as a Maluma song, but as a Bastian song, was so impressive to me.  Because it showed me that he really understood the character.”

Marry Me, also starring Owen Wilson, Sarah Silverman and Game of Thrones star John Bradley, arrives in theaters Friday, February 11.

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