Courtney Howard // Film Critic
Little did Argentine author Manuel Puig know when he published “KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN” in 1976 that it would go on to endure the longevity it has. In the 80s, it was adapted into an Oscar-winning film directed by Hector Babenco and starring John Hurt and Raul Julia. In the 90s, it became a Tony-award-winning musical by John Kander and Fred Ebb. And, now, 3 decades after the musical’s debut comes the movie musical adaptation of the source material, directed by Bill Condon (GODS AND MONSTERS, DREAMGIRLS, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST).
In this dazzling, heartrending iteration, a gregarious, gender-fluid window dresser Luis Molina (Tonatiuh) regales their political prisoner cellmate Valentin Arregi (Diego Luna) with the plot of his favorite film, “Kiss of the Spider Woman” while trapped in an Argentinian jail in 1983. In Molina’s descriptive flight of fancy, they escape into a Technicolor Hollywood musical starring Ingrid Luna (Jennifer Lopez), who plays both beautiful, lovelorn Aurora and the iconic vamp The Spider Woman. The imprisoned pair “watch” as Aurora searches for her true love and battles against a curse, both imagining themselves as characters in the action, Aurora’s dashing confidante Kendall Nesbitt (Tonatiuh) and handsome photographer Armando (Luna).
Condon, speaking from the film’s virtual press conference, said that it was the timeliness of the source material that made him want to tackle the project,
“Even though all previous versions had been groundbreaking in their time, Puig was way ahead of all of them. We just caught up to everything he was writing about – specifically stuff about gender fluidity and just the fact that it’s a love story. The novel is a love story – not a transactional love story. It was a chance for me to be true to Puig.”
Lopez had always been interested in being in a musical, even going so far as auditioning for Alan Parker’s EVITA despite Madonna already been given the role. Decades later, though, another opportunity finally manifested with this script landing on her desk. She stated,
“The minute I read it, I was blown away that all of the things that I imagined, when I was like a little girl, of what I wanted to do with my life were in this script. I got to sing, I got to dance, I got to act, I got to play like a big Hollywood movie star. It was like the stuff that dreams are made of. It was really a no-brainer for me.”
She connected to the love story within, but also to another aspect.
“It was also this beautiful homage to how important movies are, films are in our life, and cinema is.”
Tonatiuh jumped at the chance to be a part of this film.
“I got to play the totality of the gender spectrum in a film, and that was such a gift. And it’s quite touching, not just the relevance of our film, but like how it centers the dignity of the Latino and the LGBTQIA community.”
Luna had participated in student protests in the mid-90s. However, that wasn’t necessarily his immediate through-line into his want to be a part of this production.
“The most important kind of part of my past that I got to play with here is theatre. My father was a set designer, and this film, to me, is a homage to the theatre, or how much film was theatre back then and how film were shot. The dynamic of filming was very close to filming theatre basically. We are talking about how film and pop culture can be escape, but also a mirror. A mirror that helps you transit reality. That’s my life, basically. That’s why I do what I do.”
Lopez, Tonatiuh and Luna had their work cut out for them, starting with the fact they each have dualities to their characters. Lopez plays a whopping 3 roles: the glamourous Hollywood star Ingrid Luna, the movie-within-a-movie characters of Aurora and the titular, intimidating Spider Woman.
“For me it was kind of making them all just a little bit different but knowing that all of us were the same, in that we were all searching for love. The Spiderwoman just wants a kiss. Aurora is looking for her true love. Molina’s dying to be loved, wanting to be loved, wanting to be seen. And even Diego’s character, Valentin, wants to be seen, wants to be acknowledged, wants to be heard as a political revolutionary. There was just so many pieces to it and it was about finding just little nuances. Obviously the costumes and the hair and all of that helped to define each one, but there were different emotional cores at the center of each character as well.”
With exception of some of the prep work, Tonatiuh’s process to finding his dual characters was similar to Lopez’s.
“In the 1940’s musical, I really wanted to exemplify traditional masculinity, so that it could have a strong juxtaposition and contrast to Molina and their genderless form. In order to arrive there though, I had just come off of CARRY ON, so I needed to lose weight. I lost about 45 pounds in 50 days to get that silhouette to live that reality of being in a dictatorship inside of a prison cell.
In terms of modeling it after somebody, I think Kendall, I kept thinking about like what star of that era was closeted and in deep pain. I instantly thought Montgomery Clift. I kept thinking about THE HEIRESS and his performance in that. I looked at people like Gene Kelly and Errol Flynn. I tried to steal his hair, because that hairline was iconic.
Molina wasn’t really based on anything. I was just allowing myself to live in that reality. As we found small choices and as the weight started coming off, it was just a discussion. We just kept trying things until we found the essence, and then it was just about allowing that essence to come through.”
Lopez worked closely on her wardrobe with costume deisgners Colleen Atwood and Christine Cantella.
“Because my 3 characters are so different, Colleen was very specific about what she wanted. It wasn’t like other costume designers I’ve worked with, where they come with like all of these clothes, and they’re like, ‘What do you think? Who is your character? I think this, this and this.’ They have their opinions, of course, but she was very specific. She was like, ‘This is the suit that I’m thinking of for this,’ and she had a sketch of it, and she had color swatches, and she was like, ‘What do you think? Do you like this? Do you like that?’ And we kind of honed it down.
It made it very clear for me where I was in each moment, because we’re not making a whole movie in the musical. Right? We’re like doing pieces of this movie. It made it very simple for me to understand exactly kind of who I was in that moment. For me, the costumes are a very big part of understanding the character, and kind of making the reality kind of come to life in that way.”
Lopez also pulled from classic Hollywood actors.
“It’s funny, we talked about Judy Garland for Ingrid Luna a little bit. We kind of looked at some of her performances for that. When I think of old Hollywood movie stars, I think of Ava Gardner or Rita Hayworth, those type of women. Lana Turner was one that we looked at for the hair for Aurora.”
This iteration of KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN is the perfect musical for our current moment. Tonatiuh said,
“With this film, I think that there’s a certain level for all of us in this, where we are championing communities with this story and reminding people of the dignity and the values of both the LGBTQ community, the Latino community. There was an essence here where that felt like there was a purpose and entertainment at the same time.”
Lopez added,
“But also it’s not done. I feel like the story and the message is not done yet. It needed to be told again to this generation. We need to remind people of the humanity of these communities. We need to remind people that love is love. It’s a story that I think will keep being told until everybody gets on board with the fact that we’re all just people – and we all should just be loving each other.
It doesn’t matter who we are on the outside. Because you have this cisgendered man who’s a political, tough, revolutionary, and then you have this window dresser who’s on the gender spectrum. And you have the two of them kind of just seeing the humanity in each other, realizing they need each other, falling in love with who the other person is. And to me, that’s what the movie is really here to do and to say in this moment.”
KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN is now playing in theaters.
