Jennifer Lopez’s Acting Style Clashed With Marc Anthony’s in ‘El Cantente’

Jennifer Lopez worked with her ex-husband Marc Anthony for the first time in the feature El Cantente. But she quickly discovered that their acting styles weren’t exactly compatible.

Lopez acted alongside her husband for the first time in the 2006 biopic El Cantante. The feature was about the life of salsa singer Hector Lavoe, which was told from the perspective of his wife Pucci. Being the producer of the film as well, Lopez actually cast Anthony as Hector before she ended up casting herself as his wife.

“I knew that he was the guy to play the role, so I called him a month later, and I asked him if he wanted to attach himself to this,” Lopez once told Ok!. “At that time, I didn’t even know I was going to play Pucci to tell you the truth. But I did know that I wanted it to be the first thing I produced. So I called him as the producer of the film, and said, ‘Do you want to do this?’ and he said, ‘Yes, of course. This guy’s my idol.’ I’m like Ok,” she remembered.

It was mentioned that she and Anthony also had a lot of chemistry together on screen, something that was a byproduct of their innate synergy.

“We met working. That’s what everybody forgets. The first time we met we were doing a song together, and it worked. It was on my first album. We have chemistry naturally, luckily. We always planned to do this film together, even when we weren’t together,” she added.

Their different acting styles did present a challenge, however. They both were actors, although Lopez was the far more experienced of the two. And over the years, she developed certain conditions for acting that clashed with Anthony’s way of performing.