“You can’t have a movie about two pop stars who are performing and not have a soundtrack, right?” That’s the rhetorical question Jennifer Lopez asked back in 2020, after finishing the romantic comedy Marry Me, in which she stars alongside Owen Wilson and Maluma.
After multiple COVID-19 postponements, the film is finally due out on streaming on Valentine’s Day, but planning for our collective anticipation, the soundtrack is out Feb. 4. The set features solo tracks by both Lopez and Maluma, plus duets; they were all conceived with the film and its most memorable moments in mind, including a performance filmed during a real Maluma show at Madison Square Garden.
But did you know there was a teleprompter malfunction during that live show? Or that Maluma had to scream at Wilson on set? During our chat with Lopez and Maluma, they shared five secrets about the film and its accompanying music.
1. Maluma had to scream at Owen Wilson on his first day on set.
No, he wasn’t pissed; he just had to play angry. “That was hilarious, because it was the first time I met Owen, and then I had to scream at him,” explains Maluma.
“You wanted to kill him!” adds Lopez. But of course, it was all for the film.
2. Making the soundtrack was “really difficult” for J. Lo.
“I wasn’t making it a J. Lo album. I was making a different character, and also, I was weaving the songs and writing them for the story,” says Lopez, who was also touring during the songwriting and selection process. In the end, she sorted through “a hundred” songs submitted by “every producer and writer” to whittle down to seven or eight for the soundtrack.
3. The teleprompter malfunctioned during the Madison Square Garden scene.
The idea was brilliant: take advantage of the fact that Maluma was performing at Madison Square Garden in real life in order to film a big scene where Lopez and Maluma perform their new song together. However, Maluma hadn’t had a chance to memorize the new song’s lyrics, so when the teleprompter failed him, he turned to Lopez. “I didn’t have to tell her anything,” he says. “I was like, ‘Please help me.’ And she was, ‘Okay, I got it.’ And then we sang the hook together and nobody noticed it.”
4. J. Lo loves rom-coms unconditionally.
The superstar won’t allow any criticism of the genre! “First of all, romantic comedies are not light movies,” she says. “They’re necessary, beautiful movies, and I don’t know why people feel like they have to put them down when everybody enjoys them so much. It’s like chick flicks. I don’t know guys who don’t love to go to the movies and watch a rom-com with me.”
5. Maluma is beyond proud of his acting debut.
“As a Latino from Colombia, Medellin, who was going to think that my first movie was going to be a Hollywood movie with Owen Wilson and Jennifer Lopez?” he says. “We’ re making history right now as a Latin community, and I feel very proud of being part of this big, big movement that we’re having right now.”
Watch the full interview here: