In The Future: Jennifer Lopez

Jennifer Lopez has been laying low and staying out of the limelight in the last few months since marrying Latin singer Marc Anthony, but she came out of hiding to talk to ComingSoon.net about her new movie, Shall We Dance?. A remake of the Japanese movie of the same name, it stars Lopez along with Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon and Stanley Tucci. (Look for more on this movie next week!) Charming as always, Lopez was surprisingly open to talk about any and all parts of her life, including her upcoming movies.

Miramax announced recently that her next project, Lasse (Chocolat, The Cider House Rules) Hallstrom's An Unfinished Life with Robert Redford and Morgan Freeman would be pushed back until next year, possibly to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. Because of this, Lopez's next film will be another romantic comedy, Monster-in-Law with Jane Fonda, directed by Legally Blonde's Robert Luketic. Since Fonda has been in and out of the limelight herself throughout her career, we asked Jennifer what it was like working with the legendary actress. "When you're working with Jane, it feels like you're entering another time when it was only about acting, and that's what she's about. She's like, 'I'm here to work. I've thought about it and this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to take risks and I'm going to improv and you better be ready to go with me.' Luckily, I would like to think I'm that type of person as well, and I was ready to fly with her. She gave me some great advice, because she's been through a lot in her life as well, and as far as work goes, she had some great advice for me. We had a really fantastic time."

Already an actress, a singer and a dancer, Lopez is trying on a different hat, as she begins producing her first independent film project, a movie based on the life of salsa singer Hector Lavoe. "His wife is the one who brought it to me about four years ago, although she passed away shortly after," she told us. "He was part of the whole Fania era in the 70's at The Palladium, when salsa music was very big in New York. There was kind of a movement, and he was like our Billie Holiday. It's a bit of a tragic story and a love story with his wife, dysfunctional but very interesting. He left about thirty or forty albums. He was Willie Colon's partner for the first part of his career, and then when Willie couldn't take it anymore, he went off on his own, but he still recorded some very important music that have become classics, and we're going to do that. I've been developing it for like four years and finally, we got the financing."

It was reported a few years ago that Marc Anthony would be playing the role of Lavoe, but that was long before they were married. Of course, one has to assume that Lopez would play his wife? "Yes, I think I might be in it. Being an actress is much better-you come in, they're ready to go, and you're hired-producing not so much. It's a little bit harder."

Although Lopez said that she loved doing her two episodes of the NBC sitcom, "Will and Grace", she thought that would be it for her on the show for a while.