Jennifer Lopez Was Initially Too Latina and Pretty for ‘The Wedding Planner’

Jennifer Lopez co-starred alongside Matthew McConaughey in one of her most popular films The Wedding Planner. But according to the film’s director, she had a lot going against her before she was cast in the romcom.

How Jennifer Lopez ended up in ‘The Wedding Planner’

Lopez was far from the first choice for the 2001 feature The Wedding Planner. She hadn’t quite reached her superstar status back then just yet, so Lopez was only tested for a limited set of roles.

“When I started in the industry, I remember we talked about that I would always go in for what they would call the maid, the dishwasher. I was like, ‘I don’t want to do that,’” Lopez told ABC News. “I had to kind of break out of that, and convince somebody to put me in the first romantic comedy, which was The Wedding Planner.”

But the film’s director Adam Shankman was hesitant to cast Lopez in the role for multiple reasons. Lopez had never done a romcom before prior to the feature. Also, the role that Lopez was vying for was written for an Italian actor. Shankman wondered if Lopez might’ve been a little too attractive for the part.

“What bride is going to think it’s a good idea to have Jennifer Lopez around her fiancée?” Shankman said in an interview with Globe and Mail.

But Lopez still relentlessly pursued the part. After meeting with her for the first time, Shankman was charmed into giving the actor an opportunity.

“It was a Cinderella slipper fit,” he said. “Her passion sold me. I couldn’t imagine sitting with another actor who would want it that badly.”

It turned out that Lopez’s casting in the feature ended up affecting The Wedding Planner in a very positive way. Her star power had grown considerably by the time the film was ready to get made. Hiring McConaughey to play her co-star helped secure The Wedding Planner with even more funding for Shankman to experiment with.

“So I was able to shoot them like stars,” Shankman said. “The makeup, hairdressing and costumes, as well as the lighting, framing and locations [a dreamy San Francisco] all conspire to make them more than people. They’re super-people, what we ordinary mortals yearn to be. It harks back to a time where Cary Grant and Carole Lombard were portrayed as average Joes.”

‘The Wedding Planner’ director felt the studio made a big mistake in casting Jennifer Lopez

Although Lopez finally got what she wanted, she admitted that doing The Wedding Planner was a bit daunting at first. She underestimated the work a romcom typically required. But it didn’t take long for Lopez to adapt to a new style of filmmaking.

“I had always wanted to do a romantic comedy,” Lopez once said according to The Arizona Republic. “When it finally happened, I thought it was kind of scary. I didn’t know if I was being funny. But dramas are heavy duty. Action pictures are physically taxing. Romantic comedies are fun. All you do is show up on the set and play — that’s what I wanted.”

But Shankman felt the studio was better off casting in The Wedding Planner sooner than later. The studio behind the project literally paid for wavering on their chance to cast Lopez before she hit big.

“The studio made a big mistake,” Shankman said. “They could have signed her a long time ago for much, much less. I told them ‘Look, her album is going to come out and she’s going to be huge! You’re going to be screwed!’ They didn’t listen to me and sure enough, they were screwed! ‘On the 6’ came out and it was a whole new world.”

Lopez agreed with the director’s take.

“The longer you wait, the more you’re going to pay,” Lopez joked.