Jennifer Lopez explained how they landed on Maluma to make his big-screen debut in Marry Me, which she also produced with her partner Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas. “Maluma was top of the list,” Lopez said of the search to find the hottest international star, someone who was making music and could possibly act rather than find an actor who could fake being a singer, which “is sometimes not the best.”
As for Jennifer Lopez, she described playing Kat as “cathartic” if not a little meta because the character is a global superstar with many eyes monitoring her search for love. “She’s finding her perfect match but not what people would think is her perfect match,” she said.
The producers found a match for concert sequences in Madison Square Garden in part because Maluma was already scheduled to perform at the iconic New York City venue. So, they made use of the full audience for a sequence that didn’t quite go according to plan due to a technical hiccup. “The teleprompter didn’t work,” Maluma explained. “She came out — this beautiful queen over there. I was like, ‘Let’s do this.’ I was sure it was working but it was off. No one actually noticed.”
