[IMG:L]She sings. He sings. She acts. He acts. She’s an icon, as is he. Touche! It’s a draw for the Bronx-bred, Latino dream team Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony. Neither phenom out best the other, but in El Cantante, they tunefully complement one another.
Resuscitating an era from their impressionable youths in which they came-of-age alongside the growing American salsa movement, Lopez and Anthony bring light to their musical and cultural roots, depicting the life story of Hector Lavoe–a tragic yet inspiring musical icon whose influence they both share.
Transforming into the self-destructive Lavoe and his volatile soulmate Puchi, Anthony and Jennifer Lopez, respectively, reach a higher ground of collaboration, while unearthing the life of the ultimate rock star of Afro-Caribbean music.
Hollywood.com: What characteristics of Hector did you focus on to bring him to life for you?
Marc Anthony: The human aspect. I knew what he meant musically and culturally…I was well aware of his significance. You sort of get tired of him just being nusthelled. You know what I mean? You mention Hector Lavoe when traveling and people say, “Isn’t that the guy who jumped?” It’s like, “No, it’s not just the guy who jumped…it’s not just the guy who had issues.” So, the human aspect of it. His life was so well documented. It would be like an E! True Hollywood Story, if we just reenacted everything that happened to him. So, I wanted to concentrate on what were his struggles on a daily basis. How did he get himself into those positions? What was it that he was struggling with?
HW: Did you relate to one aspect in particular?
MA: One thing I did understand was the fame part of it. I understood the headline part of it. The pressures of it. I understood what it was to be unsettled. I understood that! I understood what it was to live your life on a world’s scale. Touring 300 days out of the year. I understood all that. I know the headlines versus the truth. I was reading the headlines–and just wanted to find the truth behind them.
HW: How much do you subscribe to the tortured artist?
MA: That they exist?
HW: Well, do you have to hit rock bottom to really “create?”
MA: No, that’s bullsh*t. For me, that’s an excuse. Do people draw from pain? Do people understand pain? Yes, yet there are people who are totally happy in their life, but they understand other people’s pain. And want to tell a story because of it…
HW: So leading a painful life…
MA: Is not a prerequisite to being an influential artist or an important artist or to being an artist with a point of view. I do not subscribe to that being a requirement to being taken seriously.
HW: Hector on and off the stage is such a different person–one is very in control and the other is very out of control. What do you think is the biggest difference between the two personas?
MA: I think Hector felt most comfortable when he was singing. He felt uncomfortable when he was off stage. He had to deal with a lot of issues. He had to deal with his wife. He had to deal with his addiction. He didn’t deal with that when he was on stage; he was being adored on stage. It was an easy, comfortable place to be for him–which is why he chose that as a platform on many occasions.
HW: So his stage was his home?
MA: Me personally, I went to Orchard Beach to see him one time, and if you want to talk about him using the stage as a platform: he comes out in a cast because his house had just burnt down…lost everything. He had to jump out of the second story window. He broke his legs. I know–there’s a lot of stuff we didn’t put in the movie! [He] comes on stage, and I’m there, about 17 or 18 years old, we had the same representation so I was right in the front [rows]–and he was so huge to me! He stops the band cause he wants to talk. Okay? Twenty thousand people are waiting [for him to sing] and he goes, “I’m having a bad day man, you know? I just lost my boy.” It was awkward. It was my first time [seeing him on stage]. But, that’s when he chose to be vocal about what he was feeling…I truly believe that’s where hector felt most comfortable.
HW: How does being a singer play into this dynamic performance?
MA: I could not imagine being an actor who’s never been on stage and might suffer from stage fright, and having to sell to you that you’re charismatic–or you know the power of the stage. It served me well having so much experience on stage. That would just be one more thing I’d have to contend with: if I had stage fright and I was an actor playing a singer.
HW: On the soundtrack, is it you singing the song or are you portraying Hector performing the song?
MA: Me doing Hector doing the song. People are going to go home who aren’t aware of Hector…I think a huge percentage of people will go in and discover him for the first time…it’s the music I actually recorded for the movie.
HW: What was the first time you connected to salsa music in a personal and profound way?
MA: To be honest, that was my parent’s music? I was into Motown and Gladys Knight and The Temptations…that was my thing growing up in the 70s. My older brothers were into that scene. I remember them coming and just running home. It was like a Harry Potter Book…they were like, “I got it. I got it!” and they’d just run into their rooms. Like, I got the new Hector Lavoe album!! I remember it just blaring in their rooms.
[IMG:R]HW: Which Lavoe song do you remember the most?
MA: I think the first time would be, “El Dia de Mi Suerte”, which is the song that I perform when it starts raining right before he jumps and that song always hit me because it’s a song where he’s saying, “Man, I keep hearing that my luck is gonna change man. You know? Yeah, maybe it’s true…but can someone tell me when?” And, then he goes into how he was five and he lost his mom and his dad was like, “No, no. You’re luck is going to change,” but then his dad dies. But in the song. I remember it striking me that it was so jovial–and if you didn’t understand what he was saying, you could dance and party to it. Then you think [scratches head], “Do you realize what he is saying?”
HW: Do you think he’d have been more fulfilled offstage if he had written more of the music he performed?
MA: Probably. Back then he was contending with so many things. We had eleven hours of Puchi tapes and we just listened to her 24 hours a day. Her stories. Her anecdotes. Her take on certain events. What happened this night. It ended up in the headlines, she said he was diagnosed schizophrenic, I did not know that! Then addiction. Then just the regular issues of daily life. All of this under the glare of what being famous is and keeping it quiet…I could not imagine. Literally just to get through this film I kept thinking, “He’s just a sacrificial lamb. He was put on this earth not to enjoy it or grow as a person…but to leave us amazing, amazing music. And then leave us.” Do you understand what I am saying?
HW: Your portrayal of his addiction was so visceral and painful, what kind of research did you do?
MA: You just have to be really tired! Really. Try to take a nap and they wake you up with an “action!” I’m just like, “what?” I didn’t follow any junkies around or anything. That’s what worked for me.
HW: What about snorting that stuff?
MA: It was just nasty. It was sugar or something. It was just nasty! That’s when the acting came in because it’s like pepper, your natural reaction is to just expel it and to just act like that’s not what’s going in your facial expressions. “Yeah, I’m enjoying this!!” It was one of the hardest things to do.
HW: How has this infected your own music?
MA: The thing about Hector’s music and being raised with his music, I realized that his was almost the soundtrack to my life! It was really weird. I didn’t realize how exposed I was to it until I started doing the research.
HW: Do you remember when Hector died?
MA: Absolutely. No question about it. My dad took care of him his last two years of his life.
HW: Really?
MA: My dad worked at Cardinal Cook [AIDS Nursing Home] at 106th and Fifth Ave. For the last two years he [Lavoe] used to call my dad ‘Marc Anthony’. He always kept an eye on me. My dad would tell me when Hector was proud of me.
HW: When did you first realize you had a gifted voice?
MA: Well, I was raised with it. I used to perform with my dad when I was three years old. So, ever since I was three my dad thought I was old enough. He incorporated me into his show. My dad would do the social club circuit and I was a part of his show! I remember the impact. I almost quit singing about five years old. Seriously! I used to sing on top of the kitchen table and Tuesdays and Thursdays there was a house full of people and they’d bring their instruments whether it be pots and pans and play music all night. I’d sing these songs and I was heartbroken cause I was imitating my dad…and my sister-in-law started crying. I was just mortified by that. She leaves and then comes back and just holds me really tight and she’s still crying. And, I didn’t like it. I didn’t want to see people crying. I had two sets…and I didn’t want to do the second show! But, they explained to me sometimes people feel things but in hindsight that was my earliest recognition of music having a profound impact.
HW: Did your dad have any tips about playing Hector?
MA: No, not really. But, my dad really got to know him his last two years of his life. What he worried about. He didn’t want people to see him the way he was. He spoke a lot about his glory days. He’d say, “Always tell your son…he can control this. He can control this not happening to him, I wish I would’ve known.”
[IMG:L]HW: What do you expect touring with Jennifer will be like?
MA: We start rehearsals this week coming up. She’s such a natural performer. She truly, truly is. This is something she’s been wanting to do. She’s been in the business for many years, as I. When you find yourself in a position it’s very easy to get a little jaded and you’ll pass on that and that. But, when you’re excited about something at this stage of the game!? It makes you want to get up! I’m really, really excited for her.
HW: Can you talk about watching Jennifer transform into Puchi? And also the specifics of being a couple and working together and how that raises the stakes even higher?
MA: It was scary! Puchi was scary man! [Laughs] It was something I could hold over her [Jennifer’s] head like, “Ahh? Ahh? I see Puchi coming through!” As a joke. Or, she’d be like, “Are you going to act like Hector all day, or get up and do something?” It was absolutely amazing. The transformation was absolutely amazing. I think she deserves all the respect in the world, all the kudos in the world. Her performance is…I mean, I’m a bit of a critic…I call what I see and I don’t fluff anything. I saw Jennifer’s performance and I was just blown away! You have to understand the process from reading something on paper and then there’s embodying it. There’s believing why character is saying it. And it just pours from the screen–her commitment.
