Director Bill Condon and the team behind Kiss of the Spider Woman opened up about the significant timing of the film in today’s political climate while attending the New York City premiere on Monday.
Based on the 1976 novel of the same name by Argentinian writer Manuel Puig and on the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, Kiss of a Spider Woman follows political prisoner Valentín (Diego Luna) and his cellmate Molina (Tonatiuh) as they form an unlikely bond. Throughout the film, Molina recounts a Hollywood musical that starred silver screen icon Ingrid Luna (Jennifer Lopez).
Condon, who also wrote the screenplay, spoke to The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the screening at The Shed, sharing that the story has “remained relevant since the novel was written almost 50 years ago.” However, he said that “it’s gained a new urgency” in today’s political climate given that the story revolves around Latin and queer characters.
After noting that there has been a “dehumanization of trans people” and “dehumanization of Latino people in America,” Condon shared the message he wants viewers to take away from the film.
“These two characters in the prison cell could not be more different. They hate each other at the beginning. But because they’re stuck with each other, everything else gets stripped away and they start to connect to each other as individuals,” he said. “And as they start to see each other, they start to warm to each other and ultimately love each other. So my feeling is, if these two people can find love, all of us can. Let’s try cause what other choice do we have?”
Tonatiuh had similar thoughts, telling THR that “the fascinating thing about Manuel Puig’s work is that it doesn’t seem to ever end.” He continued, “The struggle for freedom, liberty and equality is something that is constantly evolving and now more than ever it feels as though the work is needed.”
When it comes to representing queer and Latino characters, Tonatiuh said it was “vastly important” to give the communities the “Hollywood treatment” since they’re both “being demonized.”
“And it’s a reminder of the dignity and beauty of both of those communities,” Tonatiuh added of the LGBTQ+ and Latin communities.
Tonatiuh, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck
Jason Crowley/BFA.com
Executive producer Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas told THR that there’s “no better time to have a movie like this come out.” After explaining that the movie is a reminder for people to not look at “political opposites” or those with “different beliefs of gender,” she said the film’s goal is to inspire people with different backgrounds to “come together to look beyond the label and fall in love.”
“And I think in a world that’s being demonized, where Latinos are being demonized and queers are being demonized, it’s an important message,” Goldsmith-Thomas said. “It had to happen now.”
Another topic touched on in the film is gender fluidity. Actress Aline Mayagoitia, who stars as Paulina, told THR that “gender bending and breaking of the binary” is an important message in the movie because it “really scares Hollywood a lot of the time.” Producer Greg Yolen also reflected on the other Kiss of the Spider Woman adaptations that have come before the upcoming movie, and he told THR that the new adaptation is “very much its own thing.”
“It’s very different from the musical. It’s very different from the 1985 film. And if anything, it’s closest in spirit and in form, I think, to the original 1976 novel by Manuel Puig,” he explained. “Which was really, when Bill was writing the screenplay, I think his number one reference point … It’s really a new adaptation.”
Also in attendance as the premiere was producer Ben Affleck, who made a surprise appearance alongside Lopez and gushed over her performance while introducing the screening. Kiss of the Spider Woman hits theaters on Friday.