Were that show's bad-boy comedians on constant booty call, or did they pretty much leave the Fly Girls be?
We were separated. We rehearsed in different rooms, and we only taped on one day, when they weren't there. But we knew them and they were great to us. It was a good show...hip and cool.

There must be something you consciously do that impresses these legendary directors.
It's all about controlling the emotion, you know? Anybody can scream, anybody can cry. It's about just being in the moment and doing whatever comes natural.

There were mass auditions all over the country to find the actress to play Selena. What gave you the edge?
A lot of people came out for the auditions who probably looked a lot more like Selena than I do. But I believe they were trying to find somebody who could capture who Selena was, what she was like inside and why she was such a special person.

Which was?
She was happy. She loved life, and she loved what she did. She worked with her family and had great family values. She embraced her culture.

And people have embraced her like a saint, especially after her death. It must be daunting to play someone who's so passionately worshipped.
It's a very touchy subject; she didn't pass away that long ago. She's so fresh in everybody's mind, so it's definitely a huge challenge. Even people who didn't remember her now know what she was like, how she acted. They know everything about her. They're definitely going to be looking at me with a critical eye--I know that. But to me, it's a challenge. Actresses are always complaining there are no challenging roles--but here's one of those roles.

The Mexican-American press initially gave you a pretty hard time. Was that because they resented a New York Puerto Rican playing a Chicana symbol?
There was some of that. The day I did the Astrodome concert, it was filled with 33,000 people, and I really didn't know how I'd be received. Up to then, the press had been really weird--not just because I was Puerto Rican but because it was Selena, you know what I mean? Any actress who would have been cast would've gone through the same thing, so I tried not to take it personally. But her fans were great once they saw me perform. I shook some hands, got to know them, and they got to know me. They saw I was a regular person, not somebody out there trying to make them forget Selena. In general, I think the Latin community is pretty happy that the project was made with a Latin writer-director, a Latin actress and an all-Latin cast and crew.

Which doesn't happen often. Any ideas why Latino cinema has had such a tough time getting established in the United States?
African-Americans banded together and said this was something they were going to do, and I think it's something the Latino community has to do, too. We need to realize there is strength in numbers, and if we say we're going to write our own stories and do our own things, then we can force our way in.

Evidently you're not bad at Hollywood infighting, either. You managed to stave off Sharon Stone's attempt to get your role in U-Turn.
That's not what happened. I met Oliver Stone first, and he loved me. Then I went off to film Anaconda and research Selena. Sharon Stone got interested in the part, and I thought, "That doesn't work, the role's an Apache Indian." I figured they'd just change it for her, and I was much too busy to care. But they couldn't agree on a price, so Oliver called me back. That's how it all went down.

What's U-Turn about?
It's a film noir based on a story by James M. Cain [Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice]. I play Nick Nolte's wife in this little Arizona town, and Sean Penn's a drifter who comes through. She's just one of those women who wants to get out and is looking for somebody to get her out.

And was Stone the lunatic we've heard he is?
He's not crazy, he's a genius. I love Oliver, loved working with him. He was totally great to me--a real actor's director.

What do you do when you're not making movies back to back?
I don't have much of a social life. But I'm a regular girl. I like to shop, I like to go to the mall and hang out and get facials, get my nails done and buy shoes. I'm thinking about recording some Spanish music. And I've still got a lot of publicity to do over the next few months. Right now, just being at home sounds real nice.

Especially since you just got married. Who's the lucky guy?
His name is Ojani Noa. He's from Miami. I met him in a restaurant where he was working.

Is he good-looking?
Yeah, he's good-looking. He's done some modeling.

Does he want to be an actor, too?
He was talking about it, but I'm like, "After you've seen what I've been through, working nonstop these past six months, you want to be an actor? You retard!" But I don't know, I guess I make it look easy.

Last question on Ojani, speaking for the male population of the Western hemisphere: What has he got that the rest of us don't?
He's got me!

You were the best- known actress considered for the role, but you were still asked to audition. How did you feel about that?

I'm still at the stage of my career where I have to go after things that I want. It would be stupid not to. Even if I was at the caliber of Sandra Bullock or Michelle Pfeiffer or Julia Roberts, if there was a role I wanted, I'd say, "Can I come in and read for that?" That's how you get to do the good roles. You can't let it get offered to everyone else before it comes to you.

What did you like best about Selena's personality?

One of the things that made her so popular was that she was always just herself. She didn't try to hide her figure, all that stuff. She was Latin, she had dark hair, and she dyed her hair even blacker than it was. She wore bright red lipstick. It was never a thing with her to say, "Maybe I won't wear this miniskirt, maybe my butt won't look so big if I wear this instead." She accentuated what she had. And women look up at her and say, "My body's just like that. She's showing it, so why should I feel ashamed of it?"

Selena was famous for her body- baring costumes. Did you ever feel self- conscious?

Well, if you watch the films I've been in, you can see what my figure's like. It's not like you can hide it. But when I get in with the wardrobe designer, they're thinking, "Let's see, she's looking a little hippy, she's got a big butt, what should we do?" They're always trying to minimize-- put it that way-- and it's because we see all those actresses who are so thin and white. Latinas have a certain body type. Even the thin ones, we are curvy. I've always had trouble with wardrobe people!

Selena was Mexican- American; you're a Puerto Rican woman from the Bronx. What similarities are there between your backgrounds?

Being Latina in this country, that's the parallel. Of course, there's a lot of differences. There is the Nuyorican culture here in New York City, and there is a whole different Tejana culture. But there are parallels between us: growing up and being treated a certain way, or not being treated a certain way. Being a minority. Being a woman.

What did Selena's life teach you about being a celebrity?

I used her as an example when I was making this movie. She was very good with her fans. She was always very gracious, and always took time to talk to them. She realized that her fans were the most important thing. There were a lot of ad- libs in the movie, and one of them was at the Grammy speech when she thanks her fans. It did happen in real life, but that wasn't in the script. I made sure to end the speech with a thank you to her fans. It was a constant thing with her, from the time she won her first Tejano music award when she was sixteen years old.

What actresses did you admire as you were growing up?

I didn't have a lot of role models. There weren't a lot of actresses I could identify with, being Puerto Rican. But I loved West Side Story, and that says it all right there. I identified with it. It was my favorite movie and I wanted to be Rita Moreno. Not Maria: she was kind of wimpy and she blamed her brother for things. But actually, now, if I could ever do West Side Story, I would want to play Maria. I think that's the actress in me, wanting to be the center of attention and the star of the show.

When you portray a real person, you're obliged to do a lot of research. Where did you start?

Her family was wonderful. They were on the set, and I spent time with them before we started. I watched every piece of videotape I could get, because you act different in interviews than you are offscreen. I think anyone who does a film like this about a real person, you have to do your homework and find every insight, into who she was and what made her tick, and what was the flaw in her personality that led to her death. It was a good [casting match], because we were at the same kind of points in our careers: we were enjoying some success, but we weren't like hugely popular. We had a lot of parallels in our lives, and Selena and I were similar types of personalities. It was lucky for me, that way.

Can you elaborate on the idea that you and Selena were at similar stages in your careers?

Well, one of her friends said that at the end, Selena was always tired. And I could understand that. I thought, "Of course she was tired!" She had a boutique, she was recording her new album, she was touring and doing gigs all over Texas. We had a lot of things in common. I was flying in and out, working on four films at the same time. She also was a very big- hearted person. She was a fixer. That's one of the reasons that Yolanda [her murderer] slipped into her life.

With all these movies coming out, you are becoming a public figure. Does Selena's fate scare you at all?

Do I feel scared that something like that could happen to me? There's always that fear. I have managers in my life who are always telling me to be careful! I have protective people in my life. But you can't stop living because of it.

My parents came to the set one day and they talked with Selena's parents, and afterward my father goes, "I don't know what I would do if that happened to us, if we lost you." I said, "You can't think about things like that." Selena's father was always very protective of her, and then her killer turns out to be someone in their own backyard. Do you live your life in fear, not going out, being afraid all the time? You just can't tell.

Selena's dad pushed his kids very hard, making them practice their music when they'd rather be playing outside. Was there anyone in your life who pushed you to try harder?

My mom took us to dance classes when we were young. I was five when I started dance. My mother might have been a little of a frustrated actress, but she wasn't a stage mom. We went to dance classes every weekend. It wasn't till I got older that I started to pursue it myself. I went to different dance studios here in Manhattan.

Did your dancing background help you in imitating Selena's movements?

That was actually one of the hardest things. To learn how Selena moved, I had to watch a lot of videos for hours every night, and try to unlearn how I moved.

What kind of a relationship did you have with Selena's mother, and how did she help you prepare to play her daughter?

She's a very beautiful lady, and she was very protective of me. She was always saying, "You never eat, you don't want to look fat, you never drink enough water! You're just like Selena!"

The movie opens with Selena performing at the Houston Astrodome. Had you ever performed in front of a huge crowd like that?

No! I've almost forgotten how much I like to perform onstage, because I've been so caught up in doing films. It was great being in front of an audience, getting that immediate response. I was kind of spoiled: the first show I did, 35,000 people show up. I liked it! And that week I told my managers that I want to record something. I've gotta record an album. I love doing it so much. So maybe that's something to work on this year.

How difficult was it to learn to sing like Selena?

Well, I am a singer. I didn't think of it as lip- synching. I just learned to sing in her style, just as I learned to dance like her. I was actually singing, but of course they didn't record it.

When the movie introduces the woman whom we know is Selena's murderer, the audience at last night's screening started hissing. Were those difficult scenes to play?

One of the things I had to be careful of was that Selena never knew she was going to die. I had to approach it in a very "alive" sense. The way I portrayed her was very, very true to the way she was. She was a jokester. If you see any of her home videos, you'll see that. They were a very happy family. They still are. Of course, with the tragedy they have gone through, things have changed. But when you watch the videotapes, that comes through.

Selena's crossover fame came as a result of her being murdered. Why didn't the movie include that incident?

That would make it a TV movie of the week. That's not what this film was about. This is about Selena's life, and getting people to see what she was all about: her struggles, what she overcame and what made her who she is, and why she became such a phenomenon. That's what everybody is interested in-- why it's such a phenomenon. Why is everybody interested in this woman? This movie shows you why: she was funny, she was giving, she was loving, very different from many artists that we have in America. I want people to know who she was