Where this was said
The Price of Fame: Selena, Panic Attacks, and Losing Anonymity
At 27:00 · chapter starts 25:02
Will sets up a genuinely searching question: at the level of fame Lopez achieved, there must be a gap between when the world recognizes you and when you as a person can hold that. Lopez says that period was the worst. She was still going on auditions in Hollywood when Selena came out — still anonymous, still walking to the store from her apartment. Then someone screamed her name and ran at her and her first instinct was survival: she thought she was about to be robbed. The realization that they were a fan brought a different kind of terror — the understanding that she would never be anonymous again. That thing is gone forever, she thought. The panic attacks started soon after. Will adds his own memory from Monster-in-Law: photographers on rooftops across the street, cameras pushed under fences, and Lopez having to drive to set in a blacked-out vehicle.
Walking to the store from her LA apartment after Selena came out, someone ran toward Lopez screaming — and her first instinct was pure fear. The moment she realized they were a fan was also the moment she understood her anonymity was gone forever.
Lopez began having panic attacks after losing her anonymity following the release of Selena, when strangers first started recognizing and running toward her in the street.
Filming Enough, recording the J.Lo album, doing junkets, and shooting videos simultaneously, Lopez worked 98 consecutive days without a break. On set one afternoon, she lost her vision, became paralyzed, and had to be carried to a car. The diagnosis: complete exhaustion.
