Selena Quintanilla‘s sister Suzette opened up about the motivations behind the late Tejano singer’s biopic. Speaking with Boyz II Men’s Shawn Stockman on his On That Note podcast in celebration of the 30th anniversary of Selena’s Dreaming of You album, Suzette detailed the pressures that pushed the family to get on board with the acclaimed drama.
“We were forced to make the movie,” she confessed to Stockman. “Literally months after she died, our lawyers got word that Hollywood was already going to start making a movie… if you don’t have control over your own, it’s going to be whatever they want to put in it. That’s the only reason why my father had to make the decision to move forward and say, ‘We’re doing this movie.’”
Selena was tragically murdered by Yolanda Saldívar in March 1995. The Selena movie, which earned Jennifer Lopez a Golden Globe nomination, was released in 1997.
L-R) Family of late tejano singer Selena who was shot by her former fan club pres. Yolanda Saldívar husband Chris Perez, parents Marcela & Abraham Quintanilla, & siblings A.B. & Suzette.
Barbara Laing/Getty Images
“It wasn’t something that was on our radar at all; it was way too soon, to be honest,” detailed Suzette. “It came out literally two years after she died, and there was criticism over that — like we were all about money.”
In December 2024, Saldívar requested parole due to her clean prison record, which allowed the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to consider her for release after 30 years. She was denied parole in March of this year, with the parole board citing “brutality, violence, and assaultive behavior” of the crime as reasons for denial. It added that Saldívar’s actions showed a “conscious disregard” for the safety of others and that she posed a “continuing threat to public safety.”
Also in March, a member of Saldívar’s family anonymously stated, “[Yolanda] knows what she did was wrong and she takes responsibility for it. But she was reacting to the way she was confronted.” They elaborated, “[Selena] came at her really aggressively. She was so thrown off with how forceful Selena was being; everything happened so fast. If Selena had confronted her differently, this never would have happened.”
In April, Saldívar’s brother, Armando Saldívar, claimed, “If the public knew the truth, they wouldn’t like it,” and hinted that his sister intended to take her own life the night of the fatal shooting.
Watch the full conversation between Suzette Quintanilla and Shawn Stockman below.
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