A Star Is Born has been met with nonstop acclaim ever since its debut, which isn’t so surprising given that Lady Gaga is front and center of the project. Not only did she give the performance of a lifetime as pop singer Ally, but she basically caused a rupture in the space-time continuum with her showstopping red-carpet outfits during the press tour.

It’s hard to imagine anyone else in the role, but that could have been the case: In a recent interview, Jennifer Lopez shared that she had been in early talks to develop a Star Is Born script with Will Smith.

Speaking to Extra, Lopez addressed rumors that she and Smith had been attached to the film before Bradley Cooper came in to direct and star in the remake. “Oh yeah, Will and I talked about it and talked about developing the script,” the singer-actress-producer-icon said. “It just never took off. Projects are like that.”

Lopez and Smith reportedly dropped out of talks around 2013. At some point, Clint Eastwood was also looking into the project and had tapped Beyoncé and Leonardo DiCaprio about lead roles. That didn’t work out either, of course. Eventually Cooper was brought on, and he turned to Lady Gaga in a room full of 100 people, and…well, you know the rest.

Cooper and Gaga’s version of the film is the third remake of the 1937 original; subsequent versions have starred Judy Garland and, later, Barbra Streisand. Gaga was nominated for a Grammy and a Golden Globe earlier this month, and she’s considered a top contender for an Oscar this year.

Lopez says that even though the film didn’t work out on her end, she’s happy with how it’s all turned out.

“I’m really proud of Bradley, one for directing his first film…we’re friends, and watching Gaga kind of do her thing in the movie, it’s just great,” she said. “It’s perfect, just like this movie, everything happens in its own divine timing.”

Still, we can’t but wonder what the J.Lo version of Ally would have been like. Would there have been dance routines? Green Versace dresses? I guess we’ll never know.

Related: I Was an Extra in A Star Is Born—and Here’s What Happened

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