From a young age, Lopez's Puerto Rican parents stressed the importance of work ethic and being able to speak English. They encouraged their three daughters to put on performances at home, singing and dancing in front of each other and their friends so that they would stay "out of trouble". While attending her final year of high school, Lopez learned about a film casting that was seeking several teenage girls for small roles. She auditioned and was cast in "My Little Girl" (1986), an low-budget film co-written and directed by Connie Kaiserman. After she finished filming her role in the film, Lopez knew that she wanted to become a "famous movie star". She told her parents this, but they ensisted that it was a "really stupid" idea and that "no Latinos did that". Their disagreements led Lopez to move out of their family home and into an apartment in Manhattan. During this period, Lopez performed in regional productions of several musicals, before being hired for the chorus in a musical that toured Europe for five months. She was unhappy with the role, as she was the only member of the chorus not to have a solo. From there, she got a job on the show "Synchronicity" in Japan, where she acted as a dancer, singer and a choreographer. Lopez then gained her first regular high-profile job as a Fly Girl dancer on the television comedy program "In Living Color". She moved to Los Angeles with then-boyfriend David Cruz to film the series and remained a regular cast member until 1993 when she decided to pursue an acting career.