Jennifer Lopez still has IT going on.
By Sondra Barr
Jennifer Lopez is many things, an actress, singer, dancer, style icon, mom, entrepreneur, and dreamer. The multi-hyphenate star has lived several lifetimes in her 52 years, yet you wouldn’t know it from looking at her flawless visage and taut frame.
She’s been working nonstop for decades and has eight albums, 33 films, 10 television shows, 26 producer credits, multiple fragrances, and a skincare line to show for her strong work ethic and tireless drive to be the best at whatever she sets her sights on doing.
The talented performer credits her success to working harder than everybody else. “There’s a lot of people with talent, but I don’t think there’s a lot of people who are willing to put in the work…I didn’t have much of an education. I didn’t go to college. I never dreamt of Harvard or any of these big schools. That wasn’t my route,” Lopez told Red Magazine.
Following her own path has never been a problem for Lopez, who was raised in Castle Hill, in the South Central part of the Bronx. According to multiple sources, she shared a bed with her two sisters in the house she grew up in and commuted downtown to Manhattan to take dance lessons. The NYC borough will always hold a special place in her heart. She told W Magazine, “All the strength that I needed for life, I got from that neighborhood.”
Lopez’s first brush with Hollywood came when she worked as a backup dancer for New Kids on the Block in 1991. From there she landed on the show In Living Color as a Fly Girl. She moved from New York City to Los Angeles in 1993 to become a regular cast member on the show. Minor appearances in Mi Familia, Money Train, and Jack followed, but it was her portrayal of the late Latin recording artist Selena Quintanilla that served as Lopez’s breakout movie.
To prepare for the role, Lopez painstakingly researched Selena’s backstory and even slept in her bed to better capture the tragically short life of the Queen of Tejano Music. The hard work paid off and earned Lopez a 1998 Golden Globe nomination for best actress in a musical or comedy.
Lopez followed it up with starring roles in Anaconda and Out of Sight and became the first Latin actress to make over $1 million for a film. She went on to release her debut studio album On the 6, followed up by the simultaneous 2001 release of her second album J.Lo and the romantic comedy The Wedding Planner, which garnered her the distinction of being the first woman to have a number one film and album in the same week.
“I always wanted to be great at what I did––that’s what drove me. My race has never been with anyone else, it’s been with myself,” she told Vanity Fair’s Julie Miller in 2018. “If I got rejected, I wouldn’t take it personally. I was like, make them a fan and they’ll bring you back in for something else. I never thought about money or fame, and I never really thought that would happen to me. All that was just a by-product.”
When asked by Vanity Fair writer Britt Hennemuth what a 10-year-old Jennifer might be surprised to know she’d ultimately achieved, Lopez said: “So many things. Wow. When I did my first movie, when I booked my first dance job and went to Europe and nobody in my family had ever been to Europe. The first time I heard my record on the radio. The first time I was in the studio recording a record. The first time I saw myself on screen and I was sitting in the movie theater, and I saw Mi Familia and I started crying.”
“Sometimes I didn’t believe my life. I don’t believe what happens to me and the things that I’m able to experience and the opportunities that I’ve gotten. It’s every single moment, even till this moment, surprises me and touches my heart in a way that I could never really even begin to explain.”
Interspersed throughout her prolific career have been a string of romances that have come and gone and come around again. The most notable coupling was with actor and filmmaker Ben Affleck from mid-2002 to early 2004. Tabloids dubbed the duo Bennifer, when the pair starred together in the much ridiculed Gigli. After breaking off their engagement, Lopez married singer Marc Anthony in 2004 and gave birth to fraternal twins, Maximillian David and Emma Maribel in 2008. The couple divorced in 2011.
Lopez explained how being a mom changed her to Miller. “I can’t help but be a different person now that I’ve had kids. That really does change your whole perspective on life for the better. I definitely feel like I’ve grown up.”
After splitting from Anthony, Lopez retained primary physical custody of Emme and Max and went on to date former backup dancer Casper Smart before dating baseball player Alex Rodriguez. Engaged in 2019, the pair announced the end of their relationship in April of this year. Since then, Lopez has been seen with her former paramour, Affleck.
In an interview with Ebro Darden for Apple Music 1, Lopez subtly addressed the breakup with ex-fiancee Rodriguez. “Once you get to the point where you’re like, ‘This is not right for me, or this doesn’t feel good, or I need to make an adjustment here. This is not really about anybody else but me.’ Once you do that, stuff starts falling into place.”
And, things have certainly been falling into place for Lopez over the last couple of years. In addition to her turn in Hustlers, which garnered Lopez a lot of Oscar buzz in 2019, she has multiple movies in production including Marry Me with Owen Wilson and Shotgun Wedding with Josh Duhamel. And, of course, there’s her relationship with Affleck, who even before they got back together came down on the Academy for overlooking Lopez for an Oscar for Hustlers.
“She should have been nominated. She’s the real thing…How awesome is it that she had her biggest hit movie at 50?” said Affleck.
As for being a sex symbol in her 50s, Lopez considers aging all about attitude. “I find myself thinking about being youthful and timeless at every age. At some point aging is going to happen, but until then, you decide how strong you’re going to be. How much you’re going to move. How much you’re going to work. How active you’re are going to be in your mind, with your life, with your body,” she said to Darden. “You decide. And you can keep it strong. You can keep it good.”
