Jennifer Lopez covers Elle‘s Women in Hollywood December/January issue, and the singer and Hustlers actress delves into what it took to become a Hollywood hyphenate.
She laments that when big-screen stardom came calling, she “came in blind.”
JLo recalls “having to fight for different roles” as a Latina, “to be a lead in a romantic comedy — to not play the maid or the housekeeper.”
While she noted progress has been made for women and people of color, she contends, “There are still a lot of obstacles in the way.”
Lopez allows, “It’s not everything you would want it to be, but at least you can see a diverse cast in a movie where the leads are of different races and genders and things like that. And I think that’s encouraging, that we fought for that.”
That led to her becoming a producer, as well, she explains: “[W]e have to take ownership. We can’t sit around and wait for people to hand us roles. A lot of actresses right now, they produce their own movies and develop their own material, and I think that’s key as well.”
Lopez adds, “I want to tell the gamut of stories. Uplifting, empowering stories, and entertaining stories, and gangster movies. I want to do everything that men do. I want to do all of it.”
And the 54-year-old isn’t stopping anytime soon. “I see myself working [as long as] I want to. I don’t know what that age is. It might be 70, it might be 80, it might be 90,” she says.
As reported, her musical and theatrical sides will soon come together in This Is Me…Now, a highly autobiographical album that will be accompanied by a Prime Video film on February 16.
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