Jennifer Lopez reflects on 'Hustlers' Oscars snub: 'My life is about more than awards'
Jennifer Lopez has done it all from music to movies, a new JLo Beauty line and a Super Bowl performance in between. But she explained that even as an “overachiever” — something that she told Allure she has been since she was young — Lopez isn’t looking to rack up awards for everything that she accomplishes.
“The point is creating and the joy that I get from the things I get to put out in the world that entertain and inspire and empower people,” Lopez told the publication for its March 2021 cover. “I think my life is about more than awards.”
Still, the 51-year-old admitted that not receiving recognition for her film Hustlers in the form of an Oscars nomination was a “sting” at the time.
“I was talking about this the other day. [My production partner] Elaine [Goldsmith-Thomas] made a post where she listed all the things I had been nominated for and won that season,” she explained. “And when it came to the Oscars, it was so obviously absent.”
She continued, “I was like, ‘OK, when you’re supposedly in everybody else’s mind supposed to be nominated and you’re not, what does that mean? Is it really real? Are the other ones real and this one isn’t?’ It came to a point where I was like, ‘This is not why I do this. I don’t do this to have 10 Oscars sitting on my mantel or 20 Grammys.’”
Fortunately, re-evaluating the intention behind each of her projects seems to only drive Lopez to keep going as she reminds herself of the passion that she has for creating and how it outweighs the expectation of a certain response. The break that came in 2020 with the coronavirus pandemic was welcome, however, after 2019 proved to be one of Lopez’s busiest years yet.
“I started training for Hustlers in January 2019. I went from training for Hustlers to doing Hustlers to going on a tour to doing awards season while filming Marry Me. I remember filming all day and working on the music in my trailer and then doing interviews and then being on the phone with my kids because they had just entered middle school. I remember being on the phone with Emme, telling her to do two hours of homework, and then getting on with Max and putting him to sleep and then learning my lines for the next day. Then training for Super Bowl rehearsals. And then it was the Super Bowl,” she explained. “It was nonstop for a year. So, after that, I was like, ‘I’m going to rest. For a month.’”
Just nearly one year after the coronavirus crisis was declared a national emergency in the United States, the world continues to deal with its impact on daily life and business as usual. And although Lopez hasn’t completely stopped working, she admitted that she both misses how fast-paced it was before while also appreciating the time that it has given her with her family.
“I miss being creative and running on 150,” she said. “But Alex [Rodriquez], of all people, was like, ‘I love it. I love being at home. I love doing my Zooms. I love knowing the kids are there, and you’re there all the time.’ It has been actually really good. We got to work on ourselves. We did therapy. I think it was really helpful for us in our relationship.”
Read more from Yahoo Entertainment: