Jennifer Lopez Almost Turned Down ‘Hustlers’ for Family
Actor and musician Jennifer Lopez stunned critics and audiences with her performance in Hustlers. However, the project almost didn’t happen with her attached until the filmmaker moved things around to make it possible. Lopez almost turned down playing Ramona in Hustlers for her family’s sake.
‘Hustlers’ actor Jennifer Lopez finally found a balance between work and family before the movie came along
In a 2019 interview with Variety, Lopez talked about the time leading up to Hustlers. She was once engaged with Alex Rodriguez, and they tried their best to make time for one another in their busy lives. However, Lopez explained that they had to put in a lot of effort to make time for one another.
“He loves being at every show that he can be at,” Lopez said. “I go to all his baseball games. There were times in my life when my career was going great, and my personal life was going OK. And there were times my personal life was stable, but my career was not great. This is the first time where I have a really beautiful alignment between the two. I think Alex brought that for me. I love it. We have a beautiful life.”
Jennifer Lopez almost turned down ‘Hustlers’ to not lose work-life balance
Lopez was offered the role of Ramona in Hustlers, a veteran stripper who takes her plan of robbing Wall Street men blind to a whole new level. However, the actor told Variety that she feared the project would disrupt the work-life balance that she managed to create over time.
“We were supposed to do it last summer, and I had worked so much,” Lopez said. “I was like, ‘I have to stay home with my kids and Alex.’”
However, writer/director Lorene Scafaria saw the importance of bringing Lopez on board for Hustlers. After all, she was the perfect actor for the part. Scafaria ultimately decided to push the production dates to accommodate Lopez.
“I think people forget that she’s such a gifted actor,” Scafaria said. “I was so excited that she was going to play a character on top of that. In a way, the role fits her like a glove, but it’s also a glove with spikes on it.”
The actor felt ‘jitters’ playing Ramona
Lopez has a long history of music and dance before Hustlers. However, that didn’t stop the actor from feeling immense stress and pressure leading up to the filming. Lopez knew that playing Ramona meant wearing a G-string and performing sexual dances in the role of the city’s most confident stripper.
“I was terrified,” Lopez stated. “I felt exposed, I was like, ‘I’ve never done anything like this. I’m going to be up there in f***ing dental floss. What is this? Who is this person?’ And then you get up there, and you have to have a ‘f*** you,’ empowered attitude. You have to take your power back. You have to be so bold.”
Lopez continued: “It’s almost like when you say you’re a rock star, you have to be arrogant to go up there in front of all those people or you crumble. You realize it’s the same type of balls that it takes to do something like that. And these women have that. They are tough, hard, vulnerable and damaged. It’s a great character to play.”
