Jennifer Lopez Revealed Why She Was ‘Miserable’ While Filming ‘In Living Color’
Jennifer Lopez broke into the entertainment industry with her role on In Living Color. She made her television debut on the show as a Fly Girl, one of the show’s dancers. This had been Lopez’s dream for years, but she said she struggled through filming. She shared why she was so upset while shooting the show.
Jennifer Lopez said she was not happy while filming ‘In Living Color’
When Lopez got a part on In Living Color in 1991, she moved from New York to Los Angeles. This was a major challenge for her. While she came to like LA, she said she initially hated the city.
“Living Color was nice because it was my first steady paycheck, but I was miserable living in L.A.,” she told Rolling Stone in 2001. “I’m a total New York-Bronx girl, with the accent and the whole nine. I was hating it. It’s a really lonely city when you’re an East Coast person. But now I love L.A.”
She said she struggled for a year before her high school boyfriend moved to the city with her. This made it easier to live there.
“It didn’t get better until the second year,” she said. “David [Cruz] and I got back together, and he moved to L.A., and that made it more bearable. He wound up staying out there for four years with me. I was stable at home, so I was able to excel and work. He was my stability — I didn’t have to worry about anything else with him there.”
Jennifer Lopez initially did not get picked for a spot on ‘In Living Color’
In Living Color kicked off Lopez’s career, but she initially did not land a spot on the show. She auditioned for the first time in 1990 and was rejected.
“I was part of the OG group of girls on the series,” Dancing With the Stars judge Carrie Ann Inaba told Steve Harvey in 2017. “Then the producers decided to let one girl go and wanted to bring in another. Jennifer was actually one of the people who auditioned.”
Lopez didn’t let the initial rejection stop her, though. She came back the following year and earned a spot.
“We didn’t actually choose her the first time,” Inaba said. “It’s so weird because she was so amazing. She came back again, and everybody was happy. Look, I feel like we chose a star.”
She said she has always preferred New York
Lopez said that after struggling in LA for a year, she grew to love the city. It would never mean as much to her as the Bronx, though. This is where she spent her life up until the age of 18.
“I hated L.A.,” she told W Magazine in 2013. “I was asking, ‘Where’s the store for milk? Don’t you guys walk on the street?’ Now I love Los Angeles, but it doesn’t give me strength the way the Bronx did. All the strength that I needed for life, I got from that neighborhood.”
Lopez still resides in LA, but she also has homes in New York state.
