Jennifer Lopez Used to ‘Shake Uncontrollably’ When She Watched Herself in Films: ‘I Hated It’
Jennifer Lopez has often been open about her experiences with anxiety and panic attacks over the years. Although she may be used to performing in front of others, occasionally stress and pressure have overwhelmed the superstar.
She’s felt similar emotions even when her career first started taking off, and she could barely handle seeing herself on the big screen.
Jennifer Lopez once had a nervous breakdown on the set of ‘Enough’
Lopez wears many hats in the industry. Not only is she one of Hollywood’s biggest movie stars, she’s also developed a highly successful music career.
But juggling both professions comes with a certain amount of stress. And that stress came to a head when she filmed the 2002 movie Enough. After working as hard as she did, Lopez experienced a bit of a meltdown.
“There was a time when I was very overworked and I was doing music and movies and so many things. I was suffering from a lack of sleep,” Lopez once told Daily Beast. “And I did have a kind of nervous breakdown. I froze up on a set. Well, not on a set, but in my trailer. I was like, ‘I don’t want to move. I don’t want to talk. I don’t want to do anything.’ It was on that movie Enough. Yeah. I did. I had a nervous breakdown.”
This breakdown eventually led Lopez to seeing a doctor, who diagnosed the pop-star.
“‘I’ll tell you what’s wrong,’ the doctor said. ‘You’re sleep deprived. You’re overworked. Go home and go to bed.’ He told me to go back to work on Monday after a weekend of sleeping because if I waited longer that I would only get more panicked about working. So that’s what I did,” she recalled.
Jennifer Lopez shook uncontrollably when she first saw herself in a movie
She may have gotten accustomed to it later on, but earlier in her career Lopez wasn’t too thrilled about seeing herself on screen. But it wasn’t for a lack of trying on the Hustler star’s part.
“The first time I see it, I really watch, but then after that, I kind of, you know, it’s weird to see yourself over and over, and I’m used to doing it now. At first, I used to just shake uncontrollably, you know,” Lopez once confided to ABC News.
Lopez recalled feeling this way ever since being in her first film, which she found nerve-racking to get through.
“I remember seeing my first movie, you know, they had a little screening for the actors, and I was just in the first 20 minutes of the movie. And for the rest of the two hours ,I was still like a nervous wreck. I hated it,” she added.
Jennifer Lopez learned a lot about herself in therapy
In the beginning, Lopez opted to deal with her issues alone, without the assistance of therapy. She was offered the opportunity during her breakdown on the Enough set. She politely declined the offer.
“I’m not a shrinky person,” she shared.
But she did eventually decide to see a therapist for a variety of issues. The actor was having a tumultuous time in her relationships, which further motivated her to seek the opinion of a specialist. In the long run, therapy helped the former American Idol host learn some valuable lessons about herself.
“I remember when I was going through therapy at the beginning, you know, kind of in my late 30s and there was a lot of talk about loving yourself and I was like, ‘I love myself,'” Lopez once said in an interview on Coach Conversations. “But obviously I was doing all these things in like my personal relationships that didn’t seem like I was loving myself, but I didn’t even understand the concept of it. It took time and it’s a journey and it’s still a journey for me.”
