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Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck once appeared in a couple of movies together during the first phase of their relationship. But Kirsten Dunst believed this had an unwanted impact regarding celebrity couples in movies.

How Kirsten Dunst felt ‘Gigli’ affected making movies with her own partner

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck posing at at the 81st Golden Globe Awards.
Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez | Christopher Polk/Getty Images

Gigli came out during a particular low-point in Affleck’s career. A few of his movies weren’t doing too well at the time, and his relationship with Lopez was being scrutinized in the media. Gigli didn’t help matters, either. The Martin Best-directed comedy film saw Lopez and Affleck collaborating for the first time. Because of the attention their relationship was generating with the media, some felt this would’ve translated into box-office success.

But the theory couldn’t have been more wrong, and Gigli just opened Affleck and Lopez up to more criticism.

“It doesn’t work,” Affleck told Entertainment Weekly in a 2022 interview. “It’s sort of a horse’s head in a cow’s body. And the studio at the time, because I had begun having this relationship with Jennifer Lopez, which was selling a lot of magazines and appeared to generate a lot of enthusiasm, they just predictably latched onto, ‘They want a romantic comedy. They want the two of them together. More of that!’ And it was just like that SNL sketch: ‘Bad Idea.'”

But it seemed the effect of Gigli might’ve trickled down to some other celebrities as well. Spider-Man actor Kirsten Dunst was dating Jake Gyllenhaal when the movie was released. Although the two were prominent actors back then, she confided that it was unlikely for them to ever do a film together. Mostly because Affleck’s and Lopez’s Gigli showed that it wouldn’t be a good idea.

“Gigli kind of ruined it for everyone,” Dunst once told Daily Mail (via Today). “Jake [Gyllenhaal, her boyfriend] is really the best young actor and it’s a bummer that we can’t work together right now. Maybe we’ll just break up so we can work together — or say we did.”

But this shows how much times have changed. Dunst has starred in several projects with her husband Jesse Plemons. She recently worked briefly with the Breaking Bad star not too long ago in the movie Civil War.

Ben Affleck’s ‘Gigli’ led him to his true love

Affleck’s Gigli was a part of a long chain of events that led to him walking away from Hollywood for a bit. The critical backlash against the movie, and the media attention on his relationship with Lopez, played a major part in them breaking up the first time around.

“There’s that aspect of people that I got to see that was sad and hard, it was depressing and really made me question things and feel disappointed and have a lot of self-doubt,” he said.

But after the disappointments of Gigli and Jersey Girl, Affleck experienced a career resurgence a few years later. He directed a string of hits with Gone Baby Gone, The Town, and Argo, which restored his good will with the public. But Gigli’s failure might’ve been instrumental in this recovery.

“But if the reaction to Gigli hadn’t happened, I probably wouldn’t have ultimately decided, ‘I don’t really have any other avenue but to direct movies,’ which has turned out to be the real love of my professional life,” Affleck said. “So in those ways, it’s a gift. And I did get to meet Jennifer, the relationship with whom has been really meaningful to me in my life.”

Would Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez do another movie together?

After Affleck and Lopez reunited, they have yet to do a project together. Despite the reaction to their movies in the past, however, Lopez hasn’t ruled out the possibility.

“I don’t know, in the right thing, maybe, in the right thing,” Lopez once told Variety. “I mean, we love working together and being together, so maybe.”

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