Discloser: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to purchase through my links, at NO cost to you. Please read the disclaimer for more.
“Since I was little, I was an overachiever.” Is that at all surprising coming from powerhouse Jennifer Lopez? The singer/dancer/actress is celebrating 30 years of Allure as the face of their March 2021 cover. It’s absolutely fitting since both brands have been around since the early 1990s.
Writer Danielle Pergament did a phenomenal job showing the impact Lopez has had on society over the past three decades. By the sheer power of being J.Lo, she has changed our beauty standards, helped change the conversation around Latinos in America, and shows single moms can do it all- she has fashion, beauty, and all entertainment covered.
In her cover story, the Bronx boricua gets candid about how her son Max pushed her to be more socially conscious and use her voice during the Black Lives Matter movement, the way in which she comforts daughter Emme (and herself) during scary COVID moments, and how the quarantine changed her relationship with former NY Yankee ARod.
On her iconic year
“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. It was nonstop for a year. So, after that, I was like, ‘I’m going to rest. For a month.’” (Watch J.Lo’s iconic Super Bowl performance here.)
On why she always goes so hard
“If you work hard, you can accomplish something. You can win the medal.”
On how quarantine changed her life
“I mean, the first part was like, ‘Wow, this is different,’ I think we all were filled with anxiety. We were in the Twilight Zone, like everybody else. I started trying to do things together. We would play baseball outside or paint together. We never get to do stuff like that. I was trying to take advantage of the time.”
Her advice for daughter Emme on dealing with the Covid_19 pandemic
“We can’t just keep living our lives and thinking everything’s going to work itself out. No, it’s not going to work out. We have to get involved. We have to make changes. That was why 2020, as difficult and scary as it was, was so necessary. What we realized is that we’re all in this together. This is about our kids growing up in a world where they feel comfortable, where things are equal, and there’s more kindness and love than hate and division. In the middle of the pandemic, [my daughter] Emme came to me crying. She was like, ‘Why is all this happening?’ It was such an emotional thing because I was trying to comfort her and myself in the same moment. I said, ‘There’s something happening that we’re in the middle of, and you have to trust that on the other side, it’s going to be so much better. We just have to hang on.’”
On her potato chip eating habits
“I do! I do sit on the couch and eat potato chips! The thing is not to get too used to it, because it’s so easy and so fun.”
On how son Max changed her outlook on social matters
“The whole thing that was happening with police brutality, the Black Lives Matter movement, Latinos at the border — you feel like you had to contribute. I remember my son coming to me and saying, ‘You know, Mom, some of my YouTubers tell us what we should do, and I listen to them. You have a lot of people that feel that way about you.’ It was his way of saying that I should do something. He probably heard me complaining about what was happening in the world. I said, ‘I want you guys to make me the signs because Mommy wants to get out there too.’ I’m not used to being in big crowds like that — I’m always on the stage. [My life is] car to back door to security to this to that. It was scary. I got a little anxiety, like, ‘How do you get out of the crowd?’ Once I got [into it], to be in the masses like that, I loved it. Like, ‘Wow, there’s a movement happening.’ So many people, different ages, races — it was a beautiful thing.”
On where she feels most comfortable
“Stages are where I feel the most comfortable. I don’t like talking or doing speeches, but to sing and dance or to act? Come here, baby. That’s what I do.”
On that whole Hustlers snub
“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. And when it came to the Oscars, it was so obviously absent. It was a sting. I was like, ‘Okay, 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.’”
On the point of it all
“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. I think my life is about more than awards.”
On her relationship with ARod
“I miss being creative and running on 150, but Alex, 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.”
On canceling her wedding
“It was a big deal. We had been planning for months and months and months, and it was overseas. Maybe that wasn’t the right time. You start thinking of all of these things — how everything has its kind of perfect, divine moment.”
Photos: Daniella Midenge, Fashion: Nicola Formichetti, Hair: Chris Appleton, Makeup: Mary Phillips, Set: Evan Jourden, Nails: Tom Bachik, Production: Viewfinders