A look back at the extraordinary 1998 interview that almost ended Jennifer Lopez’s career
Jennifer Lopez ripped into Cameron Diaz, Gwyneth Paltrow, Madonna and others in this extraordinary interview.As far as legendary interviews go, Jennifer Lopez’s 1998 tell-all is up there with one of the most shocking.
J-Lo was 27 at the time, had recently married Ojani Noa, and her star was on the rise after appearing in films including Money Train, Out of Sight, Anaconda, Selenaand U-Turn.
But Lopez almost single-handedly destroyed her career when, in an interview with Movieline, she trashed a number of Hollywood’s leading ladies and spilled the beans about her randy male co-stars.
Lopez’s reputation was severely damaged and the actor said she “cried for hours” when the interview was published.
“I was so misquoted and so taken out of context, and it’s a sore subject for me,” Lopez told Vanity Fair three years later.
“I don’t like to hurt anybody. I don’t like to hurt their feelings. I like to joke, so I do that sometimes. What they wrote in that article hurt people.”
Lopez addressed the controversial interview again last year, telling NPR it put a lot of noses out of joint in Hollywood.
“It gave me a lot of notoriety in the moment, and then it made a lot of people in the industry really pissed off,” she said.
“I didn’t realise that my words could impact people that way. You know, I was a nobody at that time … So I was still in that kind of fan mentality, back in the Bronx.”
So what exactly did Lopez say in the 1998 interview? Here are the most shocking excerpts:
On why she was landing so many movie roles at the time:
“Because I’m the best. I feel I can do anything — any kind of role. I’m fearless.
“I work really hard. I’ll just get better as I go along because I’m open to getting better. If you have the goods, there’s nothing to be afraid of. If somebody doesn’t have the goods, they’re insecure. I don’t have that problem.
“I’m not the best actress that ever lived, but I know I’m pretty good.”
On Salma Hayek:
“We’re in two different realms. She’s a sexy bombshell and those are the kinds of roles she does. I do all kinds of different things.
“It makes me laugh when she says she got offered Selena, which was an outright lie. If that’s what she does to get herself publicity, then that’s her thing.”
Selena starred Jennifer Lopez as the Mexican-American singer Selena Quintanilla Perez, who was shot dead at 23 by her fan club president.Source:News Limited
On Cameron Diaz:
“A lucky model who’s been given a lot of opportunities I just wish she would have done more with. She’s beautiful and has a great presence, though, and in My Best Friend’s Wedding, I thought, ‘When directed, she can be good.’”
On Gwyneth Paltrow:
“Tell me what she’s been in? I swear to God, I don’t remember anything she was in. Some people get hot by association. I heard more about her and Brad Pitt than I ever heard about her work.”
On Claire Danes:
“A good actress. Her emotional and inner life are available to her, which is a good start. But I feel like I see a lot of the same thing with every character she does. She’s not that way in U-Turn, though.”
Cameron Diaz in My Best Friend's Wedding.Source:News Corp Australia
Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow.Source:Getty Images
On Winona Ryder:
“I was never a big fan of hers. In Hollywood she’s revered, she gets nominated for Oscars, but I’ve never heard anyone in the public or among my friends say, ‘Oh, I love her.’ She’s cute and talented, though, and I’d like her just for looking like my older sister, Leslie.”
On Madonna:
“Do I think she’s a great performer? Yeah. Do I think she’s a great actress? No. Acting is what I do, so I’m harder on people when they say, ‘Oh, I can do that, I can act.’ I’m like, ‘Hey, don’t spit on my craft.’”
On Wesley Snipes hitting on her during the filming of Money Train:
“Wesley, even though I had a boyfriend at the time, went full court press. He was flirting with me, you always flirt with your co-stars, it’s harmless, then he just started getting a little more serious.
“He would invite us all out together and then at the end of the night, he’d drop me off last and try to kiss me. I’d be like, ‘Wesley, please, I’m not interested in you like that.’
“He got really upset about it. His ego was totally bruised. He wouldn’t talk to me for two months. I was like, ‘What an a**hole.’
“Actors are used to getting their way and to treating women like objects. They’re so used to hearing the word ‘Yes.’”
Wesley Snipes, Woody Harrelson Jennifer Lopez in Money Train.Source:News Corp Australia
On beating out Sandra Bullock for the lead role in Out of Sight alongside George Clooney:
“I have this attitude, and it won’t change no matter how big I get, that you have to fight for things you want. You can’t expect things to be handed to you on a platter, even if you can fill theatres week in and week out. Because there’s always somebody like me ready to kick down the door and steal the job right out from under you.
“One of the smart things George did was to screen-test everybody, because he knew he’d had trouble with the women in his movies, where maybe there wasn’t as much chemistry as there could have been.
“Universal was pushing for Sandra Bullock because they said she’d put people in seats. George and the director met with her, but they were like, ‘If Sandra really wants it, she’s gonna have to test for it.’
“She wouldn’t test, and her agent, who is also my agent, supported that. If I was Sandy, I’d say, ‘Well, I’m gonna show them that I can do it. I’ll read with them, make them offer me the part, then make them pay out the a**.’”
Sandra Bullock in Speed 2.Source:News Corp Australia
Jennifer Lopez and George Clooney in Out Of Sight.Source:News Corp Australia
On demanding $5 million for starring in Out of Sight, before reportedly settling for a $2 million salary:
“I think George Clooney’s getting $10 million for this movie. (Universal) thought they were going to get me cheap from the beginning, but I kept telling my agent, ‘No, no, no! Keep asking!’
“When my agent called me saying, ‘What should we say to them?’ I said, ‘Say, Who’s going to break their a** to promote this movie while George is on ER? Say, Anaconda is now over $100 million worldwide and why do you think girls between 18 and 25 went to see it more than any other action movies, because of Ice Cube?’”
Jennifer Lopez and Ice Cube in Anaconda.Source:News Corp Australia
On her husband at the time, Ojani Noa (they split soon after the interview):
“It’s tough for me because the men I’m attracted to, for some reason, haven’t gotten it together. Even my husband, I feel, has a lot of potential but he’s not at the point where … I mean, even though he has lots of contacts, even though he’s doing his own thing, opening a club and restaurant here, whatever business he gets in, he’s not gonna make as much money as me. That’s something he has to deal with and to live with, which is tough for someone like him.”
Jennifer Lopez and her husband of one year, Ojani Noa.Source:News Corp Australia
Lopez successfully navigated the fallout from the 1998 interview and has gone on to become one of the world’s biggest stars.
J-Lo has sold more than 80 million records and her 30-something movies have grossed more than $4.5 billion.
She currently had a net worth of more than $550 million and is engaged to Alex Rodriguez who will be her fourth husband.
Not too shabby for a girl from the Bronx.
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