Jennifer Lopez in Her Own Words (and Everyone Else’s)

She has been a dominant force in pop culture for 30 years. So how did Jennifer Lopez do it? Here, she, her friends, and her collaborators share the lowdown on J.Lo.

After three decades of nonstop performing, you would think that Jennifer Lopez might take a break. But…nope. “I’m in the best shape of my life,” she says. And her friends and colleagues — Leah Remini, Ben Affleck, Michelle Obama, Marc Anthony, and many, many more — concur. Perhaps rapper Fat Joe puts it best. “She’s Jenny the Icon. She’s not just from the Bronx no more…”

In the beginning…

Abraham Quintanilla Jr. (father of the late Tejano star Selena, whom Lopez portrayed in Selena, 1997): When I met Jennifer, she had been mostly a dancer and at that time was focusing on acting. I recall that early in the Selena production, we filmed the Astrodome concert scene with 30,000 Selena fans as the audience. After it was finished, [my wife] Marcella and I were walking with Jennifer to the dressing rooms. Jennifer stopped and said, “Look at my arms. I have goosebumps.” I asked her why, and she replied, “I’ve never been in front of 30,000 screaming fans.” At that moment, you could see in her eyes that she had experienced the excitement of performing live in front of an audience and she wanted to be a part of that entertainment world, which is so different from the acting world. She had the vision.

Jennifer Lopez: Abraham is right. At that point in my career, I had never performed onstage in front of 30,000 people. I felt a huge responsibility to do everything right and to play Selena in the way that her fans and her family would love. I wanted to document her in history in the most beautiful way. I remember feeling comfortable up there and in my own skin and that performing came naturally to me.

Judy Greer (co-star in The Wedding Planner, 2001): Everyone on set was calling her Jen-Lo — there was no J.Lo yet. I’d like to think that it all started there, on a soundstage in Glendale, CA. (I am sure it didn’t, but I can pretend I was there at the beginning.)

Lopez: The name J.Lo came from [the late rapper] Heavy D. He used to come by the studio for my first album [On the 6, 1999] and would call me Jenny-Lo, Jennifer-Lo, or J.Lo.When I was doing my second album, I decided to call it J.Lo [2001], and I believe that’s when it really stuck!

Tyler Posey (co-star in Maid in Manhattan, 2002): I worked with Jennifer when I was 10 years old. She was always on time and always gave 1,000 percent when she was acting or talking to someone lower than her pay grade. Everyone was treated equally. About halfway through the shoot, she bought me an Xbox! I couldn’t believe it.

Pamela Hanson/LGA Management — Jennifer Lopez in a Norma Kamali swimsuit, Caye Joaillier rings (right-hand ring finger), and Tiffany & Co. rings. JENNIFER LOPEZ

On her incomparable work ethic:

Marc Anthony (singer and ex-husband): The thing about Jennifer is her ability to see and understand things before they happen. Before she even brings an idea up, she has visualized it a thousand times. And if anyone says it might not be the greatest idea, she’ll say, “You just don’t see it yet.” Nine times out of 10, she’ll nail it. She’s the first one in the room and the last to leave. The hardest worker I’ve ever met. When we were together, it was quite the opposite for me. That has changed since. I learned so much from her. She’s the original!

Michelle Obama: The world knows that Jennifer is blessed with many gifts — talent, beauty, and an unparalleled work ethic. But what impresses me the most about her is her unwavering commitment to leverage those gifts and use her platform to give voice to the voiceless. Whether it’s working to improve health care for mothers and children, encouraging more people to vote, or singing her heart out at a presidential inauguration, Jennifer has always known that life is best when it’s shared with others.

Ben Affleck (ex-fiancé and co-star in Gigli, 2003): I thought I had a good work ethic, but I was completely humbled and blown away by what she was committed to doing day in and day out, the seriousness in which she took her work, the quiet and dedicated way she went about accomplishing her goals, and then how she would go back and redouble her efforts. She remains, to this day, the hardest-working person I’ve come across in this business. She has great talent, but she has also worked very hard for her success, and I’m so happy for her that she seems, at long last, to be getting the credit she deserves.

Charlize Theron (actor and friend): Jennifer is an absolute powerhouse. I can’t begin to comprehend how she does all that she does, always giving 120 percent, and she has made it seem effortless for 30 years. To call her a triple threat doesn’t come close to describing her—she’s all of the threats!

Lopez: I love what I do. I’m passionate about it. Every day does not seem like a job to me. I can honestly say I’m living a dream, and I’m grateful every day that I wake up. I have tireless energy for what I do. I also have an amazing team who help me in every single way both personally and professionally. I really believe the most important thing is to have great people around you.

Matthew McConaughey (co-star in The Wedding Planner): Jennifer Lopez — what can she not do? Extremely deliberate, intentional, fully choreographed, and self-aware, she even knows how to make accidents look like accidents. When we acted in scenes together, she would turn in take after take as if timed on a meter, 1:01, 1:00, 1:02, 1:01…yet you couldn’t tell that she was keeping a clock. Her success is not happenstance.

Leah Remini (close friend and co-star in Second Act, 2018): I had actually never worked with her before Second Act. I’m messing around with her before we’re starting, and she’s like, “Hey, dummy, you want to go over the lines for the scene we’re about to do?” She would do things where she would talk about where our characters just came from, like in acting class. I was like, “Oh, good for you. You’re an actor’s actor.” I was thinking more about what we were having for lunch.

Lorene Scafaria (writer and director of Hustlers, 2019): People ask what it was like to be behind the camera for [Lopez’s character] Ramona’s dance in Hustlers, which was, of course, electrifying, but I was just as gobsmacked watching Jennifer in the diner scene, convincing the audience that doing something illegal and objectively wrong was not only a good idea but justifiable. The dark turn that [initially] scared studio heads out of a green light was now an amen moment thanks to the power of Jennifer’s sermon.

Lili Reinhart (co-star in Hustlers): Jennifer never flubbed a line when I worked with her. Even shooting late into the night, she was always in good spirits and had high energy. Can we please do a Hustlers reunion at a strip club when the pandemic ends?

Lopez: I’ve had the same approach to acting and the same teacher, Aaron Speiser, since I first started in my 20s. We go through the script together, talk about who the character is, and consider the effects of what they experience. I’ve become confident in the process, and I trust myself more. When you start out, you are so afraid you’ll forget something and that you won’t be able to deliver in front of the camera. I don’t have that [issue] now. I’ve always said that preparation and rehearsal make me very confident when it’s time to perform, and with experience, it gets even better.