Women supporting women. It’s a good time to tell this story
Jennifer Lopez is returning to the world of rom-coms – but far from just a story of street smarts verus book smarts, Second Act brings about a positive message of change, say director Peter Segal and star Milo Ventimiglia. GEMMA DUNN finds out more
MILO VENTIMIGLIA is recalling the moment he heard Jennifer Lopez had handpicked him to star in her latest movie. The Californian – who was busy shooting another season of critically acclaimed drama series This Is Us at the time – was approached to play the Latina star’s romantic lead in Peter Segal’s new comedy, Second Act.
“I’d heard Jennifer wanted me and nobody else, so I thought, ‘Well, that’s flattering’,” he declares.
“So I read the script and spoke with the producer and Jennifer and we found ourselves agreeing with what we wanted to do together creatively,” he remembers. “It worked out really great!”
“I said we’d be lucky to get him!” quips Hollywood director Peter, 56, having already hired Primetime Emmy Award-winner Leah Remini at Lopez’s request.
“So Jennifer made a call and told Milo he was our only choice...” he verifies. “And those were two of the easiest casting decisions I’ve ever made: hiring her best friend and her favourite male performer.”
Dubbed by some critics as “Maid in Manhattan 2.0”, Second Act sits in the same vein as the 2002 J-Lo vehicle and 1989 hit Working Girl. Think the tried-and-tested working-class-girl-does-good formula.
Written by The Bucket List’s Justin Zackham, the rom-com is centred around Maya Vargas (Jennifer), a forty-something shop manager whose hopes are dashed when she’s overlooked for a promotion.
Frustrated that her street smarts doesn’t equal book smarts, Maya’s boyfriend Trey (Milo) and best friend Joan (Leah) try to boost her spirits. But was her entire future determined when she was 16, or can she reinvent herself?
It seems so, as the star is soon given a shot – with the help of an over-egged resume – at a career within a corporate Manhattan firm, alongside CEO Anderson Clark (Treat Williams) and his ambitious daughter Zoe (Vanessa Hudgens).
And with a focus on second chances, the film is certainly sending out a positive message, says Milo.
“It’s what pulled me in in the first place,” admits the star, 41, who previously starred in Gilmore Girls. “The idea that even if we’re unhappy with the direction of our lives, we can change that. We can decide to do something different.” He adds: “There’s a lot to learn [from this movie]; there’s a safety in going back to what you’re familiar with but there’s also an appreciation of what you understand is really truly good for you. And you can have it all.”
Peter agrees: “There are a couple of messages; one is you don’t need a degree to succeed in the workplace, you can get there with hard work and street smarts. And the other is that we’re the sum of all our decisions.
“I think people get sad thinking that mistakes they’ve made have forced them to write the scripts that put them in a certain place,” elaborates the New York native, who directed such hits as Tommy Boy and 50 First Dates.
“But one of the messages in this movie is you can write your own story – you can change the scripts,” he continues. “In this case, Maya has the support of her friends – that helps encourage her to reach for something she didn’t think was possible.
“It’s really a Cinderella story of someone who didn’t get the chance to go to the ball as a different character,” he concludes. “She gets to experience life in a different light. Under a different identity.”
“I’m a college dropout,” adds Milo. “I really feel like the book smarts aren’t something you have to have to succeed in life. “There is something to be said for being life smart; you experience certain things in life and you have a way of connecting with people that you can’t learn at a university, you can’t learn in a book,” he insists. “Whatever you want your life to be, you can make it that.” If anyone has proved you can write your own destiny, it’s Jennifer – aka “Jenny From The Block” – who grew up in The Bronx borough of New York City, and has often discussed her journey from modest roots to the heights of super-stardom (amongst all her other achievements, the singer has sold over 75 million records worldwide, including 40 million albums, since her 1999 debut). In fact, 49-year-old Jennifer has made the Second Act mantra “The only thing stopping you is you”.
But just how was it working alongside the global icon? “She was very down to earth,” Peter offers. “I’ve had the good fortune of working with some very big celebrities and a lot of times their persona becomes a block between themselves and the director they work with, who may be intimidated and afraid to really communicate with them.
“Once you get past looking into the face of someone like Jennifer Lopez, the shininess and seeing all those personas you’ve grown up with, you realise that underneath is a person trying to tell a story.
“In this case, as a very hard-working woman from The Bronx who made something of herself,” he goes on.
“I think she really identifies with the character – and that grounded approach calms me and stops me looking at her as this mega superstar and just as this character.”
“She’s someone who in all of her successes across music and dance and film, she is still very present with the work and rooting for you in a scene with her,” Milo concurs.
As for making a rom-com post-Me Too, Peter is under no illusion that audiences’ tastes have changed.
“Comedy changes more than drama,” he notes. “But we had to be very cognisant of different things in the world, different feelings and different perceptions.
“It felt like the right time to talk about how our economy can help shape people’s lives – not everyone has the money to go to a good college, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t keep trying,” he asserts.
“That, as well as women supporting women in today’s world,” he concludes.
“They’re two great things that may not have been at the forefront of storytelling 10 years ago, but right now feels like a good time to tell a story like this.”
Second Act is in cinemas now.