Jennifer Lopez
Is in pole position…
When writer/director Lorene Scafaria was looking to cast the part of a badass strip-club matriarch who combines exotic dancing with masterminding a plot to swindle her über-rich clientele, she didn’t have to look far to find the perfect multi-hyphenate. “Jennifer Lopez is Ramona,” Scafaria says of landing the star for Hustlers. “The two of them are the same; they have all these similar qualities. It has to be her.”
She’s right. Ramona is the perfect role for Lopez, whose CV is peppered with fluff-coms, but also knockout dramatic work in the likes of Out Of Sight and TV’s Shades Of Blue, which affirm her as an actor who can still keep it real when it counts.
In Hustlers, which is based on a real-life gang of strippers-turned-con-artists, Lopez leads a crack team comprising Constance Wu, Julia Stiles, Cardi B and fellow singer-turned-actor Lizzo as they hatch a scheme to steal from the wealthy businessmen who frequent their establishment.
With its grit-’n’-glamour quality, the film represents an upswing for Lopez’s latter-day acting career. Her schmaltzy 2018 labour of love Second Act earned few critical raves, but the 50-year-old singer-actress has hit a groove this year, not only headlining Hustlers, but also starring in upcoming drug lord drama The Godmother, which she may also direct. Lopez will play Griselda Blanco, who rose from poverty to become one of the world’s wealthiest drug lords, and was a key figure in Miami’s Cocaine Cowboy Wars.
For Lopez, the films are all part of her ceaseless drive to express herself. “At the end of the day, I just feel like I have a desire to create and sing and dance and act and make movies,” she told Harper’s Bazaar earlier this year. “I’m excited whenever I work on a new project.”
And despite the numerous demands of being the chief of a $300m empire, she has no intention of slowing down. “I don’t know if I’ll ever get to a point where I’ll be satisfied and go, ‘I did it. All of it. I’m done. I got nothing else to say,’” she muses. “I hope that day never comes.” This hustler isn’t going anywhere.
ETA | 13 SEPTEMBER / HUSTLERS OPENS NEXT MONTH. THE GODMOTHER IS CURRENTLY IN PRE-PRODUCTION.