International celeb - J Lo

JENNIFER LOPEZ is like fine wine – she just gets better with age.

Donning an aqua blue figure-hugging one-shoulder dress, gold strappy stilettos, sexy shoulder-length hair and smokey eyes, Jennifer Lopez looks stunning for our interview. The 47-yearold artist, also affectionately known as J-Lo, is the talk of the town thanks to her hit American TV drama Shades of Blue ,in which she plays Harlee, a detective with a shady past. She is also one of the new judges on the dancing competition World of Dance. We catch up with the mother-of-two about what’s been keeping her busy these days.

How are your eight-year-old twins Max and Emme?

Wonderful. We have such a great time; they are my heart.

How is motherhood treating you, and is it a difficult balancing act with your busy schedule?

Look, I love what I do and I love my kids, but no matter what the opportunity, they come first and it will always be that way. I take it one day at a time, and I have help.

You’ve stated in the past that you don’t pretend to be a superwoman when it comes to looking after your children.

It’s been a long while that I’ve accepted that I can’t be with them as much as I would like. But I’m not alone as a working mother when it comes to that. I am very conscious of trying to be as hands-on a mom as I can possibly be. They’re very happy and well-adjusted kids and I’m so proud of them and they always come first in my life. It’s up to me to figure out the best way of making them feel loved and secure … I take it one day at a time.

In the first season of Shades of Blue, you had time to establish things, and it was a little bit of a slower pace, and then it built up. In the second season you kind of hit the ground running. So just preparing yourself to go in on a second season, how did you do that?

You know, I thought the first season was so challenging because it was just emotionally taxing. I think our characters mostly take the brunt of that in this series, but for this one, I knew [it was going to be difficult] when I read the first page of the first scene. I was, like, ‘Okay! That’s what we are doing. We are going there? Okay. We are burying the body. Okay. Here we go. Wrap him up in a curtain, and then knock his teeth out? Got it. I’m there!’ So I knew that, emotionally, it wasn’t going to get any easier for my character, Harlee.

As an executive producer who works on the set, do you consider yourself a hands-on delegator?

I do. I feel like I’m involved in all aspects of it, and especially when there’s a lot going on and it’s a big scene. It doesn’t matter – big scene, small scenes, two people, tons of extras out on the street. Whatever it is, I’m there as Harlee and I concentrate on that. I know that’s my main job. But I’ve always been side by side with the director and the writers and the on-set writer, and making sure that everything’s making sense and making sure everything looks right. I’ve developed a thing with every director, which was really nice. They come to me and ask my advice on the show and where this is going or where that’s going and how things should be. It’s a great role to have – to be that involved in the whole vision of it as opposed to just playing my role, which I love to do, and sometimes I can only concentrate on doing that. I think everybody knows that I’m there to help in whatever way I can and to not direct but help produce in any way I can.

You recently won the People’s Choice Award for this show. What was your reaction?

This one is from the people, so when they say they like you or love your work, I really appreciate it, because they are the ones we do it for.

You have been recently have been announced as the new face of the mega make-up brand, Inglot. Please tell us more about that collaboration.

The capsule collection we created with Inglot is filled with all my go-to products in my favourite colours. We have everything from mascara, lipsticks, eyelashes, blush, eye shadow and of course … bronzers. What I think is unique and exciting is our Freedom System Palette, which allows you to create your own personalised palette with the specific colours and products that you need. Now you no longer have to buy that five-piece eyeshadow kit to get the one colour you really want!

Your diary just became busier thanks to the

World of Dance TV show. You are one of the judges alongside Derek Hough and NE-YO. What actually makes a good dancer?

It’s one thing to be able to move on beat, but it’s another thing to move with passion and make me feel what you are feeling, to make me feel something as you are moving. The word ‘amateur’ in regard to this show is used very, very loosely because even though there are some dancers that we we haven’t heard of or haven’t seen before, the skill level of the competitors is through the roof and off the charts. There’s no such thing as an ‘amateur’ when it comes to World of Dance. Everybody is a 100% professional; simply world class. It’s the same thing with singing in a sense. Do you know what I mean? I learned that when I did American Idol. So many people in the world can sing, carry a note, carry a tune, sing on the beat, but not everybody can make you get up and dance. It’s just a different thing. That makes you an artist.

Why do you do it? What is it about dancing that attracts you so much?

You do it because you love it. You don’t get into dance thinking ‘I’m going to be famous’, ‘I’m going to make lots of money’ or ‘I’m going to be rich.’ You get into dancing because you love to dance. And, yes, I remember having to have pizza, one slice of pizza every day when I was a dancer. I didn’t have breakfast, lunch and dinner. One slice of pizza around 6-ish would hold me over to the next day. That’s how I lived once. I moved out of my mom’s house, you know, and I did that for a couple years before I got my first big job. And I went to Europe, and I did more dancing, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world, and none of these dancers would. They love what they do. But that’s why they deserve something more. And for me, coming from that background, coming from that type of struggle, that’s why, for me, judging this show is a dream come true. I don’t say that lightly. It’s not just a phrase, ‘Oh, it’s a dream come true.’ No. It’s a dream come true for me to be able to create this type of opportunity for somebody who I know is just like me. I think what really comes through on the show, too, is that you really feel what it is to be a dancer and to have that kind of passion, which makes it compelling. It makes it compelling for us to watch as judges – to see that hunger and that kind of passion.

You talked earlier about having some more time to focus on your role as Harlee in Shades of Blue. Have you found at this point in your career that you spent so much of your career doing it all? Do you still have that craving to sing and dance and act, or are you finding that maybe you want to focus on one thing at a time?

How are you juggling now as compared to five or ten years ago?

Now, I can just be myself in the moment. I don’t think about what I did five years ago or what I might do five years from now. I just go with what I feel right now. I feel very creatively motivated to do a lot of things. This year, we’re producing a lot and doing World of Dance with NBC as well, my dance show, and executive producing and judging of that and then we’re going to be going into Shades of Blue, and I’ll be doing my stint in Vegas all year. Then we’re going to do Bye Bye Birdie (a live musical production) at the end of the year with the NBC as well.

It’s a full year, but it’s creatively fulfilling for me as an actor, as a singer, as a performer, as a dancer, and I couldn’t be more excited about tackling each one of those projects. How I’m going to feel a year from now, I don’t know. Maybe I will want to take a year off …