Jennifer Lopez explores many ‘Shades’ these days
She has a new series, her gig on ‘Idol’ and a Vegas show on tap
After a long day shooting her new NBC series, Shades Of Blue, Jennifer Lopez is letting her hair down. It’s shorter than usual, with loose, layered curls falling just past her neckline. The look is stylish but distinctly utilitarian, perfect for a working woman who lacks the resources of an international superstar.
That would certainly describe Harlee Santos, Lopez’s character on Blue, which premieres Thursday (10 p.m. ET/PT) on NBC. A single mom, Harlee serves on a team of Brooklyn detectives led by Ray Liotta’s Lt. Matt Wozniak,
who practices questionable ethics but seems fiercely devoted to his unit. When Harlee is pressed by the FBI to become an informant, her sense of loyalty and her safety are threatened.
“She’s on the right side of things, and then all of a sudden she’s not,” says Lopez, 46, chatting in her trailer. “I don’t think I’ve ever played a character this complex and layered, who’s juggling and struggling with so many things at once. Sometimes you can have really good intentions, but things happen, and you think, ‘How did I get here? This is not what I intended.’ ”
Lopez, an executive producer on Shades, had “wanted to do something more serious” for her return to TV acting, which coincides with this week’s return as an American Idol judge for its final season. “I had just worked on a movie with Viola Davis ( Lila & Eve), which was kind of intense,” she says of 2015’s Lila & Eve, which cast both women as grieving mothers.
Lopez shifts gears again Jan. 20, when she launches a three-year Las Vegas residency at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino. “People who would never see me on tour will see me in this,” she says of the show, called All Of Me. “I’ve thought a lot about that. Like, if you came to see the Jennifer Lopez show, what would that be? What do I want to say as an artist? That’s what I’m trying to create.”
She has watched old footage of Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand and Diana Ross. “I’ve set out to make my show feel intimate the way they did, by seeing the audience and interacting with them.”
If the prospect of following such legends is daunting, Lopez insists that her Vegas schedule won’t be. “You hear 40 shows a year, it sounds like a lot. But that leaves you 325 days to do whatever you want.”
That, of course, will include hanging out with her twins by ex-husband Marc Anthony — Emme, the shy one, and Max, who “loves making up stories” — who turn 8 in February. Lopez is “always working on music,” and recorded “a lot, with different people” in New York while Shades was in production.
“It’s all about waiting for the right time.”
If you came to see THE Jennifer Lopez show, what would that be? What do I want to say as an artist?