Jennifer Lopez’s documentary, Halftime, has recently debuted on Netflix. And the songstress has detailed her professional and personal life in the Netflix documentary. JLo also reflects on her legendary career, including that she almost quit. Jennifer Lopez helped generate a path for other Latina actresses to follow, becoming the first actress to earn over $1 million for her role in Selena.
With fame came increased scrutiny over her curvy physique, as she revealed in the documentary that the criticism was so intense she had thoughts of quitting showbiz altogether. Lopez admitted, “There were many times where I was just like, I think I’m just going to quit. I had to really figure out who I was. And believe in that and not believe in anything else.” Her curvy body type was far from the norm when Lopez burst onto the scene with Selena.
The actress explained, “When I started working, the beauty ideal was very thin, blonde, tall, not a lot of curves.” Lopez further confessed that she grew up around women with curves so it was nothing that she was ever ashamed of. She added, “It was hard when you think people think you’re a joke, like a punchline.” But it wound up affecting things in a way that she never intended. Jennifer also shared that her then-fiance Ben Affleck was surprised at the criticism.
ALSO READ – Jennifer Lopez Turns Heads In Sheer Gown At ‘Halftime’ Premiere: See Pics
Affleck said in the documentary, ‘I said to her once, “Doesn’t this bother you?” And she said, “I’m Latina, I’m a woman, I expected this.”‘ Lopez also opened up about how hard it was to get back to work after her divorce from Marc Anthony as a single mom with two kids. “As an artist, I lost a little bit of who I was in trying to build a perfect life, and when my kids were three, I got divorced and I was a single mum with two little kids,” she said.
JLo revealed that American Idol was, ‘the first big job I did after I had my babies and it was good for me at that time, people could see me for who I was and that changed everything.’ Her career revival was thrust into the forefront with her critically-acclaimed turn in the 2019 film Hustlers. While she was expected to earn her first Oscar nomination for the movie, she didn’t earn one, though she dreamt that she did.