Jennifer Lopez Calls Her ‘Hustlers’ Oscar Snub ‘A Little Bit of a Letdown’

By Jordan Moreau

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Jennifer Lopez opened up on her snub at this year’s Oscars during a discussion with Oprah Winfrey, admitting she felt disappointed about not getting nominated.

Many expected the “Hustlers” star to have her name called out during this year’s nominations for supporting actress, but Lopez was missing from the list. Kathy Bates (“Richard Jewell”), Laura Dern (“Marriage Story”), Scarlett Johansson (“Jojo Rabbit”), Florence Pugh (“Little Women”) and Margot Robbie (“Bombshell”) made the cut instead, with Dern taking home the award.

“I was a little sad because there was a lot of buildup to it. There were so many articles. I got so many good notices — more than ever in my career — and there was a lot of ‘She’s going to get nominated for an Oscar. It’s going to happen; if she doesn’t, you’re crazy.’ I’m reading all the articles going, ‘Oh my god, could this happen?’ And then it didn’t and I was like, ‘Ouch.’ It was a little bit of a letdown,” she said.

Speaking at Winfrey’s “2020 Vision: Your Life in Focus Tour” on Saturday, Lopez also admitted she felt like she let her close friends and peers down.

“Most of my team has been with me for years — 20, 25 years — and I think they had a lot of hopes on that and they wanted it, too. So I felt like I let everyone down a little bit,” she said.

Despite the disappointing Oscar results, Lopez earned nominations at the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild Awards and Indie Spirit Awards for her role as Ramona in “,” and seems to have gotten over the Academy’s snub.

“You realize you want people’s validation. You want people to say you did a good job, and I realized, ‘No, you don’t need that. You do this because you love it,” she said. “I don’t need this award to tell me I’m enough.”