Listen: Jennifer Lopez on Directing Her First Film, Tackling Broadway and ‘Hustlers’ Oscar Buzz
By Marc Malkin
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Jennifer Lopez is a singer, dancer, actor and producer — and now she’s looking to add director to her resume.
The “Hustlers” star tells me she’s thinking of making her feature film directorial debut with “The Godmother,” a biopic about the late Miami cocaine queen Griselda Blanco. Lopez is already producing and set to star as Blanco in the movie, which follows her reign in the Medellín Cartel during the 1970s and ‘80s.
“That’s one that I’m really thinking about maybe directing,” Lopez says during an appearance on Thursday’s episode of “The Big Ticket,” Variety and iHeart’s movie podcast. “But again, I would need to have so much time to do that. It’s going to be a timing thing. I would have to clear, really clear decks. I could. And it’s just when the right time for that is.”
Like “,” Lopez is about showing complex women on film. They may not necessarily be doing nice things, but that’s the point. “Griselda Blanco was very much the same thing, where you get to see women being the badasses. You get to see them being ruthless,” she said. “You get to see them being bad, but you also get to see that there’s two sides to them. We always got to see that from men.”
She continued, “[With] Griselda, you would get a super heavy dose of what a woman is capable of on a very ugly side. That would be interesting for people because it’s not been done, but also scary, intense for an actress. And a very delicate subject matter for a director. So I just feel like, again, it’s an intense project that I have to be ready to really go into.”
Also on Lopez’s entertainment bucket list? Broadway.
She said her longtime manger Benny Medina has pitched her a one-woman show akin to Bruce Springsteen’s residency, “Springsteen on Broadway.”
“He always had the idea of me doing my music and telling my story and doing something like that,” Lopez said. “And I got to tell you, it’s something that I might want to do at some point. It’s a lot of work, you know?…I went to see Bruce when he did it and he was only signed on for six months and then he wound up re-upping it and actually really enjoying it. And so that was encouraging. But obviously my show would be very different. I’m not going to stand there with a guitar. I’d be like dancing my butt off and it would be a whole different thing. So I don’t know if I would be re-upping.”
Lopez is having quite a moment right now. She not only produced “Hustlers,” but she’s also received some of the best reviews of her career for her portrayal of Ramona, the ringleader of a group of former strippers who con men out of their money after drugging them.
She received her second Indie Spirit nomination and could land her first Oscar nomination for her acting work. “I did ‘Hustlers’ for no money and I produced it and thought this could be a great movie. And you know what, if it wins, I win,” Lopez said. “And so you put your heart and soul into it and then you see what happens. And so when something like this happens, you’re like, ‘Yay, okay, it went well.’”
A week before the Oscars, Lopez will team up with Shakira for the Super Bowl halftime show. She said she’s preparing and planning by studying past performances. Lopez even teased that her 11-year-old daughter Emme may join her on the stage. The proud mom showed off Emme’s impressive vocals when she posted a video of her singing Alicia Keys’ “If I Ain’t Got You“ on her YouTube channel in May.
“You never know,” Lopez said, with a laugh, adding, “It’s a big stage to put her out on. I don’t know. She would have to do one of the things where she begs me, you know what I mean? Because I would be afraid…She would have to be so confident.”
If Emme is anything like her mom, Lopez has nothing to worry about.
Listen to the entire Lopez interview below. You can also find “The Big Ticket” at iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.
