Despite a music career that propelled her to the top of the charts, she is now just ‘Jenny From the Block’. Confirmed actress, she accumulates roles, producing “Marie-moi” in which she gives the reply to Owen Wilson. Back on his impressive journey.
Selena (1997)
When “Selena” takes the poster, Jennifer Lopez has been rolling her bump on the sets for almost 10 years. While she plays the singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, murdered by the head of her “fan club”, she is also on view in “The Trader”, in which she is the mistress of Jack Nicholson. Critics are unanimous, her performances prove her range of play. J.Lo is then destined to become a “star” of the big screen… especially since she receives a fee of more than a million dollars, which made her the highest paid Latin American actress at the time. After obtaining a nomination for the Golden Globes, she continues with the action and horror film “Anaconda” before Steven Soderbergh chooses her for “Out of sight”, a police comedy in which she stands up to a very young George Clooney.
“The Cell” (2000)
For his feature debut, filmmaker Tarsem Singh chooses a massive sci-fi story set inside the brains of comatose patients. Jennifer Lopez becomes a child psychiatrist, Vincent D’Onofrio a serial killer and Vince Vaughn an FBI agent. The film earned $104 million, making it a box office hit, but reviews were mixed. She then turned, the following year, to more commercial projects such as “La matchmaker” – released the same week as her album “J.Lo” -, her first romantic comedy which seduced the crowds, and “The eyes of an angel”, but the public does not follow.
“Romance in Manhattan” (2002)
The romantic comedy in which she plays a single-parent maid who falls in love with a politician (Ralph Fiennes) tops the box office in its first weekend of release, beating ‘Star Trek: Nemesis’! Critics praise the performance of Jennifer Lopez and salute the fact that a Latino can be the main character of a love story. The same year, but a few months earlier, the star had continued her forays into action films, she had been directed by Michael Apted in “That’s Enough” where she played a woman abused by her husband who decides to revenge.
“Gigi” (2003)
Why include a turnip – and according to some one of the worst turnips in history – in such a list? Besides the fact that it was filmed and released when Jennifer Lopez was in a relationship with Ben Affleck, with whom she has now reconnected, the film had no consequences on her career … unlike that of her lover, despite losses of nearly $100 million. Indeed, the singer and actress continues to be, thereafter, with the poster of one or two films per year, in particular My step-mother is a monster (2005) which collected receipts of 154, $7 million at international box office. J.Lo will nevertheless take a break of several years when the birth of her twins in 2008.
“Scam in Heels” (2019)
While we thought that at 50, J.Lo could no longer surprise, she turns into a stripper who, with several colleagues, decides to rip off the rich “traders” of Wall Street. Producer of the feature film, which collected $157.6 million in receipts, she performs a dance on the screen which captivates critics and moviegoers alike… and is nominated for a second time at the Golden Globes.