Actress-singer-filmmaker Jennifer Lopez says that she “never wanted to be put in a box”. “It’s always been my goal with my career is to show diversity in the different things and characters that I could play,” said the 51-year-old in an exclusive interview, moderated by Billboard Latin VP Leila Cobo as part of Billboard’s Latin Week programming.
Lopez was joined by her ‘Marry Me’ costar Maluma where she spoke about Latin representation, the significance of music, and how one should let her play the president of the US.
“I wanted to always be a person. Look at me like I’m a person. Don’t look at me like I’m one type of person like I’m just a Latin girl over here and I can only do these things. No, I can do anything. You should let me play the president of the United States. I should be able to do that. It’s always been my goal with my career is to show diversity in the different things and characters that I could play,” she said in the interview.
Lopez also said that “everybody knows that I’m the Puerto Rican girl from the Bronx,”
“I’m proud of that because there’s no reason for that to ever hide. It’s the secret to my success,” she said, reports Hollywoodreporter.com.
When asked that in a time when “it’s been so hard” for Latin artists to find a breakthrough in Hollywood, Lopez’ production ‘Marry Me’ features a Latin actress, a Latin actor, and Latin music, she said, “It’s not common. I’ve been doing movies for 25 years now.”
“One of the things we wanted to do with this film was to have an international star who could be with me right there to make an album that was bilingual for the first time in an English movie. That was a big deal for us. That idea of Hollywood, us making our mark, telling our stories but also just telling a story is super important,” she said, reports hollywoodreporter.com.
