Jennifer Lopez is looking back at her career and remembering how she went against the tide. Although the triple-threat entertainer hasn’t been lucky in love, her career continues to thrive more than 30 years in. Of course, it hasn’t been without its ups and down. However, Lopez has managed to remain mostly relevant by trusting her instincts even when the world is against her.
In a new interview, JLO recalled how joining American Idol was a risk her team didn’t approve of. At the time, her career was experiencing a downturn thanks to several factors like her romance with Ben Affleck and Box Office failures. It also didn’t help that Lopez took a long break from Hollywood after welcoming her twins in 2008. So, when the opportunity to be on the reality competition show presented itself, her advisors didn’t want her to take it. They felt it would be career suicide.
“I’d done all these big movies and made these albums, and now they’re asking me to do reality TV,” Lopez recalled. “I’ve had kids, and I haven’t worked for a couple of years. ‘American Idol’ was a big show at the time.” Unfortunately, her positive perspective wasn’t enough to convince her team that it was the right mood. She told Nikki Glaser in Interview Magazine:
“All of my advisors were like, ‘Don’t do this, you’re going to be reduced to just a reality star.’ It was looked down upon. ‘Don’t do that or nobody will ever hire you for a movie ever again.'”
Jennifer Lopez Once Turned Down Roles That Offered ‘Tons of Money’
Despite the negative chatter, Lopez forged on and ended up making a career comeback of a lifetime with American Idol. When asked about why she took such a risk, the Marry Me actress answered, “I’ll do things that could be risky because I believe that they’re going to turn out okay. It really comes down to, what do I think I can bring to something?”
The same logic applied when she launched a Las Vegas show immediately after Idol. “It’s the same thing when I went to Vegas,” Lopez explained. “They were like, ‘That’s where entertainers go to die.’ And I was like, ‘No.’ And it launched me into a whole new part of my life.” However, the Bronx native not only knows the right opportunities but also the wrong ones. “There’s been movies like that. Sometimes, they’ll offer you tons of money to do a commercial or a private show, and you’re just like, ‘No,’” she admitted. “They’re like, ‘Please do it! We all want the commission!’ And I’m like, ‘I can’t do that.'”
