Fans couldn’t wait to watch Jennifer Lopez ‘s new Netflix documentary, Halftime , which first premiered on June 8 at the Tribeca Film Festival, and became available to stream on June 14.
It provides a pretty interesting look at the 52-year-old superstar’s life and career so far, as well as how J Lo has her sights set on the future. Here are some neat facts that we’ve learned from Halftime .
J Lo wasn’t very happy about splitting her time during her Super Bowl Halftime Show with Shakira.
The 2020 Super Bowl double headliner was definitely an entertaining halftime show, and while Lopez felt honored to share the stage with a legend like Shakira, she was frustrated over time constraints.
Both artists had 14 minutes between them to perform.
The two evenly split their time, but Lopez felt they should’ve been given more. “If it was going to be a double headliner, they should have given us 20 minutes,” she said in a call with Shakira. “That’s what they should’ve [expletive] done.”
Google Image Search was born thanks to J Lo’s iconic green dress.
Maybe you already knew this one, maybe you didn’t, but that green dress she wore to the 2000 Grammy Awards was such a high search query for the then-text only engine, that the execs at Google had to figure out a way to give the people what they wanted (pictures of Lopez in the dress).
Her decision to get political during her halftime performance wasn’t loved by the NFL.
Part of J Lo’s performance features kids (including her own) in “cages,” which takes inspiration from migrant children who were separated from their parents and detained in border facilities.
“Some of us have been here for years, and a lot of those [immigrants] are just good people who believe in the American dream — that’s all they want.”
Outraged with what she saw on the news, Lopez knew she had to make a statement , despite generally staying out of politics.
The day before the performance, NFL executives wanted Lopez to cut that part out.
But she stuck to her guns: “To take out the cages and sacrifice what I believe in would be like not being there at all. The Super Bowl is tomorrow and we’re not changing anything.”
J Lo considered quitting Hollywood amid jokes and comments made at her expense.
In the early 2000s, J Lo’s public relationship with Ben Affleck (a relationship referred to as “Bennifer”) was often the butt of media jokes and the source of a lot of mockery toward the star.
“No matter what I achieved, [the media’s] appetite to cover my personal life overshadowed everything.”
During this time, Lopez’s self-esteem was at an all time low, and it caused her enough grief to want to quit her acting and singing careers.
She and Affleck broke things off in 2004, but have reconciled in recent months, even getting engaged earlier this year .
The media also criticized J Lo’s body.
J Lo came into prominence at a time when curves weren’t part of the beauty standard: “When I started working, the beauty ideal was very thin, blonde , tall, not a lot of curves.”
“It was hard when you think people think you’re a joke. Like you’re a punchline.”
“But I wound up affecting things in a way that I never intended to affect them,” she said during the documentary.
J Lo’s Oscar snub for “Hustlers” had a real impact on her.
2019’s Hustlers was critically acclaimed, with many believing J Lo would receive her first Oscar nom for it. But when that didn’t happen, it hit Lopez hard.
“The truth is I really started to think I was going to get nominated.”
“I got my hopes up because so many people were telling me I would be. And then it didn’t happen. I had to ask myself, what does that mean?”
“I do this not for an award.”
“I do this to tell stories and to affect change and to connect with people and make them feel things, because I want to feel something.”
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She was up for a Golden Globe as well, but ultimately did not win.
For J Lo, this isn’t the end. “Not even close.”
Reflecting on her career, seeing herself “thriving,” Lopez said, “I’m going to be unafraid to get loud and use my voice in the best way that I can.”
The documentary is available to stream on Netflix.
