World-renowned singer and actress Jennifer Lopez worked on ‘Hustlers’ “for free”.
The 50-year-old Grammy award-winning produced the all-female crime movie as well as starring in it as a stripper named Ramona, but has said she “didn’t get paid a whole bunch of money” for the work she did on the flick.
She said: “I do things because I love them. I didn’t get paid a whole bunch of money for ‘Hustlers’. I did it for free and produced it. I bank on myself. That’s the Jenny From the Block. I do what I want, I do what I love. But it was kind of a really different mindset to get into to play Ramona.”
Despite not making much money from the film, Jennifer found it “empowering” to play Ramona, because the character was “so self-sufficient” and “independent”.
She added: “Whether she was doing great things or bad things, she was very clear about what she wanted and what her goals were. And that she could do it on her own. Like, you never see a man in her life. There’s men. But she was so self-sufficient. For me, who grew up with my sister sleeping in the same bed, and then went from one relationship to the other, playing that character, and having to be that independent and in charge, I was just like, ‘God, this is so empowering.’ ”
And Jennifer is proud of the impact ‘Hustlers’ – which was released in September 2019 is having for women everywhere.
Speaking to GQ magazine’s Men of the Year issue, she said: “This is our movie where we run s**t. They know it’s all women producers, women director, women writer, all women starring in it. And they kind of took ownership of that. We’ve been watching men take advantage of women in movies a long time. And so it was a fun kind of ride to see the tables turn.”
Hustlers is a 2019 American crime drama film written and directed by Lorene Scafaria, based on New York magazine’s 2015 article “The Hustlers at Scores” by Jessica Pressler. The film stars Constance Wu, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Stiles, Keke Palmer, Lili Reinhart, Lizzo, and Cardi B. The plot follows a crew of strippers in New York City who begin to steal money by drugging stock traders and CEOs who visit their club, then running up their credit cards
