Jennifer Lopez has opened up about her Oscars snub this year, revealing she was “a little sad” when she missed out on a nomination for her role as Ramona Vega in Hustlers.
With the amount of hype the film and Lopez’s performance got, people just assumed she’d get an Oscars nom for best supporting actress. But she bloody didn’t. Laura Dern ended up winning the gong for her *chef’s kiss* performance in Marriage Story.
Lopez sat down with Oprah Winfrey at the latter’s 2020 Vision: Your Life in Focus tour in Los Angeles over the weekend. J.Lo reflected on the last year – on turning 50, on her incredible Super Bowl halftime show, and Hustlers.
“I was a little sad because there was a lot of buildup to it,” she shared of the Oscars snub. “There were so many articles. I got so many good notices – more than ever in my career – and there was a lot of ‘She’s going to get nominated for an Oscar. It’s going to happen; if she doesn’t, you’re crazy’. I’m reading all the articles going, ‘Oh my god, could this happen?’ And then it didn’t and I was like, ‘Ouch’. It was a little bit of a letdown.”
Lopez, who has worked with most of her team for more than twenty years, said she felt like “I let everyone down a little bit” because they all had their hopes up as well.
Despite the snub, Lopez was still nominated for a Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award, and Indie Spirit Award, which is a huge achievement in its own right. And after the initial disappointment rubbed off, Lopez was able to accept that she didn’t need an Oscar to validate her career.
“You realise you want people’s validation. You want people to say you did a good job, and I realised, ‘No, you don’t need that. You do this because you love it.
“I don’t need this award to tell me I’m enough.”
As an aside, I absolutely recommend watching J.Lo’s behind-the-scenes videos on how she mastered pole dancing. I have never felt so unfit in my life. It comes in two parts, and it is wildly impressive.
