Jennifer Lopez on Relating to Her “Monster-in-Law” Character: “In a way I do because she does do a lot of different things. I mean, we do them for different reasons. I think Charlie the character is more indecisive about her life, doesn’t want to commit to anything. I’m a little bit more decisive about the things I want to do, but we’re both creative. We’re both, you know, like I said, involved in a lot of different jobs and different things.”
Getting Slapped Onscreen by Jane Fonda: “Yes that was very real. And it’s funny, you know, Jane is really tough and I like to think that I’m tough sometimes too. And we got there and we were like, ‘How are we going to do this?’ We knew it was a timing thing and we… You know, you want to catch a rhythm on it and stuff like that, so we just started. I said, ‘How are we going to do this? How do you want to do this?’ And there’s a stunt coordinator there making sure you don’t hurt each other. Basically we did [it]. We said, ‘Let’s just go for it, both of us just go for it.’ It was like, ‘You slap me, I’ll slap you, okay?’ I’m like, ‘Okay.’ So that’s what we did, and we were slapping each other a lot – a lot.”
Jennifer Lopez on Wearing Prosthetic Lips for the Allergy Scene: “I hate prosthetics. They are so freaky when you see yourself like that, right? I don’t like that. That’s really weird. I don’t like it. But it was funny, the actual kind of blowing up of the lips and everything - and the tongue and everything.
I got to do a lot of fun, goofy stuff which I haven’t got to do before. I’ve done romantic comedies and I’ve got to play like the sweet girl struggling and all this kind of stuff, but this got me more a little bit into the physical side of comedy, and I really enjoyed it. I had a good time with it.”
On Working with Jane Fonda: “You know, one of the great things about working with Jane was it really gave me a glimpse into what it must have been like when movies were different. She worked in a different era where it was more about kind of like plays and stories, and ‘Midnight Cowboy’ and all kinds of stuff like that. And just working with Dustin Hoffman - like that kind of very actor-ish, all about the work method… Like what it must have been like when movies were just about that, you know?
I worked with Robert Redford as well, in a movie called ‘An Unfinished Life’ that will be out July 22nd. We were talking one day and I was telling him how ‘The Way We Were’ was one of my favorite movies because I loved Barbra Streisand and I love him. And he was like, ‘You know, it’s a shame you guys don’t have scripts like that these days, that are about politics and Hollywood and social issues and a love story all combined into one.’ It was just a great movie in that sense, if you think about it. And her music and just the whole kind of package deal that they used to get back then. They don’t make movies like that. It’s about, you know, big commercial blockbusters a little bit more now and people take less chances on the independent stuff. It’s a tougher kind of thing.
I guess what was great about working with Jane - back to the original question - was that I kind of got a glimpse into what that was [like]. So everyday on the set it was like, you know, how do we push this scene? She would come very prepared. I like to be very prepared. We’d get there, we’d talk about what we were going to do, and she’d have almost like what was on the page and what that was and what we were going to do, and then like the craziest thing she could think of. You know what I mean? We would run the gamut of trying all these different things and it was a lot of fun, you know, just kind of thinking about how it was just about the work everyday and making each scene as great as we could with what we had to work with.”
On Chemistry with Her “Monster-in-Law” Boyfriend, Michael Vartan: “Michael always kinds of scores in these kinds of roles. You just know if you get Michael Vartan you’re lucky because he is just like the perfect boyfriend person, right? Just because he’s so sweet. He’s very genuine. He’s very real. He doesn’t have a bunch of phoney airs about him, you know? He’s French. He speaks French all of a sudden and you’re like, ‘Ooh he speaks French…’ You know what I mean? There’s just something about him that’s very kind.”
Page 2: Jennifer Lopez on Developing Her Character, the Paparazzi, and the Intimidation Factor
