Lopez later made clear she ‘never meant to hurt’ anyone with her comments

Featured Image Credit: Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images / Netflix

People stunned by Jennifer Lopez’s comments on multiple A-list actresses as she tore into them

Lopez later made clear she ‘never meant to hurt’ anyone with her comments

Emily Brown

Published Mar 27, 2024, 15:04:55 GMTLast updated Mar 27, 2024, 15:04:36 GMT

A lot can change in 20 years, and a resurfaced interview from Jennifer Lopez has proved that people are very much included in that.

By 1998, J.Lo had released a number of music videos and appeared in a few TV series and movies, but she herself later described herself as a ‘nobody’ at that time.

The interview

While perhaps not the biggest star, Lopez did manage to land herself an interview with Movieline Magazine, in which she spoke about a number of A-listers who were in the spotlight at the time.

Salma Hayek, Cameron Diaz, Claire Danes, Winona Ryder, Gwyneth Paltrow and Madonna were all on the list, and Lopez didn’t seem to hold back when offered the chance to share her thoughts.

Salma Hayek

Speaking of the Grown Ups actor, Lopez began: “We’re in two different realms.”

She went on to allude to a claim Hayek had allegedly made about Lopez’s 1997 film Selena, saying: “She’s a sexy bombshell and those are the kinds of roles she does. I do all kinds of different things. It makes me laugh when she says she got offered Selena, which was an outright lie.

“If that’s what she does to get herself publicity, then that’s her thing. Columbia offered me the choice of Fools Rush In or Anaconda, but I chose the fun B-movie because the Fools script wasn’t strong enough.”

Hayek, however, did take up the opportunity to star in the 1997 romcom Fools Rush In with Friends star Matthew Perry.

Taylor Hill/Getty Images

Cameron Diaz

Moving on to Diaz, Lopez described her as a ‘lucky model who’s been given a lot of opportunities I just wish she would have done more with’.

“She’s beautiful and has a great presence, though, and in My Best Friend’s Wedding, I thought, ‘When directed, she can be good’,” she continued.

Gwyneth Paltrow

“I swear to God, I don’t remember anything she was in,” Lopez said of Paltrow, who at that time had starred in titles including Emma, Sliding Doors and Se7en.

“Some people get hot by association,” Lopez continued. “I heard more about her and Brad Pitt than I ever heard about her work.”

Paltrow had starred in a number of titles when Lopez made her comments. Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Image

Claire Danes

Up next we had Danes, who Lopez actually had some kind words for as she said: “A good actress. Her emotional and inner life are available to her, which is a good start.”

However, she then continued: “I feel like I see a lot of the same thing with every character she does. She’s not that way in U Turn, though.”

Lopez appeared alongside Danes in the 1997 movie U Turn.

Winona Ryder

Getting straight to the point, Lopez said of the Stranger Things actor: “I was never a big fan of hers.”

“In Hollywood she’s revered, she gets nominated for Oscars, but I’ve never heard anyone in the public or among my friends say, ‘Oh, I love her.’ She’s cute and talented, though, and I’d like her just for looking like my older sister, Leslie.”

Madonna

Last on the chopping block was Madonna, of who Lopez said: “Do I think she’s a great performer? Yeah. Do I think she’s a great actress? No. Acting is what I do, so I’m harder on people when they say, ‘Oh, I can do that—I can act.’ I’m like, ‘Hey, don’t spit on my craft.'”

Lopez has acknowledged her comments upset people in the industry. Tomas Herold/Getty Images for Apple Music

The reaction

It’s easy to understand why Lopez’s interview hasn’t been forgotten over the years, and yesterday (26 March) it gained attention yet again after being shared on X, where one person described it as ‘incredible’.

“The Gwyneth Paltrow disrespect … I gasped,” one person commented.

Another wrote: “I still can’t believe this interview is real. Iconic.”

Looking back on the interview

Lopez has come a long way from where she was in 1998, and in 2018 she reflected on her comments and how she’d ‘never wanted to hurt anybody’.

Speaking NPR, she of the interview: “It gave me a lot of notoriety in the moment, and then it made a lot of people in the industry really p**sed off. And so when I look back at it now, I go, ‘You know I never wanted to hurt anybody.’

“I didn’t realize that my words could impact people that way. You know, I was a nobody at that time…

“So I was still in that kind of fan mentality, back in the Bronx. And then you go: Oh, wait a minute.

“You have a responsibility to present yourself in the way that you are, and not let people interpret it in a way that could be that you’re this hurtful, callous person. You’re not. That hurt me. That bothered me. So I learned to be more responsible.”