Actresses Roundtable: Jennifer Lopez, Scarlett Johansson, Renée Zellweger, Lupita Nyong'o | Close Up

Welcome to the spotlight with

actresses

Holly Reporter. I'm Rebecca Ford and I would like to welcome Laura Dern Lupita Nyong'o Renee Zellweger Aquafina Scarlett Johansson and Jennifer Lopez. Thank you very much for joining us, so let's jump well. Here, when were you most scared or intimidated by a role and how did you overcome it? We can probably all understand what happens every time before we start, yes, it happens every time your imposter syndrome sneaks in and you get caught. and this will be the moment when everyone knows that you're a fraud and you're fired and you know, I don't know, it's always this wonderful, exciting collaboration and you don't want to let anyone down, so you know you just have this. little nurse and I want to make sure you keep your end of the deal so it becomes less fear and probably more of a sense of responsibility as I guess you get older and I've been doing it for a while but it's always part of the joy to actually do it because if it doesn't scare you excited exactly why you do it scares, you learn there was something specific maybe that scared you more than most I know, I would say I mean, I scare you, you scare others Of you, probably what I've been most afraid when I'm having the most fun because there are no limits and you kind of lose sight of where you are and that's an incredible feeling, but I probably filmed the details at the time.

Citizen Ruth and that was the one that I felt at that moment was most different from anyone I had been with. I don't want to say that she isn't addicted to being in pain, but that was a challenge and at that moment she scared me and because it was a very dark comedy. I'm trying to follow this unusual line and the script was so funny and scary. Beautiful. I would say that the last movie terrified me quite a bit. Every time I work, I ask myself if I have what it takes. stand in that particular line because you know we're in a business where we're always starting over, you know you have to start with ignorance in every role and the preparation is about moving from that ignorance to hopefully a sense of expertise.

By the time the movie ends well, but with us I had to play two characters in a movie and I had the time that it normally takes me to prepare for one and these two characters are diametrically opposed to each other, they are individuals but they are also two entities that ultimately they're one, so it was a challenge just in terms of how to organize them in my head, you know, and how to make them distinct and yet feel like two parts of one entity. I think you're always excited. and when taking on a new role, a new movie and I've done them for so long and so many of us have here that you're not nervous, nervous, there are like butterflies, but it's no way, it's not like, oh yeah, I'm I'm going to burn.

Catching Fire isn't that edgy but this was the first time in a long time I was actually terrified to do that opening number where I suggested it was my fault I was scrim only says Ramona finishes a final flourish and then Me and Fate We met and I was like, "No, she's like the big one, you know, the one who makes money at the club," she was this person. I played a stripper in that in this movie and um, and I was like, "but she has to prove why, as we can." I'm not saying it we have to do it right we have to dance on the pole I have to show them I have to go there and even though that's scary and in my mind I think it's going to be scary but but then when I was there and I had the floss on and I was there like I've never been before, it was so scary, it was so scary, I literally felt like for the first time in years my heart was beating out of my chest and I go, I'm so scared and I wasn't smiling like I was outside.

I turned to my production partner and she came on stage and everyone was excited and it was towards the end of the shoot and here we go on stage and I have my robe on and there are 300 extras oh man and it's like oh my God, okay and I go, I turn to my mom, I'm scared, you know, and she was like you never heard me say that, right? I heard we just like to work. working working doing our movie program and I said yes and she said: you have this, you have this and I say, yes, I have this, but I think that was exposing myself in a physical and emotional way.

I don't know anything deeper than I've ever done and playing a character that was unapologetic in many ways and so different from who I was. You know, I feel like all my characters have a little bit of me in them and this one did a little bit, but it was very different, yeah, again it was the most rewarding thing you do, it's like, oh okay, painting that scene is amazing, like who could help you choreograph it and how. how long did you do it and how many people actually saw you do it before it was 300 male audience members sad, very funny, hardly anyone says sorry, it wasn't quiet, probably that's why, and it was hard, you know?

I had to learn acrobatics and, you know, my shoulders will develop, so it took us like eight weeks and she started showing me that she had a barre teacher who worked for Cirque de Soleil, so she, but she survived. in Las Vegas, so she knew strip clubs, so I thought, "You know, this has to be like she's not trying." In the Cirque du Soleil artist, I'm a stripper and that's why he has to have that grunt like dirty. dirty sexy, you know, I also feel like I wanted it to be like that too, so we just put it together with the moves that I learned and I was like, God, this is cool or you know I need it, I need it. to conquer that one so I need to learn it because that one has to be there and we put it together and then it was like researching and going to the strip clubs you know there were moves.

I saw some of The Girls Did It, I was like, "I'm going to put that in and we just built it up piece by piece and then you know, we picked a song and we just did it that way, but that's how it went, uh." It was hard and I think you're right, I didn't realize I was in that small space with just a few people, the director hadn't even seen it, she just watched a video like the day before and then you. I know I went out and did it that day and Scarlett, what about you?

You have two very different films that have come out. Is there one that was more intimidating to you than the other? I don't know if intimidated is really the right word exactly, I think both movies, even though they're really different and what they do have in common is that the scripts were like beautiful little gems, both scripts and Warren, obviously, a story of marriage and it was incredible. I mean, it's just everything. I think what people who have seen it don't necessarily realize is that every hesitation and every unfinished sentence is written and no one really, you know, it's the words, it's the words and you know you have to hold it together, that's all. . right there and you and he's very rigorous about it, you know which is fine, but you know you have to do it, you have this kind of structure and then you realize sometimes it was a challenge just because you know he's relentless and he He works, you know, until he's tired.

I have never been able to have that experience. There are movies burned like that. It's something you do when you do theater because you know you keep coming back. It's one of the beautiful things to do. The theater is that you have the opportunity over and over again to figure it out and you do what you discover, you know it every night and it's very exciting because you know, surprising yourself all the time and you're stuck with this touch. I know from this text and that's the kind of experience I'm sure Lana and Laura had. You know you had all this, all this offer, this opportunity to try it all and it was challenging, but it was also kind. to keep coming back to okay, I can't deviate from this, so I'm going to, you know, make these discoveries within this kind of with the confines of this tax and if I weren't outside, I wouldn't say intimidating but it was a challenge I would definitely find it.

I felt intimidated when I read your monologue I saw you learn it tirelessly fumble and meet my god and then invent an air and he ran lines and I listened to you memorize it and take one it was Perfect, this human being opened his heart and told this whole story, not a word. I was mesmerized, it was incredible to see you do it. All the actors were hands. When Noah came by, yeah, it was amazing. I think acting is everything, that's all. about, you know what you have with another person, that's the magic that happens, it's what you get from this person who receives you and you receive it, and you know how to make this beautiful shape with another person and I, of course, had this beautiful creature. to act against it and be there with me and hold me and you know, this incredibly understanding soul that is Laura Dern.

I'm just listening to you as I see the beauty of acting correctly like you're practicing and practicing and you're back there and you're looking at it, you're going over it in your head and then you have to go out and you have to do it and the wonderful thing is like your heart is beating out of your chest with your you know I can't say so instead of man or whatever, you know, acting is the right thing to do because that's what we do, we act, we're like we go out on stage, whether it's on a on the set or in front of 50,000 people or whatever and we have to perform, you have to do it and that's the professional part, right when you go out and even though in your mind, in the back of your mind, you're like, oh, I could be wrong on the first one.

Here, okay, I have another take, that doesn't mean you go out, you do, that's so cool. I'm curious if you've ever had an experience where the actor you had to do. The work in front of you wasn't giving you what you needed or it just wasn't vibrating the way you needed it to, you know if you know how to work with an actor and it just wasn't working, it wasn't working, it meant chemistry like you. If you don't connect, yeah, then you really need to know when you're going and there are people who have that rhythm where they listen to you and then wait a long time before they respond and if you're a person and I think we all share this where we're almost finishing everyone's sentences because we are having so much fun talking.

It's super strange when someone says. I know what you are referring to. How did it take six minutes to answer the quadruple? So if you're with an actor whose rhythm is maybe so different that it might seem strange or if they're just incredible. I mean, I think so, it's interesting to me. I trained in theater and that is where I feel most at home and cinema is something that I like. I've been working for the last six years and the interesting thing about film is that you take risks. I think more often about having an actor who doesn't respond because on stage it's the performers who are in charge of the magic, whereas in the movie there are other people in charge of the magic, you know, yeah, the acting does its thing. , but then there's the editor, who ultimately is the one who organizes the performance, then it's the shot, you know, you just have to do this and the camera, you know.

All these weird things where you can't look at the person you're acting with, you have to look at the So, I think you're more likely to find moments with an actor where things don't add up because there's so many other things to deal with, so I think my growth in acting for the movie is almost 2, you have to be much more. Self-sufficient is something I am. I'm realizing that you have to be able to control your performance in a way that doesn't necessarily have to depend on the other person, but for example with us I played with both of them. the hero and the villain, so I never had my singing partner there, you know, I was playing against green dots and stuff like that and I really had to act and then I had to prepare for how he would react, so that was one of the ways that I had to be extremely technical and self-sufficient and trust the editor to do their job to make talking and listening happen, so for me working on this with us was a lesson in how effective it is to be yourself. -Dependent can be it's almost like you have to control what you can and then just let it go and trust that your scene partner, the editor, will do the pasting and it sounds like a lot of preparation, yes, a lot. of preparation, yes, then you know what it is that you are trying to achieve that day and depending on the circumstances, whatever appears, you have your arsenal to draw on, look at what you are going to draw from, when, what exactly is necessary and You know in the moment what is necessary because you know what the objective is and you have already looked at, I don't know, the trajectory correctly so that you understand where it could go and you figure it out for yourself. as you go along what it's like, you know what's necessary, yeah, I wonder enough like I'm that person, people say, yeah, there just wasn't a connection there, I don't know what's going on, no, I'm just like a retreat from that.

I think for me, if you come on set and the other actor thinks they're having a bad day or I feel like sometimes that energy fades a little bit, you know, and it's not like that. It's anyone's fault and I think it's always like If you hate me, then I'm going to feel uncomfortable right now, you know, but then I think when you have those conversations with your castmates or whatever and you realize that. They are also human and have thesame fears. I think that helps from the beginning. Can I just know empathy and know that we are all, both of us?

You're going through that, you know? I'm curious how important it is for all of you to change what people expect of you based on your choices. Aquafina. I know with the farewell you played a really dramatic role when you were known for your comedy before. added pressure where you were worried that people would expect you to be funny in the movie, yeah, I mean, it adds a lot of pressure, yeah, I am, I was really scared, yeah, because I think you know what people think of you and things like that, but you don't know, you don't know what you can do, you know and I think you create all these different scenarios in your head about the worst that can happen and the best that can happen and you want to strive for this kind of invisible better that will never come true, but I think it's, you know, that's what drives you, it's so different now, the climate is so different, there are so many wonderful opportunities now for women of all ages to, you know, play in ways different. types of people and you know, I feel like when I was working in my early 20s and even like in my late teens and early 20s, you know, I felt like I was kind of pigeonholed because I was so hypersexualized, which I guess I know it seemed fine to everyone at the time, it was a different time, even though it wasn't part of my own narrative, it was kind of a brainchild probably by a bunch of guys in the industry and you know, I guess that worked at the time. , but it was really hard for me to try to figure out how to get out of being a non-janu or the other woman because it was never something that I had intended and I had been working on since I was eight years old and that was certainly never like a goal.

For mine, I had to change it a little bit because I couldn't seem to do it. I just didn't want to work on things that I liked, I knew how to do and I knew I could do it and that's how it was. It was like, what is this? I remember the judge thinking at the time that maybe I needed a different job in this industry that was more fulfilling because it seemed like there was just nowhere to go, so I actually got a chance to do an Arthur Miller play on Broadway and, in fact, it totally reset my thinking about how I could work and what are the different types of opportunities that could be available to me and it's amazing how limitless theater is.

You know, and it just felt like that, even though it was scary, it felt liberating because I actually felt like every night I had a chance to change the narrative and like Lupita had said before, you know you're in control of yourself. kind of destiny on the stage and to a certain extent and you are in charge of your own destiny up there René. I know you took a six-year break from acting and that was a choice to also reset things or have you had to do that at other points, not in terms of whether you talk about people's perceptions of a brand or something?

So? I was listening to what you were saying and I thought it was really interesting because it reminded me of when I was young and I started You know I would get those jobs, you know, I'll get the shorts and, you know, the other woman from the, you know, a girl from a fling one night, and I did about three or four of those little jobs in Texas when I was still in college and I thought you know, I think I'm going to stop doing this because I know where that road is going. I don't know what it will be like in the end, but I bet it would be very difficult to get off that path. and there's the inevitability of things changing and your body changing and you know you get older and you know you have a life and you look like your life and thank God for that right and I thought I want to be good with the inevitability I want to be good with that and I want to work in a way where I can portray women that I can identify with throughout my life.

I don't want to have to stop at a particular moment because it can't be the cut anymore because It looks weird, you know it's a bad idea, it doesn't really relate to the person you become or your time, but it's funny because you know, right, you don't feel like a different person, you know, he's just, yeah, you know. submitting that was interesting to hear what you had to say about that because I was wondering what that experience might have been like and it wasn't even by your choice, it's because it's just the nature of having given birth to a very beautiful woman, you know? so I think that's um, I think that's interesting, no, but it's good for you because what was it?

I thought it was very interesting. I loved watching your career from the beginning, watching you grow and you know that through your roles and from a very Young woman, you've been working point of view and seeing that no matter what you said, that you had been hypersexualized, I always felt that your talents were those that preceded that. I felt like I always want to say that it may have been your experience from the inside or whatever. was what they were asked to do in terms of promotion or whatever, but I always saw a wonderful actress, I mean I'm sure you guys, oh yeah, I know my ways and I saw them in that play and you're phenomenal hmm , so talented, I think so, oh, yes, yes.

I'll be doing this again, so I'm curious to hear your views on the press and fan and public attention that some of your experience as an actress faces. dealing with when things aren't kind, whether on social media or in the press, and what your point of view is on that over time. I mean, I don't want to put anyone in an awkward position, but rather to say that I know we've all faced it and the difficulty of trying to keep one's life private, but I have to say that you have this other extraordinary gift of being iconic and this story. broader, and I know how it felt for me, there are times when I walk by the cover of a magazine and I just feel you know, pain for anyone who has to go through this like the salacious narrative that you know was created and every fall had it, yes, yes, but I mean, I give it to you with curiosity because it's incredible to be considered this, you know, iconic music. legend and also really being considered an act first of all as two separate little gifts, but it's beautiful and although everyone can create their stories, yes, it's about that part, it's fun from the beginning, I've been really chosen and plagued with that , a lot of stories, a lot of lies, a lot of things you try to figure out, like how did this happen, how did I become that person and I think what I've learned is that none of that matters mm-hmm and no, it doesn't bother me anymore.

I've learned that I know who I am, I know what I do, I know I'm a good person, I know I'm just here working hard. and you know, trying to, you know, fulfill myself creatively in a way, you know, because that's an impulse of mine, that's my thing, you know and I, no, I just learned not to worry about anything else, nothing else, me, my children. , my life, my work. What will I do next? What creative and fun thing can I do? What can we produce? What can we do? What will the program be? What is more than this?

You know what I mean, that's the makeup of my life and what you realize it is. You know, because there was a time in my life where there was such a big part and it was so painful and so difficult that you think you know I don't want to do this anymore. I don't want to be this. I don't want to be the person on the cover of the magazine every week for two and a half years. I do not do it. This is crazy. Why do I know and then you leave? Well, it just hurt and it wasn't even most of it.

It's true, so why do you care? I had to get to a point where I was just like it just doesn't matter, it doesn't matter what people say, what matters is who you are, who you are and what you're doing, and me. I think eventually that came to fruition, no matter what people write about what they say, all of a sudden they look at you and say, oh wait, she's been here a long time and she's doing well and she seems pretty nice and you know and Honestly I think American Idol helped me with a lot of the things I've done in my career, people like to see me talk about how much I love music and how much I love people and how much of a girl I am. how much of a cryer I am and you know all things and things changed you know and but it's all, I just realized that it just does the most important thing is that it does it, it's not really what matters, I think they can write whatever they want tomorrow and it wouldn't matter Renee.

I want to talk about playing Judy because obviously part of her story was the way she was treated by the public and the media at a certain point in her career, what was she like? get into the mental space of relating to her at that point in her life, well, I guess going back to what Jennifer said, you know where that story comes from, you know, and again you get to that place where you resign yourself to needing to be the determiner. of yours I guess I don't know the legacy, whatever it may be, how your children or your niece and nephew think of you in the future.

You know based on what they could read, but knowing that there is so much more. to a story that what is written and understanding and looking at what was written about her at the time of her passing and the years leading up to it in the last chapter of her life seemed so unfair to me because it was an obscene and rude comment because that en What's so exciting to read and news travels faster, isn't it when they say well I'm traveling the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes mm-hmm and I thought I'd like to understand this better?

I would like to understand why that chapter is full of tragedy and why she was accused of making such bad decisions and how she ended up in a place where she faced so many challenges. Was there a certain point in the process where you felt like I really got it like when you put on the hair and the outfit and the makeup or was it long before that where you like I really got Hoshi a no, that didn't happen, no It happened, I was on the move. It was a process that was constantly moving, just little experiments, we were trying things every day and it didn't feel like making a movie, it felt like a celebration of her because everyone came to the set and they were motivated by the same affection or adoration for her and it was an expression of that, so we were all trying things cooperatively and we always knew that someone would find a recording or we would read something in a book and we were always sharing and adapting according to what came up, making decisions in the future. day and just conjure the essence of it as honestly as we could based on, you know, those things that that treasure that we were extracting every day was there like a moment like a couple of weeks in or a few weeks in Marie, it kind of felt like in your pocket and you felt like you could be playful and you know how to make decisions or act on your instinct because you were Judy back then because everything was already worked out, you know what the parameters were, say yes, you know, sometimes you just like to draw.

Sometimes I feel like when you're starting out, you know it's abstract, you know you're trying to find it with everyone or there are pieces, a fragment that's right and all the people around you, whoever it is, whether it's the camera department trying of finding out what this look is like in what you know what it is you know what this finding is how to capture this performance and then your hair and makeup team and all that and then I feel like sometimes a few weeks go by on you They're like oh, I can walk on set as this person and I have this playground and I can do all these things.

Did you find that or did you always cut it? Did you always have this? Do you know what you are describing? Were you like where you felt like you had to try all these different things? It was never, it was never disconnected. You know, we were building on something trying. I mean, it sounds really crazy, but I felt like our essence was palpable on set. because her music was always playing and we were always exclusive recordings of her voice music, when I played Selena, one of the things that made me feel most in her body was acting, because you look at her and you're going to try to imitate her. a little bit and then let it go and just live well, but the music and the real acting because that's what we have, the real things where you can really like an observer but you can't talk to her in person, which is the La difficult part, right, is the type of music you like.

I get it, you know what I mean, like music is such a big part of it. I wonder if that was the same for you, oh yes, absolutely fine, because there is a language of interpretation that has developed. Over so many years, my body language, yes, and when that becomes familiar mm-hm and then it becomes a habit and then you don't think about it anymore and you can use whatever it is that populates with you, yes. those movements are how she moves, yeah, you know, it's suddenly, you're like okay, well, this was where she felt comfortable in her body and this is how she moved her hands not only on stage but also when she was . speaking you know what I mean it's like it was a whole yes, and you just, yeah, you just built, you just built on it and you liked playing someone like a real person.

Oh yes, I love to play. I feel like it's something out of the blue. Yes, yes, it is good to have one income point, not several points. of reference, but the responsibility is different - oh yes, yes, yes, of course, of course, yes, because you want, well,They love her, yes, you want a love very much, Judy and you want it, no, they do it. Selena and Joe had just died two years before so they were like you better like luckily I was younger and more ignorant like now if I had to do it I would be so in my head so much more in my head it would be so much harder I think and I hope I get that movie and Watching her The whole time I thought you keep moving, that's right when you play one of those kinds of characters, it's like you were constantly talking about who she was, what she did and how she did it, and it's, it's, it's, it's. it forms as it goes along, it's one thing to get it right and I was sharing it with you before he came in here, and it's another thing when I get so excited that people who have seen the movie and his performance will say, Have you seen anything that she gave back and some people literally started crying talking about what a gift it was to feel like they had Judy?

I was very moved by that aquafina. Her farewell is based on Lulu Wong's true story with her. Grandma, how did that help inform you about the character? The good thing about Lulu and Billie is that Lulu wasn't very precious about keeping her exact sum and she would say things like she didn't say that's not how I sneeze. It wasn't like that and I think she was always very receptive to any feedback I had about what she would be doing, what you would be thinking and I think it's that confidence that I think also really helps a performance.

You know you don't want to if when you work with the director and you improvise something that they say, can't we do that? It's like you like the worst feeling ever, but then you know you wouldn't have it. Trust like it's nice, but yeah, I think, and as a result you reinvent something else and I think in the case of the parting, Billie really became this vessel for the Asian American experience or the American experience that gets lost between two worlds. and You know, you don't know what to do, yeah, Laura, you worked with Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach this year and they're obviously a real-life couple.

What did you find similar in terms of the way they work and what was the kind of The starkest difference, well, I think they're both scarlets described with Noah, they're both picky with words because I really think that as a playwright, they would really listen a rhythm in the language with Noah does have its own specific nature and a Something that inspired me a lot and I think we find it in rehearsals, even when we are not in the scenes with the people present, when it is Adam with his lawyer or Scarlett and me together, he feels that there is a real musicality to the film.

I think he hears a rhythm, Noah, that is waiting for everyone to resonate in a really beautiful way and so he has rehearsal time and a lot of dinners in the case of Scarlett, me and Adam, for over a year and a half while wrote the script. You began to see him construct a similar melody for each character. In Greta's case, she was also adapting Little Women. We wanted to honor the words of Louisa May Alcott and apparently on another occasion, but she trusts so brilliantly in how modern the story is and how modern it is.

Louis's writing is clear and how revolutionary Louisa was and through these complicated and beautiful characters, different female characters that she wrote, but she also listened to the language in a way that I think is very similar to how she and Noah have worked and collaborated. as co-writers and she as her actress, but there's a rhythm to the language that she brings that is seemingly messy and happy and complicated and angry and all those things, but it's very strategic. Are you seeing any concrete changes as you work in this business? Do you really feel a difference on the sets or in the kind of culture of Hollywood?

Well, Greta and Loreen are great examples of an exciting year in which women have some autonomy. Hmm, I listen to the conversations and I've been in associations with men, professional associations. with men who make different decisions now, even if it's just to be clear, yes, even if it's just to make your intentions clear, yes, keep the door open or I don't mean a gentleman told me I'm not alone with women. I always make sure there's someone else here because I don't want anything to be misunderstood or misunderstood and I want her to feel comfortable so you can see that different decisions are being made and like you said maybe it's just being more considerate of Be careful now that you don't go, that's good, yeah, I think we stood up and said, hey, we don't want this to continue, it's been going on for a long time and that's enough, and on a more positive note, we have movies like Hustlers and Little Women and all those other movies where women are at the forefront and they're produced, we're producing, we're directing, we're writing it, we're editing it, we're making our movie was all women women, but it was great and it was incredible and you You realize how much it helps after making so many films for so many years when you have it like this and you say wow, I've never had this experience. some films or whatever, it's always very interesting to me when I hear that because when I started with my first direct director, the first two directors I worked with women and I would say there was the same amount and when I hear about you know, there was an industry that really It was very strange, it's very amazing to me.

I can't imagine not working with a woman leading a project. Lupita, who have you worked with Jordan Peele Steve McQueen Mira Nair I I think a lot of filmmakers who have been underrepresented in the past in Hollywood, are you making these decisions specifically to work with directors you know or are they just the roles that have drawn you in? I think these are all directors who offered me the most interesting roles mm-hmm and I accepted them and yes, there were. I haven't, I haven't really thought about no, yeah, I haven't really thought about the demographic of the director.

I've been working with I think because I'm, I mean, I'm a black woman and so you know this industry is this time, this time, this time, it's about allowing for more equitable representation and I'm a beneficiary of that movement. because in the job I am I have been able to do and just like Aquafina I cannot for myself I am very grateful to have arrived in the industry at the time I have because I am benefiting thanks to the efforts of many other women who came before me, others black women who came before me who have had it much harder than me and I am aware that this is a time when directors like Steve McQueen and Jordan Peele are being given opportunities to do work and therefore they can, so, you know, in Jordan's case, writing with someone like me in mind for his next movie, so I think it's a you know, it's not necessarily my conscious effort, it's you know.

This is evidence of the transformation that is occurring and to me I think it is a moment where there is a concerted effort to consider diversity and inclusion. What I really want is for it not to be a fad, yes, a trend, you know, review. Now it's really cool and trendy to work with women and underrepresented groups, but I think the moment of maturity in the industry is when it's just the norm, yeah, right, when, when you don't need to ask that question anymore. I think when I first started, one of the things I wanted to do because I was Latino Puerto Rican was I wanted to be in romantic comedies because I felt like all the women in romantic comedies always looked the same way they always, you know, were always white. and I thought there would never be anyone if I could do it and just show them that I'm all the girls mm-hmm because I'm the hopeless romantic I'm the single working woman that I am I'm all I am were those things and that's one of the things you asked before, like you made certain decisions and I remember thinking I need to be the lead in a romantic comedy, I have to do that, I have to do that and that's one of the things that I looked for and that's one of the things that my agents and I talked like: can we find me a romantic comedy?

You know, yeah, I've done it, you know, Selena and I, Familia and people are noticing, but what can we do? or can I change that, you know, yeah, I think there's a genuine need for the public to want an industry that represents their life, yeah, and I think in that way that's why I'm very positive about the direction we're going. . Coming in, I don't think that having people from different cultures or women is a trend because I think that's what people want. People, you know that we are changing a society. I don't think that work or the media will end.

Will the movement be reversed? I think it will be etched in the way we work and how the set is handled. You know, I think those changes are only positive because we are moving forward as a society. You know, a couple of filmmakers have come. against the Marvel movies, Carla and Lupita. I'm especially curious what you think about Marvel movies being called movie theme parks and stuff like that. I think there's certainly a place for, you know, all kinds of cinema right now. People absorb content in so many different ways. I actually didn't quite understand that statement because I guess I needed an idea of ​​what exactly it meant and someone had pointed it out to me because it seemed a little old-fashioned, but someone pointed out to me that maybe what the statement meant was that it didn't there's room for smaller films because they felt that the cinema is occupied by these like huge blockbusters and that, like the smaller films, they don't have a chance in the cinema, which I hadn't really considered, which I think which is a valid point but I also feel like you know there's kind of a shift in the way people watch things and there's all these platforms for different types yeah and now there's movies. and art shows and movies and all kinds of things that grab me and that you can see in all these different ways and I feel like it's just changing, it doesn't mean it's going away, I mean some of us, of course, it's hard when you I love the idea of ​​going to the cinema and doing what needs to be projected on this big screen and it's a shame that you see it on this small thing, but that's how people watch movies properly and you have to go with the flow like the Intent, if I can add to your point, it seems like it's a chicken and egg conversation because of what you're talking about in terms of content and how we've changed the way we take on different things, you know. movie experiences or what used to be movie experiences the place of movies the place and importance of cinema has also changed a little bit you know, we all used to see the same things because the movie came into theaters and it was in theaters for a couple of months and we went several times and then everyone was talking about it, we all had the same heroes, so a particular business model was established and that was the paradigm for so many decades.

It's a little strange when suddenly the only things that fit the modern financial paradigm are these biggest movies in terms of people who were eager to invest to make a movie that's been tried and true in today's atmosphere where people He doesn't run to the movies. two and three times to watch a movie as easily as they did and say that the last millennium is too expensive to go to the moon, yeah, I mean, it's crazy, I can't every time I go, I can't believe it, like City, why not? can afford it is crazy and I think that's part of the problem, it's also that if you want to go see something at the movies, I'm just seeing it from someone else's perspective, maybe you just want to see something that's big and explosive and you could take your whole family and it's fun and your popcorn and all that is like a great experience and then maybe the things that are more intimate or like you want to choose between them you think, oh, I'll do it look at this, you know, watch this from home or watch it another way, yeah, and I think it's just the reality of how, how, how, these are such unaffordable movies, it's crazy to me, um, I guess that's also part of the business model of the what you're talking about and I think this will be my last question about making movies in 2019.

Do you think the culture around nudity and sex scenes has changed in the way it's discussed now and the decisions you guys would make? themselves as

actresses

I think it's a personal choice. I've always felt like it's a personal choice for anyone. I don't judge anyone for doing it or not doing it, you know, you take a role, you decide what you're going to do, you discuss it with your director, you see if it serves the story and the character in the best way and then you have the option to say yes. or not, you talked about how early in your career you were asked to like, I'm not a mom too and you Did I?

I don't want to. Oh, you're talking about something personal. But. The director asked out of character that I should take my free time, not for the movie, to see what I was supposed to do nudity in the movie, they wanted to see their breath, they put a monkey on my tits and I was like They saw before, yeah, that's crazy, well, he was crazy and and God, who knows, I said no, I defended myself, but it was so funny because I remember feeling so panicked in the moment like, oh my God, and by the way , there was a costume designer in the movie with me andalso a woman. another woman in the room with me and he says this and I said no, you know, luckily Lova the Bronx came out, you know what I mean and I said, "I have to show you a lot, no, in the same way, you were like that because Not everyone would be sorry because you gave in at that moment and all of a sudden the cursor went off and started thinking they could do whatever they wanted and because I put a little limit right there and said no, I fired and then later.

He apologized, but the moment he left the room, costume town said, "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry for what just happened" and I thought, "You know, throne" for a second or whatever, but that was a I feel like that might still happen I don't know, yeah, I don't think we're very far from that, you know, I was talking to some of our crew from the last movie and I did about inappropriate behavior in general and they They were talking about a particular DP that was like doing all kinds of crazy things with the actor and shooting up their skirts and then, you know, our first savings as an ad had to go to the actress and say, "Hey, you know, maybe whenever you want." to check and see because I think the camera angles might not be something you're comfortable with and she had no idea and this was like you know whatever they finished filming a year and a half ago or something like that and yeah, the person was talking, he was just baffled by it, you know, he was saying, I can't believe this is going on, but it's still going on, yeah, I mean, the difference now is that because of the conversations that are happening in public , women like for I, now I feel like it's easier a little bit more Howard, yeah, it's easier to know when something is inappropriate, yeah, because at that moment, if the costume designer had said something, you know it could have changed If she had supported you in some way.

It would have changed, you know what I mean, the dynamic and now I feel like we're programming a younger generation to know what's okay and what's not, yeah, that it's not okay to be trying on a costume and have a man ask that. of you, yes, and at least no, even if those things could happen, our defenses would be sharper. You know, yeah, yeah. I was thinking, your point, I'll answer yours with a younger generation. I don't know if not. They came up with talking when we thought oh wow, this is cool, yeah, what am I doing here?

What do I do here? Let me navigate this yeah totally Wayne got you guys try yeah let me laugh and I had a great acting teacher who told me all the things that would happen you don't know it's not like he told me things like oh come on to have to see your tits, but he was like on the set, you kiss, you don't kiss at all, you know when. you're rehearsing and you have respect for your actors and you redirect it, so I had like a blue kind of idea in my mind that this is not good, you know, I'm not supposed to do it before and I took you. at the last minute like I know these things and again it's like teaching to pass them on and what has happened now is a great lesson for all women right, it's like no, these things are okay, these things are not well and it is not like that.

No matter what context it's in, it's never going to be okay to feel uncomfortable, right, and like you said, the light is on now, yeah, and what makes you comfortable and how to set boundaries, but also calling someone out. , I mean, you already know. These guys I started auditioning for when I was ten and eleven years old and now I hear the next generation saying, "It's crazy that you're here, they raid worse than you." People used to have auditions and hotel rooms. I'm like waiting every time. in a hotel lobby are like the director is waiting for you in the room now - yes, and there were no oh yes, yes, with many female casting directors - by the way, yes, that was quite convenient if they were looking outside the city ​​or whatever, I'm in two houses or, yeah, there's that too, you can put everyone on that if you were that person, but also now there are intimacy coaches.

I also haven't been asked to do a lot of nudity in my career, but and sex scenes, but I heard that they have intimacy coaches on set now, which I think is really cool. You know, when you have a fight scene, you have a fight coordinator, why not have intimacy coordinators? We had a comfort trainer. What was his name? It was basically someone who understood that world and said, "You know, these things are okay and these things are not okay," and made everyone on set feel comfortable with what they were doing, you know, because we had a lot of women who were Half dressed or naked topic, you know what I mean, but this is still a professional environment and no one should feel that way and those things are very, very helpful.

I think so, what we do above the table is that the intimacy coach works only for normal people that we work with. Time's up I think we should finish but Matt no thanks so much for joining thanks hi I'm Jennifer Lopez I'm young mom Piton hi I'm Aquafina I'm Scarlett Johansson thanks for watching thanks for watching The Hollywood Journalist Roundtables The Hollywood Reporter on YouTube on YouTube bye