Jennifer Lopez

Daniel: Jennifer, thank you so much for joining us here today. Thank you. Your new movie, Second Act, takes on some pretty meaty workplace topics. Yeah. The idea of your career being, feeling stuck, or barriers either real or internal that are stopping people from getting to where they wanna get.

You have a million projects going on. There's so many different things you can do. Why is this a story that you wanted to tell?

Jennifer Lopez: I just feel like it's every person. And somebody's like, "Oh, it's the every girl or the every woman," but it's every person. Mm-hmm. There's a time in all of our lives where we want to get ahead, where we have an ambition, where we wanna do more, where we wanna succeed further.

And sometimes we hit a wall, and we don't know how to get past it. And we realize at the end of it, you know, hopefully you get to the point where you realize the only thing that's stopping you is you and you can break through any barrier. But sometimes that's a long road.

That's a hard journey. Have you had that experience? I mean, for me, there's been so many times, 'cause, you know, this business is pretty unforgiving- Mm-hmm.

When it comes to being rejected. You get rejected a lot. I say for the, you know, the 40-something movies I've done, you know, I've gotten 100 no's in between.

And that's, that's just the nature of what we do. Maybe 400, you know, no's at this point. But it's, it's definitely a feeling that I'm familiar with.

Yeah. Daniel: One of the interesting parts about the character is that she doesn't have a college degree. She feels left Right. Because she doesn't have a college degree.

I'm curious, when you hire people, do you look for degrees? Do you think it's important? Jennifer Lopez: It's a yes and no question, right?

It's great if somebody has an amazing education, but I know from my own experience and my own life and and other people that I work with that you don't have to have a degree to have value or to, you know, be of tremendous worth to different businesses. That street smarts, that experience, that just kind of internal kind of creative know-how, is just as valuable as a degree.

Yeah. And I think that's what this movie deals with a lot, which is, which is a great thing, because most people don't have the privilege of getting that type of education. I know I didn't. Nobody I knew growing up did.

And I. And still a lot of us have been successful. Daniel: So do you make it a point when you're, you have so many people working for you or working with Right.

You can make choices about who's on the set with you. Are you looking for degrees? Do you actively go out and look for people who don't have degrees?

Jennifer Lopez: I never did, I have to tell you. Yeah. I never did. I always went more with vibe and energy.

Mm-hmm. And to tell you the truth, it's really about I'm looking for a hard worker, a hard worker who's not afraid to work, like, 24 hours a day. Yeah. If that sounds crazy, it's 'cause we are. Basically, anytime. I am, and everybody who works for me as well.

And then recently, as I've gotten more into kind of owning businesses and going from a licensing model to an, a, an ownership model, I realize I need people who have more business experience. And so yeah, I've been looking more at that lately. Daniel: Could you talk a little bit about that, moving from licensing- Sure.

To ownership? What made you make that change, and what are you looking for? Jennifer Lopez: You know, I've been of the mind a long time that the way it's done in Hollywood and the way artists are, you know, kind of handled and taken care of, that there was something Hmm. With the fact that we bring.

We are the scarce asset, and we bring so much to the table, and we usually get the smallest piece of the pie. And without us, nothing can really happen because they need the ideas. They need the performer.

They need the they need the They need all of this stuff. They need the creative. And all that, you know, kind of everybody's adding is the money, and kinda money you can get anywhere, in a sense, right?

That's, that's, it's. In private equity world and in the business world, it's like, oh, it's just money, right? And you're like, really, it's just money? So I'm actually the thing that's unique?

You're the product, yeah. Right, you're the product. And I knew there was something wrong.

I just didn't know what it was. It wasn't until really Alex came into my life and had such a nice grasp of the business world and so much experience in his own life of in real estate and in business and dealing with private equity firms and things like that, where he was like, "Oh yeah, you're right. It is wrong."

And this licensing model that we had been doing and quite successfully. You know, we maxed out. I don't think between me and my team there was anybody who was doing it in a, in a more successful way as far as I'm concerned.

We were just, we were hitting on all cylinders. But deep down, I knew that when I made, a company, almost $2 billion, I and I only came home with, literally, I don't even know what the percent. It had to be, like, 5% of that, maybe less, much less.

Yeah, much less than that there was something wrong. Daniel: But at the time, it must have felt. You were, you're, you're, known for your negotiating skills.

You are, you know, you you drive hard deals that benefit you. Now when you look back, are there things you said, "Oh, I should've, should've done that"? Well, Jennifer Lopez: I guess we really weren't.

Yeah. We really weren't driving hard deals. I think we were the ones who were like. They were like, they were driving the hard deals and getting all the money.

And we were kinda like, "Oh, thank you." Yeah. You know, there's this thing with artists where we feel so much gratitude to be able to do what we love to do, that we don't give ourselves the value and worth that we deserve. I think women do have this problem as well.

And I think now and in this moment in time, in this day and age, it's shifting for women, and I feel like it also has to shift for artists. And they need to understand their worth and value as well and what they bring to the table and need to own the things that they do as well.

Daniel: Your career path as, I think if you look back and are incredibly successful, done a lot of amazing things, but you've had ups and downs in your career. Oh, yeah. When you think back to those downs, how does it. Is this the kind of thing that has a, has a hangover effect on you where you're like, "Oh, I don't ever wanna go through that again"?

How do you use those those points in your career which weren't great? Jennifer Lopez: You know, I just. I look at them now, and I think you really just Plowed through those, you know?

And that's the thing, it's like you can't stop. You have to kinda keep on going. Failure is not falling down and making a mistake or choosing the wrong movie or doing the wrong thing at the wrong time, it's stopping.

Stopping is the failure. Not continuing forward is the failure, not keeping going. And so we don't listen to our gut enough telling us, "This is not the right thing for you right now.

You're doing this out of fear instead of out of love." That's usually when it winds up in misery. That's the thing I think that is the best thing to think about in those moments.

It's a point of fear. It's like am I doing this because I'm afraid of something, or am I doing this because of love? And usually that'll, that'll set you on the right path.

Daniel: You must have people asking you all the time how to be the next Jennifer Lopez. What kind of career advice do you give people? Jennifer Lopez: You know, it's hard because there is no one set path for any one successful person.

Like, I feel like everybody takes a different path. Like, there's no actors that I talk to that go, "Oh, we all started at acting school, and then from there we did plays, and then from plays we went to Right. There's like no one way to do it, you know?

I started as a dancer, and then I thought I was gonna do Broadway, and I didn't, and I did some tours abroad, and then I came back here and I got a job as Fly Girl on In Living Color, and then I started studying acting. And then from there, I got my first television show and my first development deal, and then from you know, and then from there I got my first movie.

And it just, it, there was a process to it that I couldn't have predicted or planned or have said, "I'm going to do this, and this." It just all happened the way it happened, and I think all you can do is know where you wanna go and take steps every single day in that direction, whatever that is. Getting better at what you do.

And I think that gets you there. Where that will take you I cannot tell you. But I do know that if you just wake up every day and go, "This is what I'm gonna do, this is what I'm gonna be, and today this is the thing that I'm doing to kinda keep going in that direction," eventually you will get there.

Daniel: Do you think that your character in the movie does that? Jennifer Lopez: I think that she's given up a little bit.

I think she's gotten to the point in her life where she's been at this you know, value club shop for 15 years, and for six years she's been the assistant manager, and she knows she deserves a promotion, and she's made the store better, and she adds all this value, and at the end of the day she's looked over by somebody who has a, you know, an Ivy League degree.

And that, really is her last blow. And I know I've had that in my career, and that was after I was successful. So that is a really true, honest thing that everybody can relate to, of where you get stuck, you know, and almost give up.

Daniel: So is there one particular takeaway you want people to have when they leave the theaters? Jennifer Lopez: I think my favorite thing that people have said is that they leave the theater inspired. Hmm. They leave the theater inspired.

And that's my favorite thing about being an artist in general, is that you can inspire people to dream their own biggest dreams. Daniel: That's great. Well, Jennifer, thank you very much for joining us. Thank you. This was terrific.

Thank you so much.