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Updated
12/13/02 We're Hangin' With..... JENNIFER LOPEZ! by: Lynn B.
The star's new film brought back memories. "It just made me realize how far away from that character I'm not (laughs). It felt like I had never left the Bronx. I was familiar with my surroundings. It was easy as far as the background of the character. Sometimes you grow into something else. I'm a Puerto Rican girl from the Bronx". She is also in the public eye constantly. Ralph Fiennes plays a politician in the film and Jennifer laughed about the tables being turned for a change. "My favorite line in the movie is: 'I don't know how you deal with these cameras all the time, I just couldn't do it!'" She laughs. "Did I even say that convincingly? I'm not sure". It's easy for a superstar to take service people for granted. Jennifer understands why. "You go about your day and you're so busy. I always have something on my mind. I'll walk right by you because I have so many things going on in my head. For me, going in and out of a hotel I barely notice anything. If my best friend was standing in front of me I might walk right by her. When I was in Philadelphia recently I was 'hey, hello' to the maids and the concierge and the people I would usually whoosh by. It does give you an understanding to stop and say hello. It was a good experience". Getting into the character of Marisa Ventura wasn't that hard for the actress. "I could identify with it in a lot of ways. It's a weird class, social thing. To say it doesn't exist would be a lie or sugar-coating the truth. I can understand what it's like to want to be respected. You want them to look at you in the same way they look at everybody else. It was an emotion I could understand completely". Marisa the maid gets to dress in gorgeous clothes for the first time. Jennifer recalled a time when she was in the same "shoes". "I think it was probably going to the Oscars, being able to get as dressed up as you want to. One year I wore this black ball gown to the Oscars and really felt like a princess". The diva wanted to clarify that, for her, it's more about feelings and memories than things she buys or wears. "It's a great to be able to get things but I'm not one to have ten cars and buy seven houses. I have to have a house in L.A. and I always wanted a house in Miami and I got that and I have one nice car and that's good enough for me". Well, that and a huge pink engagement ring of course. Speaking of her significant other, Jennifer says she and Ben are just a natural phenomenon. When asked about his "hottest man alive" label, she laughed and told us that she didn't need to "hear" about it. "I think it was quite evident". Nice compliment coming from a gal voted hottest woman two years in a row. She claims the two stars have a very simple connection. "You know we just have a lot in common. We understand each other. I think we want similar things and he's a wonderful person. I think that people put us in categories because of our partners before. We're all growing and evolving people always. Everyone is searching for their place. Along the way you wind up in learning experiences that are good for you. I feel very strongly that this is the right place for me". The engaged couple works out time together. "I think when you're in a relationship and you're as busy as I am right now you have to schedule time. You have to say, 'okay, I'm working here. You're working there. How are we going to do this? Maybe we'll move this. I think for a good balance there has to be a lot of compromise. I think when you get to that point, it's a good sign. We've worked together a lot this year and that helped".
The Latina remembers a certain working-class mentality in her neighborhood, a tendency to not rock the boat and take what is offered. Her character Marisa is like that at first and it's no accident. She was sculpted that way. "There is kind of this fear of success because of a fear of failure type of thing where it's like we're safe here, it's okay. I was made to feel that way. I don't think consciously, but more subconsciously. I think that when you are from where I come from and how I grew up, you never feel like you have really achieved. You always feel like you are struggling to clamor to the top because you are never being taken seriously." Despite
her success Jennifer remembers all the failures. "I have had a lot
of disappointments. But I have to say they have been overshadowed by how
lucky I have been. The fact that I get to do what I do is really a wonderful
thing. But of course, the 10 or 15 movies that I have done...there were
50 auditions between each one of those. There were great movies that I
was up for and came this close"...
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Why
would a gal who made it out of the Bronx and working service and sales
jobs as a teen want to go back to her "roots"? Superstar Jennifer
Lopez claims she never really left. The maid she plays in her new romantic
film Maid in Manhattan is a hard-working single mom who wants more
for herself and her family. J-Lo doesn't have a family yet but buzz has
it that she and Ben want one. "Maid" wasn't a big stretch for
Jenny from the Block who has lived her own Cinderella story. Does she
think film-goers in 2002 are too cynical for a fairy-tale romance? "No.
It would be a sad day if that were true I think. I think fairy tales are
forever. I'd be very sad if this was the year for no fairy tales".
Jennifer's
success has a working class foundation. We wanted to know about her early
work history. "I had a lot of jobs. I worked in a little bootleg
perfume store. Remember those? I looked for it in the Bronx the other
day when I went to see my grandmother. And it's not there anymore. It's
just an empty shack. I also worked in a jeans store. I got fired because
I danced too much while I was working. It was a cool store where they
sold the Lee stuff and the Levis...all the different colors. It was a
big Bronx jeans store. I was about 15". She also worked in a law
office.