LOS ANGELES – She’s come a long way from being one of the “fly girls” on television’s “In Living Color.” But Jennifer Lopez takes it all in stride. Looking glamorous as usual in a form-fitting beige outfit, Lopez handles press duty for her current project “Out of Sight” as easily as she does her first-rate handlers.
In the past two years, Lopez has starred for A-list directors Bob Rafaelson, Francis Ford Coppola, Oliver Stone, and currently, Steven Soderbergh. How did the 27-year-old actress come into her good fortune?
“I have good days on the right days,” she shrugged. “I go in on a lot of movies. It just so happens that the biggies turn out. I must be very lucky.”
Or very talented. Lopez did time as a fly girl and a bit player in such projects as “Money Train” and television’s “Hotel Malibu,” but her gifts were truly showcased in a starring role as slain Tejano singer “Selena.” Besides beating out a thousand other actresses for the part, Lopez won critical raves and the movie proved profitable at the box office.
“Selena” was Lopez‘s blast out of the starting gate in a rapid race to the movie finish line in 1996 and 1997. By the end of non-stop shooting schedules and promotional tours for “Jack,” “Selena,” “Anaconda,” and “Blood and Wine,” (not to mention a marriage to boyfriend Ojani Noa) Lopez almost passed on the opportunity to co-star alongside George Clooney in the quirky crime noir “Out of Sight.”
“I knew the movie didn’t start until October (1997) and here they were in April doing screen tests. I asked if I could wait a month and they said yes,” Lopez said. “Sure enough, a week later, they called to say if I didn’t come in, there were some other people they were thinking about.”
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At Soderbergh and Clooney‘s insistence, Lopez did show up, tested one scene and nailed the part. A preview screening shows why. As a young federal agent who falls for Clooney‘s aging bank robber, an escaped convict, the actress more than holds her own. Clooney and Lopez together smolder onscreen with the hottest chemistry of the year.
“I guess it’s something that kind of just happens, but it’s good to start with certain ingredients,” said Lopez. “I always feel like you can try to get along with anybody and really like them. That, of course, is the first big step. But chemistry’s always a crapshoot. You never know what the camera’s going to pick up.”
Besides a viable match-up of two attractive stars that you really care about getting together, Soderbergh‘s camera highlights Lopez on the verge of mega-stardom. As Elmore Leonard heroine Karen Cisco, Lopez isn’t just a beauty. She’s a tough beauty. And given the implausible relationship she credibly manages to form with Clooney‘s conscious con, Jack Foley, she’s a human beauty, too.
“There are two sides of me,” Lopez said. “Physically, I’m not like a little waif. It’s kind of believable that I could hold my own against certain people. But then there’s the side of me that’s more feminine and can be vulnerable.”
Both sides help explain her ability and her diversity of films, from the horror-action in “Anaconda” to the gritty noir in “U-Turn” to the family comedy in “Jack.” Those attributes also attest to her sex appeal, which, unlike many of her female peers, is well-rounded and naturally beautiful.
Lopez takes her sexy status in stride as well. Compared by one reporter to Marilyn Monroe, she replied, “She’s the epitome of what a movie star is, and that’s something I’ve always emulated.” Described by another as having “proud curves” and a “bodacious body,” Lopez grinned again. “I’m happy if people see it that way,” she said. “It’s amusing and very flattering, just like it would be to any woman.”
