Jennifer Lopez Says That Co-Headlining The Super Bowl Halftime Show Was “The Worst Idea In The World” In Her Netflix Documentary “Halftime”
Netflix is letting Jennifer Lopez give her fans The Full-Beyonce with Halftime, a new documentary that offers a backstage peek into her creative process while mounting her half of the halftime show she shared with Shakira at the 2020 Super Bowl. Fittingly, JLo wore half a dress at Halftime‘s premiere last night at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival. People says JLo was “sizzling” in a Tom Ford “curve-hugging black velvet and sheer floor-length gown,” but I think she looks cold. Thankfully, Halftime: The Movie brings the heat. Once inside the screening, JLo was almost certainly warmed by the opportunity to tell Her Truth about having to split stage time with Shakira (she thought it was “the worst idea in the world.”), her “fight to be taken seriously as an artist” and share an inside look at what it’s like finding out you’ve been snubbed for an Oscar.
*Spoiler Alert* It looks like a lady in a bathrobe with a full beat laying in bed, crying at her phone. People reports:
Halftime, which will debut on Netflix on June 14, focuses on Lopez’s decades-long career in the industry, with a focus on her Super Bowl LIV Halftime Show performance.
“Halftime serves as the kickoff to the second half of Lopez’s life, as she lays bare her evolution as a Latina, a mother, and an artist, taking agency in her career and using her voice for a greater purpose,” the festival shared in a news release in April.
The trailer for the film highlights several of the struggles she faced throughout her career, including her fight to be taken seriously as an artist in Hollywood and the judgment she received from the public and the media early on.
In case you missed it, here’s the trailer. JLo may have had to give Shakira half of her time at halftime, but Halftime is Jennifer’s Super Bowl and Homecoming all rolled up into one.
Now, did JLo really just lean forward and blow out the candles on her own child’s birthday cake in front of her face? In SLOW MOTION? With a voice-over saying “My life is just beginning?” Just to be sure, I counted and there are 12 candles on that cake. That’s Emme’s cake.
That poor girl. Never forget JLo also insisted Emme be locked in a cage for her Halftime performance. According to Entertainment Weekly:
A significant portion of Halftime also charts Lopez’s creative process for her portion of the performance, which was held in Miami during the presidency of Donald Trump, whose approach to immigration — particularly people of Latin descent attempting to enter the United States — sparked intense backlash around the world.
Throughout the film, Lopez breaks down her intention to highlight immigration injustices by having her daughter, Emme, begin singing her mother’s 2000 single “Let’s Get Loud” from inside a cage.
JLo says the NFL told her at the very last minute that she had to ditch the caged children because they didn’t want to “make a political statement about immigration.” Nevertheless, she persisted.
“For me, this isn’t about politics. This is about human rights. I’m facing the biggest crossroads of my life, to be able to perform on the world’s biggest stage, but to take out the cages and sacrifice what I believe in would be like never being there at all,” she says. “There was a part of me that just got very zen and I was just like, ‘Benny I don’t care what you have to do, we’re not changing the show. The Super Bowl is tomorrow and we’re not changing anything.'”
Jay-Z‘s Roc Nation produces the show for the NFL. Previously, it was reported that Jay-Z was the one who personally pleaded with JLo to cut the bit, and even told Shakira, who is a Roc Nation artist, not to appear on stage during JLo’s set. So Roc Nation must have had some influence over the production of Halftime by making sure Jay Z doesn’t come off looking like The Man. Sounds like there was more smoke and mirrors going on behind the scenes than there was on the field. But it was impressive how much JLo and Shakira managed to pack into their allotted time. Each got about 6 minutes, just half of what solo headliners usually get. But they made it work.
“We have six fucking minutes. We have 30 seconds of a song, and if we take a minute, that’s it, we’ve got five left. But, there’s got to be certain songs that we sing, though. We have to have our singing moments. It’s not going to be a dance fucking revue. We have to sing our message,” Lopez tells Burse. “This is the worst idea in the world to have two people do the Super Bowl. It was the worst idea in the world.”
Well, at least she got a movie out of it. I am genuinely impressed with JLo’s hustle. She’s older than me yet I can barely find the energy to change out of my day-house clothes into my evening-house clothes. Keeping up with Jen must be exhausting. Speaking of, here’s Ben Affleck on the set of his latest movie Nike, which he is directing.
Ben Affleck on the set of Nike’s movie
June 8, 2022. pic.twitter.com/pOCuUbDQXv
— Bennifer Updates (@BenniferUpdates) June 9, 2022
I’d say if anyone is “sizzling,” it’s Ben. He definitely could have used a few of those sheer cutouts.
Pic: JOHN NACION/startraksphoto.com