Jennifer Lopez Reveals Movie Role She Passed on That She Still Regrets

Along with being singer, dancer, designer and producer, Jennifer Lopez is also an award-winning actress, having starred in a number of films throughout her over 20-year career. Lopez has starred in movies including Hustlers, Selena, Maid in Manhattan and more, but according to the star, there’s one role she still regrets passing on.

“There was a movie called Unfaithful. And it was offered to me and the script, for me, wasn’t all the way there,” she said in Vanity Fair‘s 2020 Hollywood Issue. “I should have known that [director] Adrian Lyne was going to kill it, but I didn’t. Diane Lane was so perfect for it, and it was obviously meant to be her, but when I think about that…I want to literally, like, shoot my toe off. I do.”

Unfaithful was a romantic thriller released in 2002 and starring Lane, Richard Gere and Oliver Martinez. The film earned Lane best actress awards from the National Society of Film Critics and New York Film Critics, and nominations for a Golden Globe and an Academy Award.

Lopez was highly favored to receive an Oscar nomination for her role in Hustlers, but she ultimately was not nominated. In her Vanity Fair interview, the mom of two reflected on her love of acting, explaining that despite all of her other titles, actress is her most dear.

“I always felt like this is what I wanted to do,” she said. “It was this or nothing. There was not really an option for me. It’s just what I love.”

“I would say dancing and music are my first loves, but acting is the love of my life,” Lopez continued. “You have your first love and the love of your life, and acting is the love of my life. I feel like every time I take on a role, it is only about becoming somebody that I’m not. When they go in and see me, they don’t see J. Lo — they see the maid, they see the stripper, they see who they’re supposed to see, because I’m able to still give you the suspension of disbelief. That is the challenge of it for me, but also the thrill of it for me.”

Lopez covered the magazine alongside Renee Zellweger and Eddie Murphy, and the 26th annual issue also featured actors including Laura Dern, Antonio Banderas, Austin Butler, Beanie Feldstein, Daniel Kaluuya, Florence Pugh and more.

Photo Credit: Getty / Taylor Hill