Superstar actor-singer-dancer-producer Jennifer Lopez opens up about her acting career, her own happiness, relationship advice she got from Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and much more in an interview with Tony Dokoupil for CBS SUNDAY MORNING to be broadcast Sunday, Dec. 22 (9:00 AM, ET) on the CBS Television Network.
Lopez has been generating Oscar buzz for her work in "Hustlers," a film about women working in a strip club who con wealthy men by doping their drinks and maxing out their credit cards. She was also a producer on the project. She's already earned Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe nominations. Lopez tells CBS THIS MORNING co-host Dokoupil she approached the role differently than past acting gigs. With "Hustlers," she opened up the process – and herself.
"What I wanted to do for the first time was really just be – whatever impulse I had was to follow it, not to stop myself in the middle of a take or anything or go, 'no, that – that's not right. I wanted to do this. No. I – I really just for the first time was, like, any impulse I get I'm gonna follow it," she says. "And then, from there, whatever happens happens. And if it sucks, take two. And if it doesn't, great. We got something crazy and good."
In a wide-ranging conversation, Lopez talks about her childhood, growing up in the Bronx and getting into the business. Lopez, who turned 50 this past summer, also thinks she's much happier now than ever before.
"I do because I – I lived – I was so on the hamster wheel with work at times. And I was in relationships that were tough for me and weren't the right thing – but that had nothing to do with the people I was with. It had more to do with myself," she says.
She also shares advice she and her fiancé, baseball star-turned-broadcaster Alex Rodriguez, got from Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Lopez says she asked Ginsburg, who was married to tax attorney Marty Ginsburg for more than 50 years, how to make love last.
"And she said— 'It's good to be a little deaf sometimes,'" Lopez says, recalling the conversation. "And I was like, 'Oh okay.' She's like, 'An unkind word, people are not perfect. Sometimes, you know, you just have to let it go.' [And] often Alex and I – I will now reference RBG, like, stay calm, stay calm. You know, that's the superpower. When everything gets crazy or people get out of control when there's, like, heightened emotions, don't go there with people. Just stay calm."
Dokoupil also catches a part of Lopez's rehearsal for the upcoming Super Bowl halftime show, which will also feature Shakira. She says performing at the Super Bowl is something she's dreamed about.
"It's like winning the Oscar," she says. "It's the biggest show that there is."
