Netflix has built itself a nice little niche in popstar documentaries. There's Beyonce's Homecoming, Lady Gaga's Gaga: Five Foot Two, Taylor Swift's Miss Americana and Ariana Grande's Excuse Me, I Love You.
Following in their footsteps is Jennifer Lopez: Halftime.
Although, as the documentary frequently points out, JLo is more than a popstar. She's an actor, a dancer, an entrepreneur and a "brand". In Halftime, JLo is giving viewers a look inside that brand, from her preparation for 2020's Super Bowl halftime show to her reaction to her highly publicised Oscar snub for 2019's Hustler.
Watch: Netflix's Halftime trailer. Post continues below video.
Oh, and yes, there's a small Ben Affleck cameo. We know that's what you've been wondering.
Here are seven revelations from the documentary.
JLo thought performing with Shakira at the Super Bowl was "the worst idea in the world".
Half of the documentary follows JLo's journey towards the February 2020 Super Bowl, which we know she performed with Shakira in one of the best received halftime shows of all time.
While we know it ended well, in Halftime JLo says it was "the worst idea in the world to have two people do the Super Bowl".
The pair were given 14 minutes, and even split the time between them.
"We have six f***ing 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 f***ing revue."
At one point, JLo and Shakira chat over the phone where she says: "If it was going to be a double headliner, they should have given us 20 minutes. That's what they should've f***ing done."
Her manager, Benny Medina, shared a similar sentiment.
"Typically, you have one headliner at a Super Bowl. That headliner constructs a show, and, should they choose to have other guests, that's their choice. It was an insult to say you needed two Latinas to do the job that one artist historically has done."
The NFL wanted JLo to change her 'political' performance at the last minute.
JLo knew she wanted to address immigration during the halftime show, and her final concept came to mind after a visit to Miami dance studio Dancetown. The performance featured JLo's daughter Emme and dozens of other young girls in light up cages, which was taken as commentary on the United States' policy of apprehending migrant children.
"This girl from the Bronx, this girl that's a Latina landed on this stage somehow and is here to represent our culture, our music and women everywhere," JLo says.
"I'm thinking a great moment would be to have these fantastic little girl dancers I just met along with hundreds of other girls in light cages. A choir of little girls singing. We want a feeling of Latinos in cages… and you can't keep us there. We won't have that. The concept is, this next generation is not going to be suppressed in the way that we were."
JLo then appeared on stage, draped in a Puerto Rican flag, while Emme sang Bruce Springsteen's 'Born in the U.S.A.'
JLo shares during the documentary that the NRL "didn't want the cages in the show" and attempted to block that part the night before, but she stood her ground.
"To take out the cages and sacrifice what I believe in would be like not being there at all... the Super Bowl is tomorrow and we're not changing anything."
JLo felt "lost" after her divorce from Marc Anthony, and American Idol helped.
JLo married Marc Anthony in June 2004, and the couple had twins, Emme and Max, in February 2008.
In July 2011, they separated with Anthony officially filing for divorce nine months later.
"As an artist, I kind of lost a little bit of who I was in trying to build a perfect family life. And when my kids were three, I got divorced, I was a single mom with two little kids," JLo recalls of that time period.
"At 42, movie roles were not knocking at my door and as I was getting back to work, I felt like I didn't know what my value was anymore.
"I was doing American Idol — that was my first big job after I had babies and it was good for me at the time. People could see me for who I was, and that changed everything. I really learned a lot about myself. I had purpose, and I just felt I had to work on my acting more, my singing more, my dancing more… everything. I just need to be better in every way."
JLo almost quit Hollywood.
As her career blew up, JLo says that was a time where she "had really low self-esteem."
"No matter what I achieved, their [the media's] appetite to cover my personal life overshadowed everything."
The documentary shows clips of what she means: late night shows mocking her relationships, headlines about her acting chops, and clips of her being asked about her bum.
"I believed a lot of what they said, which is that I wasn't any good," she says.
"I wasn't a good singer, I wasn't a good actress, I wasn't a good dancer, I wasn't good at anything. I just didn't even belong, why wouldn't I just go away?"
The Ben Affleck cameo.
The documentary does not divulge much about JLo's personal life and relationships, but fiancee Ben Affleck does make a 30-second cameo.
He is asked about the unfair scrutiny she faced during their initial relationship from 2002 until 2004.
"I said to her once, 'Doesn't this bother you?' And she said, 'I'm Latina. I'm a woman. I expected this. You just don't expect it. You expect to be treated fairly.'"
JLo was disappointed by her Hustlers Oscar snub.
In 2019, JLo's role in Hustlers immediately led to speculation about an Oscar nomination.
In Halftime, we see what had previously only been speculated about: JLo's hopes for a nomination, and her upset about the much-reported 'snub'.
The day after the movie's premiere in 2019, JLo's producing partner Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas calls her with the first round of reviews, which includes 'Jennifer Lopez is Oscar worthy'.
"We're on our way to the Oscar," one of JLo's glam squad members says.
"Stop!" JLo responds. "See? You're making me nervous."
We later see her gathered with a group of people for the 2020 Golden Globes, where she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. She lost to Laura Dern for Marriage Story.
"I really thought I had a chance. I feel like I let everyone down," she said after the loss.
Later in the doco, before the Oscar snub, Lopez cries in bed while reading an article in Glamour magazine.
"Frankly, it's thrilling to see a criminally underrated performer," she reads about herself as she gets choked up, "get her due from prestige film outlets."
All of this culminates in the Oscar snub.
"The truth is, I really started to think I was gonna get nominated," she admits.
"I got my hopes up because so many people were telling me I would be. And then it didn't happen. And I had to ask myself, 'What does that mean?' I do this not for an award. Or to do my hits up and seem like I'm the best performer in the world. No, I do this to… tell stories and to effect change and connect with people and make them feel things because I wanna feel something."
The scrutiny of JLo's body got to her.
In Halftime, the scrutiny on her body is explored, including with inclusion of a 2002 interview where Billy Bush asks her, "How do you feel about your butt?"
JLo reflects on entering Hollywood at a time when "the beauty ideal was blonde, tall and not a lot of curves".
"I grew up around women with curves, so it was nothing ever I was ashamed of," she explains.
But her body became a major talking point, even making it into a South Park episode.
"It was hard when you think people think you're a joke, like you're a punchline," she admits. "But I wound up affecting things in a way that I never intended to affect them."
Jennifer Lopez: Halftime is now streaming on Netflix.
Feature image: Netflix.
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