New York: Jennifer Lopez is making waves by delving into the realm of movie musicals with her latest project titled ‘This is Me… Now: A Love Story’. Scheduled for release just in time for Valentine’s week, the film offers a “surrealistic, escapist” portrayal of a hopeless romantic’s journey through life. Acting as both a musical and an album, this production serves as a sequel to her 2002 record ‘This is Me… Then’, drawing inspiration from Lopez’s personal experiences of romance, breakup, reconnection, and marriage with Ben Affleck.
During the global press conference, Lopez shared her insights into the film and her approach to storytelling through song. “I had (director) Dave Meyers, who totally got what I wanted to do and was my partner through this,” Jennifer said, emphasizing the collaborative nature of the project. “My husband, who understood that as an artist, I had a story that I wanted to tell, besides just the music of the album, which inspired the whole thing.”
‘This Is Me… Now: A Love Story’ promises captivating costumes, mesmerizing choreography, and an ensemble cast featuring cameos from A-listers such as Ben Affleck, Jane Fonda, Sofia Vergara, Post Malone, Jay Shetty, Trevor Noah, Derek Hough, and Sadhguru, among others. Reflecting on the complexities of integrating multiple celebrity appearances and orchestrating their scenes, Lopez candidly acknowledged the challenges faced during production. “The challenges, we obviously had quite a few. Some came on the same day. Some didn’t, but we had to make it work. We did whatever we could,” she stated.
Director Dave Meyers elaborated on the logistical hurdles encountered, highlighting that most of the cameos were shot separately. “That was actually probably the hardest scene to edit because we kept rewriting the script. And you know a lot of them, you know, were personal friends of Jen’s, and so there was a lot of, you know, like Jen had to switch out of performance mode and kind of come join me and kind of hold their hands and trying to because they didn’t understand what they were doing. They’re out there wearing funny costumes on a green screen.”
In a light-hearted manner, Lopez recalled the initial hesitations of her celebrity guests on set. “They were like, ‘What am I doing?’ I was like, ‘Just trust me. It’s gonna be fine. I would never make you look crazy, and if it looks crazy, we’ll throw it in the garbage. Don’t worry about it.’ But luckily, it turned out well, and a lot of them have seen the film already and are so excited,” she reminisced.
With the anticipation mounting for the release of ‘This is Me… Now’, Lopez expressed her satisfaction with the positive reception the film has garnered thus far. “I mean, the reaction has been… I mean, I could, with everything that we’ve been through, it’s so kind of like satisfying to know that people love it.”
‘This Is Me… Now’ is set to premiere on Amazon Prime on February 16, 2024.
