There are certain constants, certain truths. No matter what goes on around us, these will not change.
The sky is blue.
Death and taxes are inevitable.
Someone else will always get that last parking spot.
And Jennifer Lopez looks good.
In what may be hard to comprehend for those who have followed the career of a woman whose fame has come just as much from her figure as her acting, her singing and her choice in dresses and rap-mogul boyfriends, it isn’t the famous Lopez physique that jumps out at you on first meeting.
It is her gigantic, cafe-sin-leche eyes.
The native New Yorker, draped over a chair in a Manhattan hotel suite to plug her latest movie, the science-fiction thriller “The Cell,” is dressed about as far down as a sex symbol can be. Her lips are subtly highlighted in a creamy pink, and her head is wrapped in a blue-green-and-gold kerchief that is perfectly coordinated with her blouse and pants.
But the eyes of Lopez that jump out at you. On screen, Lopez’s eyes convey seductiveness. Up close they remain enticing but also reveal a bit of toughness and a no-nonsense, always-in-command attitude. Not unexpected for a woman who admires in-control women such as Rita Moreno and Barbra Streisand, who have succeeded in more than one medium.
“I guess I see something in them that I’d love to become,” she said.
Lopez, 30, is entering the peak of a varied career that has made her rich, famous and one of the hottest stars on Earth.
She is, through her movies (“Selena,” “Mi Familia/My Family,” “Road Trip,” “Money Train,” “Out of Sight”); her music (“On the 6”); and her appearances (that sheer-green, gravity-defying dress at the Grammys in February) well into the process of transforming herself from young budding star to established multimedia personality.
She is also in a close relationship with Sean “Puffy” Combs, the controversial hip-hop mogul. Combs, 30, is head of Bad Boy Records, a rapper, producer and who is facing some serious legal problems.
“The Cell” represents a different type of role for Lopez. It is a somewhat surreal film in which much of the action takes place inside the mind.
Lopez plays a child psychologist who has been recruited to explore — using a radical scientific process — the mind of a demented serial killer (played by Vincent D’Onofrio), to try to find clues to the disappearance of one of the killer’s possible victims. “This character is very passionate about her work, a very compassionate person. I see her as the type of person who would do anything to save someone. She cares about people, and she cares about her work.”
Lopez said she waited years to play this role. “It was (the type of role) I had never seen before. I had read this years before, when I was doing television, when nobody would have done a movie with me.”
Last year, she had just finished “On the 6” when New Line Cinema offered her the film. “I remembered that I had liked that script. It had been around for a while.”
Some of the scenes were shot in the Kalahari Desert in Namibia, in southwest Africa.
“I’d never been that far out. It was pretty amazing,” said Lopez, who was clad in a series of spectacular, futuristic costumes throughout the film.
The combination of costumes and desert weather was tough on Lopez.
“It was, but not too bad,” she said. “What’s physically demanding on some people isn’t on others. And I’m not a complainer. I’m more of a hard worker. I go, I do what I have to do, and I go home.”
Playing a psychologist was important to Lopez as a Latina, she said. “That’s always been something I’ve wanted to do, to broaden the scope.”
The role did not require a Latina actress, and was, indeed, ethnically non-specific.
Lopez is Puerto Rican. In earlier roles, she portrayed Mexican American women, which may have helped to give her an appeal among Spanish-speaking people all over the world.
“I think that in America we are looked at as one group,” she said. “That can be fortunate. There are all different kinds of Latinos, but we have to be united in America. I think I represent all Latinos, not just one type of Latino.”
Lopez said she thought the recent interest of non-Latinos in Latino culture, which has been manifested in music, on film and in food was no fad.
“We’re not going anywhere,” she said. “Many of us (in the entertainment industry) are first-generation Americans, and now we are putting our roots down and starting to make an impact, because we’re at that age where our careers are together.
“Now, America’s starting to learn more about us. They’re open to it, which is wonderful. That is what makes America so great, that we have so much influence from various cultures.”
During the interview, Lopez — who was born and raised in the Bronx, daughter of a computer-whiz dad and a stay-at-home mom, both with roots in the small Puerto Rican city of Ponce — played host to a few cousins, sisters, and one tiny niece who is just learning to walk.
Family is important to her, she said. And she’d like to have a family of her own someday. But Lopez, who was married briefly, says it’s “too soon” for her to reconsider marriage to the man who considers himself Lopez’s “soul mate.”
On Dec. 27, the relationship between Lopez and Combs, about which she had dodged questions for months, came into sharp focus. That was when the actress and Combs were caught in the midst of a nightclub shooting. Combs has been indicted on weapons and bribery charges, felonies that could land him in prison.
“It was one of the worst experiences of my life,” said Lopez, who spent 14 hours in police custody, most of that crying. “I had never been through anything like that.” Lopez was released without being charged.
Many in the media, citing Combs’ reputation as a hothead and his prior brushes with the law, openly questioned Lopez’s decision to get, and stay, involved with Combs.
Why, they asked, would Lopez hook up with a man who seems to exemplify the thug life espoused by some of the rappers whose music he helped produce?
Lopez said that she had never questioned her love and loyalty to Combs and that she would never listen to anyone who did.
“I would never question being with him because of something that happened. We were in the wrong place at the wrong time — that’s it,” she said. “Everyone’s outside perception and speculation on what happened that night is just that. … We’re together. I love him. We are two people who happen to be in this business, and we’re two people in love. There is only one reason why people stay together, and that’s because they love each other and want to be together.”
Aside from the problems Combs is going through — and Lopez said she would stand by him no matter what — she has a pretty nice life going for her.
She is hoping to advance all parts of her career, just like Streisand, an old inspiration, did years before.
“I really loved the movie `Funny Girl,’ and a bunch of other stuff she did,” Lopez said. “I loved the way she sang and she acted, and did both so beautifully, and still does. She’s had a long career, and she’s grown into it, and that’s just admirable to me. I see myself continuing to grow, and doing many of the same things.”
