Jennifer Lopez talks 'This Is Me... Now' film and how Ben Affleck helped her own her art
Jennifer Lopez says that her upcoming film, "This Is Me… Now: A Love Story," is the start of a "new chapter."
"It ended this chapter and it started a new chapter for me," Lopez said during a global press conference for the film on Thursday with director Dave Meyers. "It ended kind of this 20-year journey about a lot of questions that I had about love and being myself, a hopeless romantic, and what it means to really enter into a healthier, more self-accepting phase."
The new film, out next week, is a "narrative-driven cinematic odyssey, steeped in mythological storytelling and personal healing," according to the synopsis.
While the project is a fantastical and magical take on her experience, it draws the path she took to find love.
"Specifically the pain that she went through when she broke up with Ben the first time," Meyers said. "There was a lot of honesty that was shared in that first meeting."
In 2022, the "Marry Me" singer married Affleck in Las Vegas. The couple was previously engaged to be married in 2003, but postponed their wedding and went their separate ways.
In April 2022, Lopez and Affleck rekindled their relationship following Lopez's breakup with fiancé Alex Rodriguez.
"It seemed like such an important moment in my life, kind of a turning point where as a person and as an artist, I could really look at all of the things that I was good at and the things that I felt and knew about myself and put them all into this project," Lopez said.
When it came to making the film, Lopez said she questioned herself as an artist, but Affleck inspired her to own it.
"Ben kind of said this to me. I was like, 'I don't write, I don't do this,'" Lopez said. "He said, 'You do. You write, you direct, you produce, you do all the things. Start stepping into that. Start owning that a little bit. Start owning a little bit of who you are.'"
In addition to the new film, Lopez will also release an album, which will be released together with the film.
So far, she's released the songs, "Can't Get Enough" and "This Is Me...Now."
"This is something that was really inspired by the music and a moment in life that I wanted to capture that seemed very kind of magical and even surreal at times that it was happening," Lopez said. "It felt like there was a bigger message."
The upcoming film also stars Fat Joe, Trevor Noah, Kim Petras, Post Malone, Keke Palmer, Sofia Vergara, Derek Hough and more.
"This Is Me… Now: A Love Story" will premiere globally on Prime Video on February 16.
