Jennifer Lopez is not a stranger to walking down the aisle, both on-camera and off. When she finally got married to her new husband Ben Affleck, she indulged herself in saying “I Do” to him twice last year with their first wedding being in Las Vegas and a second wedding in Savannah, Georgia for family and friends. JLo seemingly loves starring in wedding movies so much that she played a bride eight times in her career. And there's a particular reason why she said “I Do” to two wedding movies in a row.
Being a bride can make a woman feel special, with all eyes on them as they walk down the aisle in a gorgeous wedding dress and pledge their commitment to the one they love. Jennifer Lopez got to do this on camera twice this past year, being perfectly matched with Owen Wilson in Marry Me and being tied Josh Duhamel in Shotgun Wedding. While speaking to Extra TV, Lopez explained the reason why she played a bride for two movies this past year back-to-back.
I had just finished Marry Me when this script came in. And I was like ‘Do I want to do two wedding movies in a row like that?’ But it was so funny, and I thought to myself ‘With the right director and the right people this could be something really fun and special.’ And I had never done an action/comedy, a romantic action comedy. I’ve done a lot of romantic comedies but not action. So that was a new kind of adventure for me as well. And we were done in the Dominican Republic, and it was like a dream, it was paradise.
So in a way, you can just see this as funny timing. Jennifer Lopez does have a point, as Shotgun Wedding really is a different take on being a bride. After all, it's not every day you and your fianceé have to defend themselves against criminals before getting hitched. This reoccurring theme of her playing a bride has been seen in some of her best movies. Taking a trip down memory lane, the first time we saw JLo play a bride was in Selena. But there was no wedding scene since she and her future beau, Chris Perez, got eloped since her father didn’t approve of the relationship. Her next wedding movie was The Wedding Planner, but that movie ends with Lopez's character not getting married to any of her male interests with still a happy ending for her. Then things took a dark turn in the movie Enough when the man her character marries ends up being abusive, causing her and her daughter to make a run for it throughout the movie.
As Jennifer Lopez’s career went on, she took on more light-hearted wedding movies not counting 2006’s El Cantante where she and her then-husband, Marc Anthony, portrayed the intense real-life relationship between Héctor Lavoe and Nilda “Puchi” Román. She had to fight off her fianceé’s mother in Monster-in-Law and met the love of her life after artificially inseminating herself in The Back-Up Plan. This talented actress shows audiences that there really are a number of ways you can score a husband and that saying “I Do” is never overrated.
Recently, we saw Jennifer Lopez accept two proposals from two different leading men this past year. The first was in Marry Me as her character went through “the ringer” with tabloids after the news gets out that a pop star's fianceé cheated only to declare her marriage to a random audience member she sees in the audience to save face. The critics’ thoughts on the romantic comedy felt she and Owen Wilson shined throughout, but were under the influence of a generic script. Then came Shotgun Wedding where Jennifer Lopez’s character and her fianceé have a destination wedding, only to be in the fight of their lives when their wedding party is taken hostage. The critical reviews for this romance-action comedy were similar to Marry Me in that there's great chemistry between the two leads, but an overall average film. However, these movies are still fun watches with JLo knocking it out of the park each time.
It must be a lot of fun for Jennifer Lopez to don different wedding dresses and get to say “I Do” to a variety of dashing leading men in her movies. No wonder she can’t turn down any of these film proposals. You can watch both Marry Me and Shotgun Wedding on your Amazon Prime subscription.
