They say if you do a job you love, no amount of money is going to be enough to match that satisfaction. Well, if you’re Jennifer Lopez, that just has to be true when it comes to her recent role in writer/director Lorene Scafaria’s dramedy Hustlers. I say this because apparently Lopez signed on to star and produce the film for little to no money. Yeah, I’m pretty shocked about it too.
And it’s not like this is made up, as in a recent interview, Jennifer Lopez herself called out the fact with the following statement:
I didn’t get paid a whole bunch of money for Hustlers. I did it for free and produced it. Like Jenny from the Block—I do what I love.
It’s an interesting phenomenon to consider someone as talented, in demand and generally awesome as Jennifer Lopez making a movie for no money down. On the one hand, the dedication she’s showing by admitting that fact is one that an absolute trooper would exhibit. Lopez wanted to get the job done, and didn’t care how she did it; which lead to her accepting the role of den mother/stripper Ramona.
But on the other hand, the movie did really well. The adaptation of the New York Magazine article “The Hustlers At Scores” managed to be made on roughly a $20 million budget, and brought in $148.5 million worldwide in its theatrical release. Which is something that certainly hasn’t evaded the attention of Jennifer Lopez’s real life Hustlers counterpart, Samantha Barbash; though if you read Barbash’s statement on why she should be compensated, this story gets a lot funnier. Trust me.
While the GQ item discussing this fact says that Jennifer Lopez wasn’t paid to star or produce Hustlers, it does make the stipulation that she was probably compensated in an eventual fashion, as it states that she wasn’t paid “up front” to do the picture.
That could be presumed as an indicator that Jennifer Lopez probably had a deal put in play where, should Hustlers be successful enough in theaters, she’d get a certain percentage off the back end. Looking at the figures above, it’s probably safe to say J Lo was paid later on, though as she herself had specified, it probably wasn’t much. More than likely, enough to give her some much earned vacation time after learning all those sweet dance moves.
Still, Jennifer Lopez did clearly jump on board without so much as a dime being paid out to her in the beginning of Hustlers’ journey to telling a true story in an outrageous fashion. With her faith in the film clearly outweighing any monetary gain, putting this potential awards contender on the board must have put a smile on her face. As Oscar pools are starting to form with her name as an almost certain nominee for Best Actress in this year’s derby, you can bet that grin got a little wider with each stunning review praising her work. To paraphrase the woman herself, that sort of love don’t cost a thing.
Hustlers will be available on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD on December 10, with the film hitting Digital HD on November 26.
