- Netflix’s “Halftime” documentary shows Jennifer Lopez’s reaction to her Oscars snub in 2020.
- Lopez said she “got her hopes up” for a nomination after critics praised her role in “Hustlers.”
- Lopez said found out about the snub after her sister texted her: “I hate these fucking people.”
Jennifer Lopez said she found out about being snubbed for an Oscar in 2020 through a text message from her sister.
Lopez recalled receiving the message in “Halftime,” a new documentary on
Netflix
which follows Lopez juggling her acting and music careers in the lead-up to her 2020 Super Bowl performance with Shakira. In that year, she was also in the running for a nomination for the best supporting actress at the Oscars for her critically-acclaimed performance in “Hustlers.”
However, Lopez and the movie were snubbed despite the “Jenny from the Block” singer receiving nominations at the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards that same year.
In the documentary, Lopez talks to dancers during her Super Bowl rehearsals about the shock of the snub and admits to getting her hopes up.
“It’s funny, I didn’t sleep well last night,” Lopez said. “I went back to sleep, and I dreamt it happened. I was like… And then when I woke up, I realized it was a dream. So I picked up my phone and the first thing I saw was Lynda. She was like: ‘I hate these fucking people.'”
She added: “And I was like, ‘Shit.'”
The Netflix documentary “Halftime” follows Jennifer Lopez’s career.
(Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Tribeca Festival)
Lopez added in a voiceover: “I got my hopes up because so many people were telling me I would be [nominated]. And I had to ask myself, what does that mean?”
At the time, fans were also upset that Lopez was snubbed as Scarlett Johansson was nominated for two Oscars that year.
In a previous interview with Oprah Winfrey during Winfrey’s “2020 Vision: Your Life in Focus Tour,” Lopez said the snub was “a little bit of a letdown.”
“Most of my team has been with me for years… and I think they had a lot of hopes on that and they wanted it, too, so I felt like I let everyone down a little bit,” Lopez said. ” You realize you want people’s validation. You want people to say you did a good job, and I realized, ‘No, you don’t need that. You do this because you love it.’ I don’t need this award to tell me I’m enough.”
“Halftime” also shows how the NFL tried to remove part of Lopez’s Super Bowl performance the night before she took the stage. Lopez said the NFL didn’t want kids singing in cages, which she incorporated as a statement about US immigration policy. Eventually, the cages were kept in.
“Halftime” is available on Netflix now.
