美国国家公共电台 NPR How Jennifer Lopez Fought For Her 'Second Act'

 

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

Later this month, Jennifer Lopez is out with a new movie, the latest entry in her long career. Altogether, J.Lo has been in more than 30 films. She has had top 10 singles. She's been on hit TV shows. She's even launched a top-selling perfume. NPR's Sam Sanders recently sat down with Lopez. He wanted to figure out the secret to her continued success.

SAM SANDERS, BYLINE¹: NPR was last on the list for a full day of press for Jennifer Lopez's newest movie. She had a lot to get through - photo shoots, hours of interviews. At one point, I saw her before I was allowed to speak to her, whizzing from one room to the next in a bathrobe. And then, like magic, J.Lo was with me...

JENNIFER LOPEZ: Hi, are we sitting here?

SANDERS: I'll sit right there.

LOPEZ: Thank you.

SANDERS: Yeah.

...Looking refreshed, not complaining at all about her day.

LOPEZ: One of many that we'll have the next few days.

SANDERS: Yeah, yeah, it's a big push for the movie.

LOPEZ: It's go time.

SANDERS: It's go time. It's go time, which you're used to go time.

LOPEZ: I'm used to go time.

SANDERS: You've been on go time for...

LOPEZ: For many years now.

SANDERS: (Laughter).

LOPEZ: Yeah, for a lot of years now.

SANDERS: J.Lo has been doing junkets like this for years. That means years of practice making every interview like this one a chance to preach what you could call the gospel of J.Lo.

LOPEZ: The only thing stopping you is you and your actual - the whole path was leading you to your purpose.

Nothing was a mistake.

I am limitless. I can do and make anything happen that I want to make happen. It's just up to me.

I actually do deserve to get this or have that or get paid that or deserve to own part of that.

SANDERS: Eventually mid-interview, she notices how it all sounds.

LOPEZ: I got to stop talking like a motivational speaker.

SANDERS: But you know what? People need that.

LOPEZ: That's not my goal. That is not my goal. I'm just trying to live my life and...

SANDERS: That make-it-work-no-matter-what mentality², it's the theme of her latest movie, "Second Act." In the film, J.Lo covers familiar territory. She plays a driven woman from modest means who proves she can do anything anyone else can and find lasting³ love in the process. Lopez's character is Maya. She works at a big-box store, and she wants a promotion⁴.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SECOND ACT")

DAN BUCATINSKY: (As Arthur) It's not easy getting a job for a woman your age.

LOPEZ: (As Maya) Watch me.

SANDERS: I'll let J.Lo explain more.

LOPEZ: She wants to progress. She's been at the store for 15 years, assistant manager for six.

SANDERS: Yeah.

LOPEZ: You know, she's about to give up.

SANDERS: She wants - you guessed it - a second act. Through a series of wacky events and some help from a fairy godson, this character Maya ends up in the C-Suite, unconstrained by her education or her gender⁵ or her race. This character, like a lot of other Jennifer Lopez film characters, she's pretty colorblind. She could be Latina or not. That's been a feature of J.Lo's film career for a while now.

ISABEL MOLINA-GUZMAN: "Enough" and "The Wedding Planner" and "Jersey⁶ Girl" and all these other movies that there was nothing about her that would say to a mainstream⁷ audience, oh, this is an ethnic⁸ movie.

SANDERS: Isabel Molina-Guzman is a professor of Latina/Latino studies at the University of Illinois. She's also written a book called "Dangerous Curves: Latina Bodies In The Media." J.Lo is on the cover of that book. Molina-Guzman says that maybe the biggest secret to J.Lo's success has been her ability to code switch, giving different audiences different versions of herself.

MOLINA-GUZMAN: She could pull in the ethnic audiences because people know who she is. And then in the music, she could be more urban. She can be more ethnic.

SANDERS: That may have maximized her reach, but it may have kept J.Lo from getting some of the credit she's due as a Latina groundbreaker. And Molina-Guzman thinks J.Lo deserves a lot of credit.

MOLINA-GUZMAN: You know, I think Jennifer Lopez opened up the door to just about every other Latina actress that's out there now.

SANDERS: At first, J.Lo really isn't into talking about how her race or gender might have shaped her career or other careers, but I push her, and then she tells me maybe it has. Maybe a lot of the way the media talks about her body and her presentation - she says maybe it's been a bit racist⁹. Maybe the way you're less likely to see J.Lo as a shrewd businesswoman with her own production company, executive producer credits, in charge of her own empire - maybe that's sexist.

Do you think you got it worse because you're Latina?

LOPEZ: Yep. Because a woman - yep, yeah.

SANDERS: But J.Lo told me she will not define herself with that, just like a lot of the characters she plays in her movies.

LOPEZ: I want to prove to myself that I belong here and that I deserve to be here. So the fun in it now to me is going, yep, see, Jen?

SANDERS: Yeah.

LOPEZ: You were right.

SANDERS: The gospel of Jennifer Lopez - the constant hustle¹⁰, all the motivational talk - maybe it worked. Maybe she is right. No matter how you see her, in whatever medium, almost 30 years in, Jennifer Lopez is still here. Sam Sanders, NPR News.

KELLY: And you can hear the rest of Sam's conversation with Jennifer Lopez - and there is a lot of it - in the latest episode of our podcast It's Been A Minute.

(SOUNDBITE OF GRAMATIK'S "MUY TRANQUILO")

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 mentality   

n.心理，思想，脑力

参考例句：

• He has many years'experience of the criminal mentality.他研究犯罪心理有多年经验。
• Running a business requires a very different mentality from being a salaried employee.经营企业所要求具备的心态和上班族的心态截然不同。

3 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
• We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。

4 promotion   

n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传

参考例句：

• The teacher conferred with the principal about Dick's promotion.教师与校长商谈了迪克的升级问题。
• The clerk was given a promotion and an increase in salary.那个职员升了级，加了薪。

5 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

6 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

7 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

8 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

9 racist   

n.种族主义者，种族主义分子

参考例句：

• a series of racist attacks 一连串的种族袭击行为
• His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism. 他的讲话以民族主义为幌子宣扬种族主义思想。

10 hustle   

v.推搡；竭力兜售或获取；催促；n.奔忙(碌)

参考例句：

• It seems that he enjoys the hustle and bustle of life in the big city.看起来他似乎很喜欢大城市的热闹繁忙的生活。
• I had to hustle through the crowded street.我不得不挤过拥挤的街道。