Jennifer Lopez introduced her new album in 2022, however she’s it appears been gathering subject material for greater than two decades — and now she’s synthesized it all into a full-blown visual enjoy.
Lopez’s 9th studio LP, This Is Me … Now, is the spiritual sequel to 2002’s This Is Me … Then, which she released at the top of her first romance with Ben Affleck. Their engagement quickly imploded and they each married people, however in 2021, they rekindled their relationship. One 12 months later, they got hitched in Las Vegas.
This Is Me … Now: A Love Story is Lopez’s highly stylized exploration of what happened in the years between their breakup and reconciliation. It’s not strictly autobiographical, but there are many transparent references to Lopez’s real life in the plight of her personality, The Artist, who crashes in and out of relationships whilst on the lookout for the missing puzzle piece.
“There’s portions of it that really feel kind of very autobiographical, and then there’s portions of it which are roughly meta,” Lopez explained in a press conference previous this month. “Not exactly what happened, but in addition the feeling of that is what came about. … That mixture of it being personal but also being ready to be fantastical, surreal, magical, is what I believe makes it truly kind of shifting, entertaining and at the same time, tremendous real.”
As she told listeners in 2001, Lopez is not anything if no longer real, and This Is Me … Now: A Love Story is as real as it may be when there’s a council of anthropomorphized zodiac signs pulling the strings from the sky as The Artist dreams about running in a heart factory. If you’ve ever read a unmarried phrase about Lopez’s dating historical past, as an example, then you definitely’ll spend much of the film questioning simply what’s real and what’s fiction.
Keep reading as Us Weekly breaks down all of the references to Lopez’s real life in This Is Me … Now: A Love Story:
The Artist’s Love Addiction
The entire premise of This Is Me … Now: A Love Story is that The Artist, like Lopez, loves being in love. For The Artist, this implies risking it all for each man who appears like he might be The One, even as her friends check out to level an intervention when she starts to lose herself in her relationships.
While Lopez herself will not be “addicted” to love, she’s by no means been shy about the fact that she’s a hopeless romantic. In 2022, she said that’s the reason she determined to legally take Affleck’s last name once they got married. “I can remember the fact that folks have their emotions about it, and that’s OK too. But if you wish to have to know how I think about it, I simply really feel like it’s romantic,” she told Vogue. “It still carries custom and romance to me, and perhaps I’m simply that roughly lady.”
The Multiple Marriages
Like Lopez, The Artist has been married several times. After her break up from New Guy, The Artist cycles via 3 husbands in the span of the song “Can’t Get Enough,” and at the finish of the film, she’s able to settle down with any person else.
If lovers know the rest about Lopez’s non-public life, it’s that she’s always prepared to give marriage a shot. Lopez’s first husband was once Ojani Noa, to whom she used to be married from 1997 to 1998. She then moved on with Cris Judd, whom she married in 2001. They break up in 2002, and he or she sparked a romance with Affleck that very same 12 months. After Lopez and Affleck known as off their engagement in early 2004, she wed Marc Anthony, they usually separated in 2011. Lopez was once then engaged to Alex Rodriguez. Following their 2021 break up, she rekindled her romance with Affleck, and so they tied the knot in 2022.
Lopez’s catalog of husbands once made her the butt of late-night jokes, however she now seems comfortable with poking a laugh at her dating history. See additionally: the 2022 rom-com Marry Me, in which she plays Kat Valdez, a world-famous pop celebrity who’s been married three times.
The Guy With the Gun
The Artist’s buddies make a decision to stage an intervention after she starts relationship a far younger guy who shocks the group when a gun falls out his pants. This man isn’t recognized by identify or zodiac sign, but he generally is a reference to two of Lopez’s previous lovers. From 2011 to 2016, she dated Casper Smart, who is nearly twenty years her junior. She additionally famously dated Sean “Diddy” Combs, who was arrested and charged with weapons violations after a December 1999 capturing in a nightclub where he and Lopez had been partying. Diddy was once in the long run discovered now not accountable on all fees, but he and Lopez broke up in 2001.
The Vegas Wedding
There’s no Las Vegas marriage ceremony in the film, however a track known as “Midnight Trip to Vegas” soundtracks a scene where The Artist realizes she may well be in a position to to find love once more after learning to love herself. The lyrics seem like a transparent reference to Lopez and Affleck’s marriage ceremony, which took place in Las Vegas in July 2022, just about 20 years when they ended their first engagement.
“We’re drowning in orchid arrangements / Dresses and pastries / What if it’s raining, yeah? / Is this what we’ve been dreaming of?” Lopez sings in the first verse. “It’s crowded with families and brokers / Roomreservations,whichvacation spot / Paps, helicopters, matchof the ages / Caughtin the matrix.”
As Bennifer enthusiasts would possibly recall, the energy couple known as off their original September 2003 nuptials due to “excessive media attention.” When they in any case tied the knot, their nuptials seemed a lot like the ones described in the song. They stored it “simple” — and Affleck even modified in the rest room at the Little White Chapel.
Her Hummingbird Thing
The Artist is obsessed with hummingbirds, and so is Lopez. “To me, hummingbirds are messengers of love,” Lopez defined in a December 2022 version of her On the JLo newsletter. “They’re very agile — can fly ahead, backward, and up and down. They’re also the quickest bird however they always have time to prevent, devour something candy and odor the roses. I establish with them, but greater than the rest, every time I see one, I feel like it’s an indication from God that the whole thing is going to be OK.”
In the film, The Artist realizes that the whole thing will determine soon after she sees a hummingbird. She additionally has a tattoo of the animal on her neck.
Inner Child Work
The Artist quite actually heals her internal child in the film by means of hugging Young Jenny (Bella Gagliano) until each variations of the persona are after all complete again. Lopez has in the past mentioned the significance of therapeutic your inside kid — and has also explored the idea onscreen. She enlisted daughter Emme to play a more youthful model of herself in the 2018 tune video for “Limitless,” which contains lyrics about finding out how to “win at a conflict” she had already received. “The minute you’re born a girl, we comprehend it’s an uphill battle. You’re fighting the parts,” Lopez explained in a behind-the-scenes clip. “Emme in reality is representing that interior kid. She’s not a separate personality from me.”
The Zodiac of It All
It would be a lie to say Us Weekly did not try to read method an excessive amount of into the a lot of zodiac references throughout the film. The Artist’s abusive New Guy in the early a part of the movie is a Libra, prompting The Artist to rail towards Libras all the way through one in all her treatment periods with Fat Joe (sure, Fat Joe). This scene in an instant reminded Us of that point Glee alum Heather Morris claimed Lopez hates Virgos so much she won’t paintings with them, which in turn had Us having a look up the zodiac signs of each and every man Lopez has ever dated. While she does have a Virgo in her past (ex-husband Anthony), there is no longer a Libra to be found in her public dating history. If the rest, The Artist’s Libra vendetta seems like a sly nod to Morris’ (unconfirmed) claim that Lopez has a topic with Virgos.
And for the record, there’s no Virgo slander in This Is Me … Now: A Love Story. Not handiest is Virgo represented on The Artist’s zodiac love council, however there were a number of real Virgos involved in the project, together with Keke Palmer (Scorpio), Jay Shetty (Aries), Kim Petras (Virgo), Jenifer Lewis (Gemini) and Trevor Jackson (Husband 3).
If there’s any astrological signal Lopez has an issue with, it will have to be Aquarius or Capricorn, as neither one was once represented on the love council. Us understands — Capricorns are such know-it-alls.
Thank You!
You have effectively subscribed.
(And should you’re questioning: Noa is a Gemini, Diddy is a Scorpio, Smart is an Aries and Judd, Rodriguez, Affleck and Lopez herself are all Leos.)
Mr. Lopez
Lopez’s husband, Affleck, stars in the film as Rex Stone, a cable news blowhard who seems in the background of several scenes, but the credit verify that he’s additionally the motorcycle driver early in the film. The Biker and The Artist are together at the starting of the movie, nevertheless it’s their breakup — depicted as a literal crash-and-burn — that propels The Artist on her journey of self-discovery. When she heals her internal child and learns how to love without losing herself, she reveals romance with a person whose face is partially obscured but who obviously has the jawline of Affleck. Both The Artist and Lopez have discovered lasting love after a journey of twists, turns and underrated cop procedurals. Time is a flat circle, and Bennifer is right here to stay.
This Is Me … Now: A Love Story debuts on Prime Video Friday, February 16.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tr%2FMmp6aspmjsm%2BvzqZmnqakmr%2B1rcinpJ6mpGS7psPSaJilpF2ptaZ5zaibrGWkpHqrsc2noJ%2BdomK5sLzEs6pmqpWWuW64yJ%2BcZqGeYsGptdJmoKxlnZp6r7vWZp2ipJ1k