Jennifer Lopez On Oscars Snub: ‘I Don’t Need This Award To Tell Me I’m Enough’

If you haven’t caught on by now, or by chance seen her severely underrated 2002 thriller, Jennifer Lopez is … “Enough.” 

And while many fans might still feel personally slighted over her Oscars snub, rest assured that Lopez herself is doing just fine and actually might be all the better for it.

The multi-talented star turned in the performance of her career in Lorene Scafaria’s fact-based drama “Hustlers” last year, but failed to score an Academy Award nomination, leaving her out in the cold without the now-iconic fur coat she wore in the movie.

But the hustle isn’t all about the reward for Lopez, who’s finally speaking out about how she felt about the snub as other stars like Kathy Bates, Laura Dern, Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh and Margot Robbie competed for Oscars glory. 

“I was a little sad because there was a lot of buildup to it. There were so many articles,” she told Oprah Winfrey on stage Saturday in Los Angeles during the media mogul’s 2020 Vision Tour, according to Variety. “I got so many good notices — more than ever in my career — and there was a lot of ‘She’s going to get nominated for an Oscar. It’s going to happen; if she doesn’t, you’re crazy.’”

Lopez said she “felt like I let everyone down a little bit,” given how hard the “Hustlers” team had worked, despite securing nominations at the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild Awards and Indie Spirit Awards.

“I’m reading all the articles going, ‘Oh my god, could this happen?’ And then it didn’t and I was like, ‘Ouch.’ It was a little bit of a letdown,” she added.

The silver lining for Lopez, however, was that she came to terms with the idea that she ever needed anyone else’s approval in the first place. She is Jennifer Lopez, after all.

“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,’” she said. “I don’t need this award to tell me I’m enough.”

“Enough,” in case you missed it, was the Hollywood adaptation of a bestseller about an abused wife who learns to fight back. It earned generally negative reviews, even though Lopez’s starring performance won praise. 

And it doesn’t look like she’s rid of the acting bug just yet, as Lopez is readying a return to her rom-com roots. The star has already finished filming “Marry Me” alongside Owen Wilson, in which she’ll play ― now, this is a bit of a stretch ― a pop superstar.