After months of Oscar buzz for her performance in “Hustlers”, fans were shocked when Jennifer Lopez didn’t receive an Academy Award nomination.
Apparently fans weren’t the only ones to feel let down by the Oscar snub, with JLo herself admitting she was “sad” when her name wasn’t read on the morning of the nominations.
Lopez, 50, sat down with Oprah Winfrey, 65, on Saturday during the latter’s Vision 2020: Your Life in Focus tour, chatting onstage at the Los Angeles Forum.
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“I was sad,” Lopez told Winfrey, reported the Los Angeles Times. “I was a little sad because there was a lot of buildup to it. I got so many good notices — more than ever in my career — and there was a lot of, like, ‘She’s going to get nominated for an Oscar. It’s going to happen. If she doesn’t, you’re crazy.’ And I’m reading all the articles, and I’m like, ‘Oh, my God. Could this happen?’ And then it didn’t, and I was like, ‘Ouch.’ It was a little bit of a letdown.”
As Lopez, she didn’t just feel personally let down, but also felt she had disappointed her team, many of whom have been with her for decades.
“Most of my team has been with me for years — 20, 25 years — and I think they had a lot of hopes on that. They wanted it, too,” she said. “I felt like I let everybody down a little bit.”
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“But you didn’t!” Winfrey responded.
“I know, but I felt like that,” Lopez replied. “I felt like that for a bit.”
Her sadness about being ignored by the Academy, however, ultimately led to growth and self-reflection.
“I think what happened, with the Super Bowl, with this whole year… a sold-out tour, getting nominated for all these awards, and then not getting the Oscar thing, I had to reexamine, ‘Why do you do this? What are you so sad about right now?’” Lopez continued.
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“And you realize that you want people’s validation. You want people to say you did a good job,” she said. “I don’t need that. I’m actually here, and I’m okay, and I am enough. I don’t need this award right here to tell me I’m enough.”
