Jennifer Lopez said a director once asked to see her breasts off-set prior to a nude scene she was shooting for a film.
“A director at a fitting asked me to take my top off. Because I was supposed to do nudity in the movie,” the “Hustlers” actor said during a Hollywood Reporter roundtable discussion published Thursday.
“He wanted to see my boobs,” Lopez continued. “And I was like, ‘We’re not on set.’”
Lopez, who shared the roundtable with fellow actors Scarlett Johansson, Lupita Nyong’o, Awkwafina, Laura Dern and Renée Zellweger, said she was able to shut down the director, but the moment has stayed with her. She didn’t name the offender or say when it happened.
“I said no, I stood up for myself,” she said. “But it was so funny because I remember being so panicked in the moment. And by the way, there was a costume designer in the room with me. So there was another woman in the room and he says this and I said no.”
She added that “a little bit of the Bronx came out” and she was able to unequivocally refuse him.
“If you give in, in that moment, all of a sudden that person is off and running, thinking they can do whatever they want,” Lopez continued. “And because I put up a little boundary right there and said no, he laid off and then later on apologized. But the minute he walked out of the room the costume designer was like, ‘I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry that just happened.’”
Nyong’o added later that the Hollywood culture has, hopefully, changed enough that situations like that don’t happen as often.
“The difference now, though, is that because of the conversations that are happening in public, it’s easier to tell when something is inappropriate,” the “Us” actor said, alluding to the Me Too movement.
“Because in that moment, if the costume designer had said something, it could’ve changed. If she had supported you in some way, had spoken up, it would have changed the dynamic,” Nyong’o said to Lopez. “So now we are programming the younger generation to know what’s OK and what’s not. To know that it’s not OK to be in a costume fitting and for a man to ask that of you. Even though those things might happen, our defense would be sharper in those moments.”
Head over to The Hollywood Reporter to read the full roundtable discussion.