WHO: How do you relate to your Second Act character Maya?
LOPEZ: The idea for this script came from my producing partner and she worked with a writer and it was tailor-made for me. We made her from Queens, because I had done the Bronx thing before, but we wanted it to have a Working Girl type of feel. It was very much something I could play and understand and people would really relate to me and believe me.
I loved playing it because I really feel like Maya at 24 years old is exactly who I could have been if I hadn’t decided to go off and be an actress and do everything I am doing.
WHO: If you were to start a second act, would you consider getting married again?
LOPEZ: Yeah. For sure.
WHO: So that’s something you feel good about?
LOPEZ: Yeah. I have been married three times and I have had two kind of under a year marriages and that I don’t really count as marriages, but I was married to Marc [Anthony] for 10 years, seven years together and then 10 years before it was final and it was good, and it didn’t work out, but it didn’t destroy my vision of marriage.
I always thought, again, ’cause of the way I was raised, that when you fall in love with somebody, you get married and you try to have a life together. And I learned along the way that’s not really how it works; it takes more than that. So you have to choose well and there’s a lot of different things. I love the idea of growing old with somebody and being committed to them and declaring that to one another, not so much to the world, but to one another.
WHO: Do you think your kids will follow in your footsteps?
LOPEZ: I don’t care what they want to be. I want them to be happy, I want them to be fulfilled and love themselves. That’s my thing, how do we do that and how are we good people here, right now? But yeah, they both sing, and I don’t know what else they will do, they don’t dance, but they sing [laughs]. They are adorable.
WHO: You turn 50 next year and you look absolutely incredible! Tell us how.
LOPEZ: The skin and the beauty side, I have some skincare secrets that I might be sharing in the next year, we’ll see. But again, it’s all about looking after yourself and I work really hard. I have kids obviously, and that takes up a lot of time. You can’t be good for anybody if you don’t take care of yourself.
So, I try to get good sleep and take care of my skin and take a bath every once in a while. I am not a smoker or a drinker or anything like that. And I just try to relax and be the best me that I can be.
For more from our chat with Jennifer Lopez, pick up the latest copy of WHO on sale now!
