Wait, what? Jennifer Lopez ‘didn’t get paid’ to star in ‘Hustlers’

Jennifer Lopez didn’t have to do any hustling to get a big paycheck for her starring role in Hustlers because she apparently wasn’t paid at all — or at least not up-front.

“I didn’t get paid a whole bunch of money for Hustlers,” the singer, 50, claimed to GQ in a video published on Monday, November 18. “I did it for free and produced it. Like Jenny from the Block — I do what I love.”

Lopez starred in the crime drama alongside an all-female lead cast including Constance Wu, Julia Stiles, Keke Palmer, Lili Reinhart, Lizzo and Cardi B.

“It became a movement,” she told the magazine. “This is our movie, where we run s–t. They know it’s all women producers, woman director, woman writer, all women starring in it. We’ve been watching men take advantage of women in movies for a long time, so it was a fun ride to see the tables turned.”

In the film, which hit theaters in September, the Grammy nominee played a veteran stripper named Ramona Vega who banded together a group of coworkers to steal money from their wealthy clients.

“The movies that I look for now, I’m looking for not just interesting and multilayered characters, which Ramona really was, but something that tells you about what’s going on in the culture,” Lopez explained in her accompanying GQ “2019 Men of the Year” cover story. “So the whole idea of the Wall Street guys was interesting to me. These girls are cheating them, but these guys are cheating everybody! So what it says about that world, and men and women, and gender roles, all of that made me feel that this could be an interesting movie, as opposed to just a character piece.”

The Shades of Blue alum said she was drawn to Ramona because the character “had her own set of morals and values” and “was in many ways a good person” despite becoming “a little bit of a criminal.” She added, “Playing that character, and having to be that independent and in charge, I was just like, ‘God, this is so empowering.’”

Next up, Lopez is set to headline the Super Bowl LIV Halftime Show with Shakira. In her interview with GQ, the “Let’s Get Loud” singer explained why she didn’t have any conflicting feelings about signing on to perform at the NFL championship game.

“I feel like it’s an amazing platform and one of the biggest in the world to put out whatever message you want to put out there,” she said. “I feel that it’s a great thing to have two Latina women in Miami headlining the Super Bowl, and what we could do with those 12 to 14 minutes to make people understand our worth and value in this country. … I think it could be a really beautiful celebration.”