Jennifer Lopez Says Recent Action Roles Have Been “Empowering” – The Hollywood Reporter

Jennifer Lopez is opening up about her latest role and how excited she was to be starring in an action-thriller.

During Thursday’s episode of The View, the Shotgun Wedding actress-producer said that while filming her upcoming movie The Mother “was a lot of fun,” it was also “a lot of work.”

In the Niki Caro-directed film, Lopez stars as an assassin who is fleeing from dangerous assailants. But she comes out of hiding to protect her daughter she gave up earlier in her life.

For the role, she had to undergo regular fight training, but she explained that it was “choreographed. We have to be efficient. I can’t be fighting eight hours a day. After like an hour, I’m like, OK. So they had to be real efficient and they choreographed it almost like a dance, which is good for me since I’m a dancer.”

The Shades of Blue actress-executive producer also reflected on her career, saying she’s excited to be able to do action roles now, like her one in The Mother. But she then jokes that she wishes she would have gotten “these types of roles that I’m getting now, funnily enough, when I was a little bit more, you know, spry. But a little bit, you know, younger.”

Overall, she said these types of roles are “kind of empowering, and it makes me feel strong and good. And it was great.”

Later during the conversation, the Hustlers actress-producer got emotional while talking about her husband Ben Affleck and watching him as a father, saying, “It brings tears to my eyes.”

Lopez shares teen twines with ex-husband Marc Anthony and Affleck shares three children with ex-wife Jennifer Garner.

“He is honestly the best dad I’ve ever seen,” she said. He’s so involved. He teaches me about how to kind of interact with the kids sometimes. He’s just so in tune. He’s such a brilliant guy anyway, like he’s so learned in so many things, and you could just tell when he had his kids, he must have read every book and everything that you could possibly learn about children, and he applies it. He’s present, and that’s all you can ask for is a present, loving dad who cares and shows up every single day, and that’s who he is.”