Jennifer Lopez has been in the game for a long time. She’s been a dancer, actress, singer, and business woman. And just when you think she’s done everything she pushes into new territory, like what she did with Netflix’s upcoming film Atlas. Because she’s not only the lead in a sci-fi film that puts her front and center. JLo is also a producer for Atlas and her production company, Nuyorican Productions, takes part in bringing this story about AI gone wrong to life.
In the film JLo plays Atlas, a data analyst with a deep mistrust of artificial intelligence. She joins a mission to capture a renegade robot, played by Simu Liu, who she shares a mysterious path with in a world on the brink thanks to AI. Things don’t go as planned when they go on the hunt for this renegade robot and Atlas has to put her trust in another robot to save humanity. While all of that is going on, there’s one thing we couldn’t help but notice: JLo’s hair.
As Latinas, our hair is a very important part of us. That’s especially true if you have naturally curly hair like JLo while living in a world that seemingly prefers a sleek straight look, whether it be on TV or in the work place. And besides Anaconda and Shades of Blue, JLo really hasn’t spent as much screen time with her natural curly hair. Interest in her hair was renewed after she released The Greatest Love Story Never Told documentary to accompany her This is Me…Now documentary.
In the documentary, there’s a scene where JLo talks about her hair. While messing with her hair she said, “I like taking my hair out like this. It reminds me like, when I was 16 in the Bronx running up and down the block. Crazy little girl who used to be wild, no limits, all dreams.” That created a viral moment on social media that everyone was talking about no matter what platform you were on. And with her character having curly hair, I asked her about it.
“I love my natural curly hair,” JLo told Remezcla when asked about what went into the decision to give her character curly hair. “I like [Atlas] having this disheveled, very thick head of hair that she doesn’t really worry about at all. Kind of like, this is who I am.” A lot of who Atlas is, and the way that she looks with her curls, is tied to who she is as a woman; hardened by the loss she’s experienced at an early age and this rogue robot she shares a past with.
JLo continued this thread by saying that her characters curly hair being a mess was also tied to also not being paid attention to. “[Her curls] were a reflection of not really paying attention to herself the way she wasn’t paid attention to as a child. No one was like “Maybe we should blow this out, put a pony tail or something.” Nothing. They just let her go wild. And I think she kind of got wilder as she got older.” And it’s only through this journey, one full of self love, that her character starts to care for herself, where she’s going, and what she looks like; which includes her curly hair.
Love, whether it be for the kind that her character has for herself, is also something really essential to how JLo chooses the projects she participates in. “For me, that’s what I respond to,” she shared with Remezcla. “I respond to different things at different times in my life. But there is kind of a theme of the stories I like to tell and love is usually at the base of them.” This makes sense considering that her project before this was This is Me…Now, a musical journey through her own love stories.
“Honestly I think that’s the most important thing in life and in the world. And I think it’s the one thing that matters the most,” Jennifer Lopez said as our interview came to a close. Love is what drew her to Atlas. And it gives new perspective as to what drew her to her projects before this; whether it be Anaconda or the multitude of romantic comedies she’s been part of throughout the years. Love.
