Why Jennifer Lopez called Wesley Snipes an asshole: “It’s time for the truth to come out”
Even though it’s impossible to argue against her success and accomplishments, it’s much more difficult to make a compelling case for calling Jennifer Lopez a particularly good actor.
She’s sold more than 80million albums globally, her filmography has accrued billions of dollars at the box office, and the one-two punch of Matthew McConaughey’s rom-com The Wedding Planner and her second studio album J.Lo releasing within days of each other in January 2001 made her the first and only woman to have a movie and record both debut at number one in the United States during the same week.
And yet, the number of genuinely impressive performances she’s given onscreen can be counted on one hand. There was her breakthrough big screen outing in Selena, her Golden Globe-nominated – and career-best by far – turn in Hustlers, and a supporting part in 2024’s sports biopic Unstoppable that stands comfortably as her finest work. Other than that, the results range from solid to shoddy.
The ten-time Razzie nominee and two-time winner has made a lot of terrible movies, ranging from the infamous Gigli to Netflix’s turgid sci-fi blockbuster Atlas via laughable thriller The Boy Next Door and Francis Ford Coppola’s misguided Jack, but she has shared the screen with some of the biggest, brightest, and best names in Hollywood.
Lopez’s co-stars throughout the years include Jack Nicholson, Michael Caine, Robin Williams, George Clooney, Jane Fonda, and many more legends, icons, and superstars. Still, there was only one she hated working with so much that she went public with her issues, going so far as to call them an asshole for the world to hear.
In only her third role in a movie, Lopez took third billing behind Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson as the female lead of Joseph Ruben’s 1995 action comedy Money Train. A step down in quality from the central pairing’s previous collaboration on the cult favourite comedy White Men Can’t Jump, Lopez endured a thoroughly miserable time caused by the former’s repeated – and unwanted – advances.
Snipes made numerous attempts to put the moves on Lopez, even though she was clear from the beginning that she was already in a relationship, and when the actor “went full court press” in his attempts to woo her, she gave his ego a serious bashing both privately and publicly.
“His ego was totally bruised,” she told Movieline. “He wouldn’t talk to me for two months. I was like, ‘What an asshole.'” She had no issues putting Snipes in the firing line, saying that “it’s time for the truth to come out” about his behaviour. He stayed silent on the matter, but it’s the sort of unprofessionalism that’s unfortunately been running rampant in the film industry since the very beginning that fully deserves to be called out.
