Jennifer Lopez arrived at ELLE’s Women in Hollywood event on Tuesday in a breathtaking ensemble—and with her supportive husband Ben Affleck, to boot. As one of the evening’s honorees, the actress wore a metallic breast plate crop top with a black maxi skirt. She wore her hair up and kept her beauty look more subdued.
In a very sweet move, Affleck joined Lopez on the red carpet, looking dapper in a black suit beside her. They kissed and looked affectionate in front of photographers.
Lopez spoke to ELLE in her Women in Hollywood cover story about what she wishes she knew before breaking into the industry. “I really came in blind,” she recalled. “I knew that I had a love of singing, dancing, performing, and acting—that was my big dream. When I entered into it, I didn’t know any of the logistics of Hollywood or how it worked or what I should be looking for. I learned everything as I went along.”
“One of those things was to be more particular with my choices,” she continued. “And I didn’t have that luxury, being Latina. I didn’t get called in for everything someone who wasn’t Latina would get called in for. I got called in for very specific things. As I started getting more leads here and there, I should have pulled back. I took that mindset with me instead of going, ‘I should only work with certain kinds of directors that I really want to work with. I should choose this material in a different way.’ I just wasn’t as particular as I could be, I think. And if I [could] start over, I think I would’ve done that. I would’ve known that the director is really the helm of the project when you’re acting. Just like in singing, the producers you work with are very important. I knew that with music, but I didn’t quite understand it as much when I was younger about directors.”
She also shared what’s next for her in her career, “I want to keep evolving. And whether I’ll take the helm and direct my own film at one point is a possibility. I’ve talked about it. I’ve been offered to direct a couple of things, and I’ve turned [them] down, just because of time constraints and things like that. I can’t tell you, ‘I’m going to direct three movies, and I’m going to do this, and I’m going to do that.’ But I can say that I will keep evolving as an artist and as a performer and producer and in all of the ways to create the projects that I decide to be involved with—and I hope that that never stops.”
