Jennifer Lopez has been a dancer, a pop icon, and a movie star—but it turns out she almost took a very different path to fame.
During an appearance on the Wednesday, Oct. episode of the Las Culturistas podcast with hosts Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, the -year-old superstar shocked listeners by revealing her “real deal” athletic past.
Long before she was “Jenny from the Block,” Lopez was a middle-distance runner with some seriously elite stats.
“I started track when I was in th or th grade,” she recalled to the hosts. “My best mile ever was, I think : — I was for real.”
For those who aren’t track aficionados, a : mile is nearly Olympic-trial territory for high school athletes. Lopez explained that she was a “little tomboy jock person” who specialized in the m and ,m events.
“There were times in my life where I thought I would take the athlete [route],” she admitted.
The revelation quickly sent social media into a frenzy, with fans on X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok debating J.Lo’s impressive speed. “J.Lo running a sub-: mile is the plot twist I didn’t see coming today,” one fan joked, while another added, “The hustle started early!”
The conversation with Rogers, , and Yang, , eventually shifted from the track to the silver screen, where Lopez addressed her legendary ability to create “spark” with any co-star.
“I can fall in love with anybody,” she laughed, before quickly clarifying her romantic nature. “That’s the bad quote from here! But no, my point is I feel like I don’t know if it’s because I’m a romantic and I so believe in love.”
Rogers praised her “chemistry” with leading men ranging from Matthew McConaughey in The Wedding Planner to Ralph Fiennes in Maid in Manhattan.
Lopez explained that her secret is finding the human connection “in between action and cut.”
“I’m able to kind of see through this and get to who is the person on the inside and really fall in love with that person in that moment,” she shared.
That same passion for connection is what drew her to her latest project, the movie adaptation of the musical Kiss of the Spider Woman, which hits theaters Friday, Oct. .
While the film features fantastical elements, Lopez says she most identifies with her character Ingrid Luna because she is, at her core, an entertainer.
“It’s only about love for me,” she told the hosts, reflecting on how her work helps fans escape their own “prisons,” much like the characters in the film.
“The more I keep going, they keep going,” she said of her fans. “When they see me fall down and they see me get back up… he saves her, too.”
Would you like me to look up the official trailer for Kiss of the Spider Woman or more of J.Lo’s upcoming press tour dates?
