Gossip

Fashion

Health

Destiny

Relationships

Travel

Career

Beauty

Green Issues

Culture

Family

Lifestyle

New Mother

Jennifer Lopez
Exclusive Interview

by Vera Brozzoni

Read Vera Brozzoni's review of Bordertown

It takes courage for glamour queen Jennifer Lopez to produce and star in Bordertown, a film that deals with the horrible massacre of women that takes place everyday in Juarez, at the border between USA and Mexico; but it takes a star of her brightness to have such a film financed and promoted worldwide.

On the 14th February she has also been awarded the “Artists For Amnesty” award by Amnesty International. Today, Bordertown by Gregory Nava (also starring Antonio Banderas) is presented at the Berlinale, and after the premiere nuts4chic meets Jennifer Lopez to discuss it.

nuts4chic: Miss Lopez, when did you first hear about Gregory Nava’s project? What was your gut reaction to the script?

Jennifer Lopez: Gregory had written the script back in 1997 and gave it to me the following year. As I found out what was going on in Juarez I was shocked and I became passionate about this subject. I immediately accepted to do the film, but unfortunately Gregory couldn’t raise the funding and had to postpone the project until now. I couldn’t believe such a terrible thing was taking place. I felt the responsibility to do anything I could to raise consciousness on these murders. So I worked closely with Barbara Martinez Jitner, who is the executive producer of the film: a few years ago she went down in the “maquiladoras” (the factories in Juarez where women are slaved and underpaid and where they approached their rapists/killers), disguised as a worker; she wanted to study the situation from the inside, and her experience inspired a very similar scene in the film, in which my character Lauren does the same.

n4c: How did it change your life? How do you think it will affect your career?

JL: I felt very emotional as soon as I had the first spark of realising there was something so unjust going on there. The experience of making this film has changed my life a lot, in terms of the way I think. Normally you’re doing your best for your job and are confronted with choices like “should I do this comedy next or not?” but then you find out there’s something serious going on and that makes a radical change in you. Everybody had their opinion about this project and used to advise me “I don’t think you should do this film now, Jennifer, but I’d just reply “I think it has to be done.”

n4c: How did you prepare for this difficult role?

JL: I had been working with Gregory Nava twice before this film: in my debut feature Mi Familia (1995) and in my first breakthrough Selena (1997); therefore it was natural for him to cast me as Lauren, the brave American journalist who tries to denounce the horrors in Juarez and to save young Eva, who survived violence and is now hunted for, at the same time. When I started working on Bordertown I felt this was so crucial, that it got more and more real as I went along, it became part of my life.

n4c: The film also raises the issue of how the goods we use everyday, like motors and computers, are made. Nowadays there is an awareness about it, and even the world of fashion is now guaranteeing fair policies and wages. What about your clothing company?

Read Vera Brozzoni's review of Bordertown

JL: When I created my own label JLo by Jennifer Lopez I made sure that no child labour was involved, and I will make an effort in this direction.

n4c: You will raise a lot of money thanks to this film: are you going to create a foundation to support the women of Juarez, or help them somehow?

JL: I am definitely willing to bring this fight on; Gregory, Barbara and I are involved with Amnesty International now, and you can find more information on www.amnestyusa.org/bordertown. It is so important that everyone sustains this fight, because the massacre is still ongoing and many women are still waiting for justice.

nuts4facts

More Film articles
Asian Horror Cinema
Shortbus

The Black Dahlia

Romanzo Criminale

Borat