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Jennifer Lopez: ‘I Was Terrified’ to Speak Up After Film Director ‘Told Me to Take Off My Shirt’

Lopez reveals her own #MeToo story in a new interview with Harper’s Bazaar.
Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lopez
Katch International/REX/Shutterstock

Jennifer Lopez shares her own #MeToo story in a new interview with Harper’s Bazaar, telling the magazine about a moment early in her career when a film director tried to pressure her into taking her top off. The actress refused to show him her breasts, but she remembers feeling terrified about doing so because the director was the man who hired her for the film.

“I haven’t been abused in the way some women have,” Lopez said. “But have I been told by a director to take off my shirt and show my boobs? Yes, I have. But did I do it? No, I did not.”

“When I did speak up, I was terrified,” she added. “I remember my heart beating out of my chest, thinking, ‘What did I do? This man is hiring me!’ It was one of my first movies. But in my mind, I knew the behavior wasn’t right. It could have gone either way for me. But I think ultimately the Bronx in me was like, ‘Nah, we’re not having it.'”

Lopez has been a supporter of the #MeToo and Time’s Up anti-harassment movements in recent months. During a January appearance in Puerto Rico on the same day of the Golden Globe Awards, Lopez wore black in solidarity with the red carpet protest.

“A lot of the women with #TimesUp are standing up for equality, to be treated equally, and for sexual harassment. And I stand here today in black, doing the same from far away,” she told reporters. “And it’s the same thing here in Puerto Rico: We want to be treated equally.”

Head over to Harper’s Bazaar to read Lopez’s full-length interview.

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