MTV News' Kurt Loder: You have a record and a film out, but there's all this legal stuff going on. Is this the worst time of your life, or the best?
Jennifer Lopez: I'm preoccupied about some stuff, but it's still the best time of my life. I'm getting to live my dreams. It's unfortunate that [Combs' legal troubles are] happening right now. But I still feel very grateful to God for everything that I have.
Loder: "J.Lo" is a term of affection your record company uses in talking to you?
Lopez: [laughs] No. It wasn't something that I started, like, "Call me J. Lo." Fans gave me the nickname. It was actually pretty cool.
Loder: Does your family call you J.Lo now?
Lopez: No. But my mother is so taken with the whole thing. She's all "J.Lo, J.Lo."
Loder: You have an executive producer credit on this record. Were you fiddling with the knobs?
Lopez: I don't fiddle with the knobs too much. Executive producing is pretty much bringing the whole album together, overseeing everything, having creative control. I had it on my first album, but I really felt like this time it was even more mine.
Loder: What kinds of ideas do you shoot down?
Loder: Being the executive producer and also co-writing a number of songs on this record, are you trying to express something? Or is it mainly about hits for you?
Lopez: You want them to be hits at the end of the day. But you start off with something to say, an expression of something as an artist, or something you have felt or gone through. Something you can relate to, something that inspires you. And you just go from there.
Loder: Do you hang around the studio while they're working out the beats?
Lopez: I am here all the time. I love the whole process, 'cause I want my input. When I do my album, it's like I live here. I come early.
Loder: What's your favorite track on the album?
Lopez: I have so many. I know it sounds corny, but I do. I'm very close to it.
Loder: Are you playing the instrument on "I'm Real"?
Lopez: No. I want to learn the guitar so bad. I think on my next movie.
Loder: Puffy's on that track. How did that come about?
Loder: It's good that you can get him to just come and be on your record. Not everyone can do that.
Lopez: I could tell he liked it because of that. He was like, "I'll be over in five minutes," and he was over in five minutes.
Loder: Is it hard for you to work together?
Lopez: I knew he was going to do stuff on this album, but he really came through with some incredible music. I think if you had to choose the records he did on the album, you wouldn't be able to tell. That's how far he stretched himself this time.
Loder: When he's listening to your tracks, does he ever suggest changes?
Lopez: Yeah. He'll be like, "That's wack." [laughs] We're very honest with each other.
Loder: You never have fights about that stuff?
Lopez: Oh yeah. I'm like, "You're wrong, I love that song." And he says, "You're wrong, 'cause I know." It gets like that, but we respect each other's opinions. Then I go back and I think, "Why did he think that was wack?"
Loder: But he liked the album as it came out.
Lopez: He's very proud. One day he was like, "Wow, I didn't know that you had it in you like that." That was the best compliment I got on the album so far. It was sweet.
Loder: How do you go about writing a song?
Lopez: Cory Rooney, who produced along with me, does play the piano, so we will fool around on that once in a while. I start there sometimes. A lot of times we get tracks first. Then it's about banging it out on the piano or just sitting there listening to the track over and over and starting to write. Usually, we'll listen to it and live with it for a day or two. It's always great when it comes immediately, but sometimes it takes more than that.
[The track for] "Cariño" we had from the beginning, and we loved it. It was like a cha-cha-inspired, Latin-y pop track, and it took forever. I couldn't write it, Cory couldn't write it. We had other people try to write it. No one could write this damn song. Then I go to Europe a few months ago to promote "The Cell" and Cory goes, "I got it, I got it, I wrote it!" We were like, "It has to be sexy, it has to be this and it has to be that," but we couldn't put it into words. He sent it to me and I loved it. I just changed the chorus.
Loder: What does the name mean?
Lopez: Cariño is like love and affection. It's when you touch and it's very affectionate. You can also call someone cariño. It's just a term of affection.
Loder: Must there now be a tour?
Lopez: I definitely want to go on tour. We're planning to go into rehearsals after I do this next movie in March.
Loder: Before you go on tour, do you get into some incredible regimen of vitamins and workouts?
Lopez: Absolutely. I'm going on all of these mini-tours in Europe. It takes so much out of you, I can't even imagine what it'd be like to do it every day 'cause [this tour will] be my first one.
Loder: You are nominated for a Grammy Award for "Let's Get Loud" from On the 6. Is it true you're not going to the Grammys because you're not finding anything good enough to wear?
Lopez: No, it wasn't that. [laughs] I wanted to go, and was quite disappointed. I'm going to be in Australia and Hong Kong, promoting the record.
Loder: Are the Latin Grammys a good idea, or does it segregate the music too much?
Lopez: Because there are so many different kinds of Latin music, it all gets grouped into one category on the regular Grammy show. I thought the Latin Grammys were really beautifully done. It was nice that we had them because there are so many artists people don't know, and it's nice to expose them to the United States.
Loder: Does real Latin pop need to be done in Spanish or Portuguese?
Lopez: I don't think what I make is real Latin pop. I make pop music that has some Latin influence. Latin pop is in Spanish, you know?
Loder: You're up against some interesting people for the Best Dance Recording Grammy. Baha Men, Enrique Iglesias, [Eiffel 65, Moby]...
Lopez: I know. It's a weird category. It's all guys with me. I gotta rap for the women.
Loder: You've been doing a bunch of movies. You've got "The Wedding Planner" out.
Lopez: Yeah, it's a romantic comedy. I've always wanted to do one. I was kind of scared of it, too, 'cause I've never done any comedy. So I read this one and it was just really sweet, really well-written, and I thought it would be the perfect vehicle for me.
Loder: And then you've got "Angel Eyes." What is that about?
Lopez: "Angel Eyes" is a drama; it will be out later this year. It's a story of two people who are closed off to the world. Almost like lost souls who, for different tragic reasons, have closed themselves off to all kinds of relationships. They meet by chance and he kind of saves her life. Basically through unconditional love, they end up healing each other and are able to go forward with life.
Loder: You'll also be doing a film on Frida Kahlo, the Mexican artist. Madonna wanted to do this for years and years. You're probably breaking her heart, doing this movie.
Lopez: So many people wanted to do this movie. It's such an interesting character. People have been trying to make it for years. She suffered a lot of physical and emotional pain in her life. As an artist, you could see that in her work.
Loder: What do you see yourself doing next musically?
Lopez: This record is gonna be out for a while. I don't plan to go into the studio for a little. But I think my next project in studio will either be attached to a film or totally in Spanish, which I've always wanted to do.
Loder: Do you go out to clubs and see what kind of beats people are dancing to?
Lopez: No, I don't go out that much. But I listen to a lot of music.
Loder: Do you live too far out of town? Is that why you don't go out that much?
Lopez: No, I'm just tired at night. I go to sleep. But the producers know, and I'm abreast of everything. I love to listen to all kinds of music, so of course it's going to have an influence on what I do.
Loder: So you're not a nightlife person, out dancing on the town?
Lopez: I love to dance. I love music, but I'm not a real nightlife person. I don't drink, so I don't let loose that way. But every once in a while, I do want to go out. I think I went out three times this past year. In Paris we threw a party, my birthday I had a surprise party, and another birthday party in Miami. Those were my big three outings.
Loder: When you were a kid dreaming about making it big, did you ever dream about it like this?
Lopez: You don't imagine exactly what it's going to be like. You think, "I want to be an actress, I want to make music." You don't think, "I'll have to do all these interviews, I'll have a grueling schedule and I'm not going to have any privacy." It just comes with the territory. But you get to travel and you get to meet great people, and I get to live my dream every day, so I'm not complaining.
Loder: The media portrays you and Puffy as this kind of gangster couple. Do you recognize yourself when you see people talk about you on TV?
Loder: It could be a full-time job.
Lopez: Yeah. You just can't do that. I can't control the media, I can't control what people think - I can only let them see me when I speak on an interview and they get to see more who I am, my personality. Even then, they'll never get the full story. The only time it hurts is when your family's affected by it. They have friends who speak to them and go, "Oh, Jennifer did this and that!" And my mother's like, "No she didn't!" Or my grandmother will call me upset and then it sucks. But the only thing I can control is my work. That's what I focus on and that's what my life is.
