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Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu on pole dancing, stripping and hustlin’ on ‘Hustlers’
Los Angeles — Mind-blowing Versace finale starrer Jennifer Lopez and “Crazy Rich Asian” actress Constance Wu are working together for the very first time as conniving stripper-hustlers who con their rich clients from Wall Street in the movie “Hustlers.”
Directed by Lorene Scafaria, the crime drama, which is also co-produced by Jennifer, is based on the New York magazine 2015 article “The Hustlers at Scores” by Jessica Pressler.
Constance portrays Dorothy aka Destiny, a struggling single mom who befriends the more experienced stripper Ramona, played by Jennifer. Together with other strippers like Cardi B. as Diamond, Lili Reinhart as Annabelle, Keke Palmer as Mercedes and Lizzo as Liz, they drug their male customers in New York City who include CEOs and stock traders who visit their club.
Constance, 37, and Jennifer, 50, talk of their experiences visiting strip clubs, learning pole dancing, and other things while making the movie. Below are excerpts of our conversations with them:
Constance Wu
How did you prepare for the role, especially with pole dancing?
Yes, back and forth. I did private lessons. I did group lessons on the pole. I had a pole installed in the middle of my living room. It didn't go great with the decor but, you know, and then there are the shoes you have to walk around in.
They're like eight-inch shoes and I wanted to get used to them, so I'd walk around in my house in them just to like get used to them. But then I also did like out in the field research. I went to a lot of clubs. I became friends with a lot of the women who worked in clubs. I went out to dinner with them, got to know them as people, not just as their professions. And I think I made some new lifelong friends actually.
What and how did Cardi B teach you on lap dancing?
Well, I had a lot to learn and she was the best tutor. You know, she just taught me not to expend too much of my energy and that I don't have to do too much. I just have be myself, and if anyone knows about this world and how to be successful in it, Cardi has the history for it. So, we were so lucky to have her on the film and she was so fun. Don't you think she was fun in the movie? I mean like the best.
What kind of things did you learn from J. Lo when you worked with her in this movie?
Yeah, I really learned how to listen because I think she really listened to all the girls in terms of — not just what they said but listened to their behavior and how they were feeling and made sure that everybody felt really cared for on set.
I think that's why our set was such an amazingly positive sisterhood of a place. It's because she was our leader. She was running the show and she set a tone of love and support. So, I learned that from her.
I learned some dance moves from her for sure, and I learned that you don't need to be embarrassed of your power. Jennifer is somebody who knows how to own a stage. I mean you all saw that scene where she dances. She knows how to command a stage and that's a skill, especially a lot of women, you know, might become self-conscious doing that.
I think it's very brave and powerful that she did that and she taught me how to claim and own that as well which was a huge lesson for me.
What surprised you the most with the dancers you met during your research?
They're all really regular girls. What surprised me the most was the system behind the strip clubs. Like I didn't know that you had to tip out the DJ, the bartender, the house mother, the manager, the bouncer, the busboys. Then also you have to pay a club fee to even work there because you're independent contractors. And then if you want to go home early, you have to pay a penalty for the privilege of going home early.
Like if you're having a slow night, you have to pay it into the house. So, it's like you see these women who are making all this money, but a lot of it, they don't get to take home because they're having to tip out all these people. It's like doling out gratitude when they're the ones who are putting on the show.
Do you have specific examples of how the women bonded on the set?
One of the first weeks — this is how I knew Jen was really caring, so we were shooting this big scene in a mall and there were all these paparazzi around and trying to get shots of Jen and A-Rod (Alex Rodriguez) was there that day, so there was a lot of people there.
I'm used to acting in the theater, so I wasn't used to these paparazzi, so it was distracting my performance a little bit and I'm a little quiet on set and Jen was really caring. She came through, she was like, hey, what's wrong? And you know, I'm not an icon like she is, so I was like, I don't want to cause any trouble. So, I was like, oh nothing, no, don't worry about it. No, I'm fine. I'm fine.
And she held my hands, she was like, really what's wrong. And I was like, it's really distracting me, all these paparazzi when I'm trying to do this scene. And she goes, I got you baby. And then she turns around and says to the paparazzi, you guys got to go, we're doing a scene. And then the second she did that, they all scattered. It was like they were listening to the queen. And then she turned back to me and she was like, I got you babe. And it's just like those moments, small moments of caring. That's what build a sisterhood. And I just love Jen with all my heart. So that's one thing she did for me.
How much of a hustler are you?
Now we're talking, baby. Oh, I'm a hustler for sure. It manifests in like, I'm just obsessed, so I'm not a very disciplined person but I can become obsessed about something to the point of losing all sense of self-care.
Like if somehow I decided that I really wanted to know everything about this water bottle, I could be up until 4am reading every interview anybody has ever said about why they made this design for the water bottle, the history of the design of the water.
Once I have my mind fixated on something, it's fun for me to know everything I can about it. And that's part of why I love acting because it's such an evolution. Once you find a character you tap into and you love, you want to do right by them. You want to explore every facet, their joy, their sadness, their anger, their insecurities, their fears and there's nothing more rewarding than being able to do that.
Jennifer Lopez
In your research, you learned the motivation of the girls for stripping. What was your motivation for doing this film?
A movie like this reminds me of “Goodfellas” or “Boogie Nights,” where you delve into a world that’s like an underground sexy world but is also super dangerous. And we’ve never seen that from a woman’s point of view.
And when Lorene and I first talked about it, that’s what I said, I said this is how I see this, how do you see it? She goes, that’s exactly how I see it. And we were like eye-to-eye on that: This was going into the underground of what it’s like to, this is a whole culture, men do this all the time, women live this life, and nobody really knows what it’s like if you’re not living it yourself.
The same with the day-to-day of the Mafia with “Goodfellas” and you are like okay, so they are there, they are eating pasta and they are doing this, and then they are killing people. It’s just liked a crazy thing.
And so to me, to be a part of a movie like that, was like a dream come true, those were the type of movies that I’ve always wanted to make.
When we did “Out of Sight” and all the movies that I’ve done, that’s the goal: to be part of telling really interesting stories about humanity, about people, about different walks of life, and this for me again, the first time I’ve seen it, anything like this told from the woman’s side.
We’ve seen “Wolf of Wall Street,” we’ve seen the porn industry with “Boogie Nights,” you’ve seen all of that stuff. But you’ve never had an all-female cast right from the women’s point of view, with a women director, with women producers. It’s just not something that happens every day. And I was like, incredibly proud to be a part of that movement.
In so many ways, the public personal of you overlaps with this character, starting out as a dancer, taking charge of your career, taking care of other women.
I think with Ramona’s character and me, a lot of the good things about her are similar to some ways that I am. I am kind of maternal, I do like to take care of everybody on the set and make sure they are okay, especially when I am a producer.
But even when I am just an actor, I like to create that type of atmosphere. I know that I’m the senior person now on the set and what I do is going to trickle down. Also, Ramona’s ambition, Ramona’s power, Ramona’s, just being a single mom, all of those things were things that were very in line with what I do.
Now the darker side of her was something that I had to get into in a way, because I tried to live my life so good and by the book and doing the right things. But this was a character that was really unapologetic about what she was doing. And what she was doing was mean, illegal and hurting people.
And when I watched the film the first time, the first cut, I got sick to my stomach. I almost walked out and I was like why am I having such a violent reaction for? Because it was hard to see myself being that person, because it was so far literally from who I am. And I was like I can’t walk out.
If I walk out, everyone is going to wonder why I walked out, I was watching it with the other producers and the director and I knew they were there for me, for the screening. I was like I can’t walk out, I have to stay here through it. And I calmed down, but it was disturbing, that type of, that side of her to me, was disturbing.
But when I was playing it, I didn’t think twice about it. It was just like a singular focus of who she was and what she had to be, and it was very pimp like. With these women, she took them under her wing but then manipulated them and then kind of bullied them into staying there a tiny bit. So, there was a lot of fun things to play with her, and yes, I did understand the kind of gregarious, friendly parts of her, loving parts of her, nurturing parts of her were easy for me to tap into.
It seems that Ramona, your character, has figured men all out – who is good, who is bad, who to trust and who not to trust. What did you learn from this movie about men?
It makes you understand that, not that anybody isn’t, but that some are living a double life. They will go to these strip clubs and do these things and their wives will not know anything about it, their families, the people they work with, unless it’s going on at their work as well and they are all doing it together.
But you know, you can’t be so naïve. You have to understand that psychology of men a little bit. And it’s different from women. That’s what kind of occurred to me the most, like wow, there is a whole culture of people who really do this and men who live a double life and this is going on every day.
And this is wow, it was kind of eye opening. Not that I was that naïve that I didn’t know that, you know that to a certain extent, but then when you are really dabbling in it, you are really playing it, you really are examining it, you are like f*#!, this is real. — LA, GMA News
