Jennifer Lopez has privately considered walking away from acting after a run of box-office disappointments, a crisis of confidence that has her worrying about her legacy, a source close to the star said.
A person close to the 56-year-old singer and actress told The Sun that Lopez spent recent months thinking hard about how her career has been going, and that disappointment and bad reviews have hit both her confidence and her desire to keep pouring energy into acting roles.
The source said she has asked herself whether she should give up on acting and put her focus on producing movies or TV and on her music instead. No public retirement announcement has been made.
That is a sharp turn for a performer described as staying at the top of her game in singing, acting, and dancing for more than three decades. The private doubts, if accurate, track a stretch of projects that failed to deliver at the box office.
During the summer, Lopez met with family and close friends to talk through projects she is working on and the impact recent movies and acting roles have had on her career and her confidence, the source said.
"She is going through moments where she is doubting how to bounce back after making so many movies that haven’t worked in the last few years."
The same account said she knows audiences now see her as an actress tied to movies that flop, and that the label is weighing on her mindset. There have been moments, the source added, when she wanted to call it quits on acting.
Kiss of the Spider Woman, a musical adaptation released last year and produced by her ex-husband Ben Affleck, was described as a box-office bomb, grossing $1.8 million against a $30 million budget. Lopez had also self-funded This Is Me... Now: A Love Story as a $20 million passion project. Atlas landed as a high-concept Netflix sci-fi epic.
Those numbers sit far from earlier hits tied to her name. Maid in Manhattan was thought to have made $174 million worldwide in 2002. Her voice work in DreamWorks’ Home in 2015 helped that film reach $386 million worldwide.
The source close to Lopez said she also believes some actors may not want to work with her after so many recent misses. She does not want to be seen as a “curse” or a “bad influence” on movie projects.
"She is scared that people will remember her legacy as someone who had more movies that failed or were badly received than movies that were successful and had an impact."
Age and reputation are part of the calculation, according to the same account. She is getting older and does not want to waste energy and standing on work that could drag down her other projects, including in music.
"It’s all very tough to deal with, and she just wants what’s best for her, even if she has to call it quits on her acting career."
Music still offered a bright spot this year. Her dance collaboration with David Guetta, “Save Me Tonight,” hit number one on Billboard’s Dance chart, proof the recording side of her brand has not gone quiet even as the film ledger darkened.
Lopez and Affleck, 54, split for a second time in April 2024. Earlier this month, Affleck still defended her work in a Variety interview, including around awards snubs tied to Kiss of the Spider Woman and Hustlers.
“I’m biased,” Affleck said. He added that he has “an enormous amount of respect and admiration for what she can do,” and argued that commercial success does not always match his taste in a “weird, subjective business.”
He went further on the awards circuit itself: he does not always think the right person won, and he does not believe anyone faces a final judgment in which God names the actual best picture of 1986. “At the end of the day, it’s just a bunch of people voting on movie prizes,” he said.
His praise does not erase the receipts the source described, flops, harsh reviews, and a star openly questioning whether more acting roles are worth the cost to her confidence and her brand.
Hollywood will always sell reinvention. Taxpayers and ticket buyers do not owe anyone a legacy bailout when the movies stop working.
