Jennifer Lopez announced her new album in 2022, but she’s apparently been gathering material for more than 20 years — and now she’s synthesized it all into a full-blown visual experience.
Lopez’s ninth studio LP, This Is Me … Now, is the spiritual sequel to 2002’s This Is Me … Then, which she released at the height of her first romance with Ben Affleck. Their engagement soon imploded and they each married other people, but in 2021, they rekindled their relationship. One year later, they got hitched in Las Vegas.
This Is Me … Now: A Love Story is Lopez’s highly stylized exploration of what happened in the years between their breakup and reconciliation. It’s not strictly autobiographical, but there are plenty of clear references to Lopez’s real life in the plight of her character, The Artist, who crashes in and out of relationships while searching for the missing puzzle piece.
“There’s parts of it that feel kind of very autobiographical, and then there’s parts of it that are kind of meta,” Lopez explained in a press conference earlier this month. “Not exactly what happened, but also the feeling of that is what happened. … That mix of it being personal but also being able to be fantastical, surreal, magical, is what I think makes it really kind of moving, entertaining and at the same time, super real.”
As she told listeners in 2001, Lopez is nothing if not real, and This Is Me … Now: A Love Story is as real as it can be when there’s a council of anthropomorphized zodiac signs pulling the strings from the sky as The Artist dreams about working in a heart factory. If you’ve ever read a single word about Lopez’s relationship history, for example, then you’ll spend much of the film wondering just what’s real and what’s fiction.
Keep reading as Us Weekly breaks down all of the references to Lopez’s real life in This Is Me … Now: A Love Story:
The Artist’s Love Addiction
The entire premise of This Is Me … Now: A Love Story is that The Artist, like Lopez, loves being in love. For The Artist, this means risking it all for every man who feels like he could be The One, even as her friends try to stage an intervention when she starts to lose herself in her relationships.
While Lopez herself may not be “addicted” to love, she’s never been shy about the fact that she’s a hopeless romantic. In 2022, she said that’s the reason she decided to legally take Affleck’s last name after they got married. “I can understand that people have their feelings about it, and that’s OK too. But if you want to know how I feel about it, I just feel like it’s romantic,” she told Vogue. “It still carries tradition and romance to me, and maybe I’m just that kind of girl.”
The Multiple Marriages
Like Lopez, The Artist has been married several times. After her split from New Guy, The Artist cycles through three husbands in the span of the song “Can’t Get Enough,” and at the end of the film, she’s ready to settle down with someone else.
If fans know anything about Lopez’s personal life, it’s that she’s always willing to give marriage a shot. Lopez’s first husband was Ojani Noa, to whom she was married from 1997 to 1998. She then moved on with Cris Judd, whom she married in 2001. They split in 2002, and she sparked a romance with Affleck that same year. After Lopez and Affleck called off their engagement in early 2004, she wed Marc Anthony, and they separated in 2011. Lopez was then engaged to Alex Rodriguez. Following their 2021 split, she rekindled her romance with Affleck, and they tied the knot in 2022.
Lopez’s catalog of husbands once made her the butt of late-night jokes, but she now seems comfortable with poking fun at her relationship history. See also: the 2022 rom-com Marry Me, in which she plays Kat Valdez, a world-famous pop star who’s been married three times.
The Guy With the Gun
The Artist’s friends decide to stage an intervention after she starts dating a much younger man who shocks the group when a gun falls out his pants. This guy isn’t identified by name or zodiac sign, but he could be a reference to two of Lopez’s past lovers. From 2011 to 2016, she dated Casper Smart, who is nearly 20 years her junior. She also famously dated Sean “Diddy” Combs, who was arrested and charged with weapons violations after a December 1999 shooting in a nightclub where he and Lopez were partying. Diddy was ultimately found not guilty on all charges, but he and Lopez broke up in 2001.
The Vegas Wedding
There’s no Las Vegas wedding in the film, but a song called “Midnight Trip to Vegas” soundtracks a scene where The Artist realizes she might be ready to find love again after learning to love herself. The lyrics seem like a clear reference to Lopez and Affleck’s wedding, which took place in Las Vegas in July 2022, nearly 20 years after they ended their first engagement.
“We’re drowning in orchid arrangements / Dresses and pastries / What if it’s raining, yeah? / Is this what we’ve been dreaming of?” Lopez sings in the first verse. “It’s crowded with families and agents / Room reservations, which destination / Paps, helicopters, event of the ages / Caught in the matrix.”
As Bennifer fans may recall, the power couple called off their original September 2003 nuptials due to “excessive media attention.” When they finally tied the knot, their nuptials looked a lot like the ones described in the song. They kept it “simple” — and Affleck even changed in the bathroom at the Little White Chapel.
Her Hummingbird Thing
The Artist is obsessed with hummingbirds, and so is Lopez. “To me, hummingbirds are messengers of love,” Lopez explained in a December 2022 edition of her On the JLo newsletter. “They’re very agile — can fly forward, backward, and up and down. They’re also the fastest bird but they always have time to stop, eat something sweet and smell the roses. I identify with them, but more than anything, whenever I see one, I feel like it’s a sign from God that everything is going to be OK.”
In the movie, The Artist realizes that everything will work out soon after she sees a hummingbird. She also has a tattoo of the animal on her neck.
Inner Child Work
The Artist quite literally heals her inner child in the movie by hugging Young Jenny (Bella Gagliano) until both versions of the character are finally whole again. Lopez has previously talked about the importance of healing your inner child — and has also explored the concept onscreen. She enlisted daughter Emme to play a younger version of herself in the 2018 music video for “Limitless,” which includes lyrics about learning how to “win at a war” she had already won. “The minute you’re born a woman, we know it’s an uphill battle. You’re fighting the elements,” Lopez explained in a behind-the-scenes clip. “Emme really is representing that inner child. She’s not a separate character from me.”
The Zodiac of It All
It would be a lie to say Us Weekly did not try to read way too much into the numerous zodiac references throughout the film. The Artist’s abusive New Guy in the early part of the movie is a Libra, prompting The Artist to rail against Libras during one of her therapy sessions with Fat Joe (yes, Fat Joe). This scene immediately reminded Us of that time Glee alum Heather Morris claimed Lopez hates Virgos so much she won’t work with them, which in turn had Us looking up the zodiac signs of every man Lopez has ever dated. While she does have a Virgo in her past (ex-husband Anthony), there is not a Libra to be found in her public dating history. If anything, The Artist’s Libra vendetta feels like a sly nod to Morris’ (unconfirmed) claim that Lopez has an issue with Virgos.
And for the record, there’s no Virgo slander in This Is Me … Now: A Love Story. Not only is Virgo represented on The Artist’s zodiac love council, but there were several real Virgos involved in the project, including Keke Palmer (Scorpio), Jay Shetty (Aries), Kim Petras (Virgo), Jenifer Lewis (Gemini) and Trevor Jackson (Husband 3).
If there’s any astrological sign Lopez has a problem with, it must be Aquarius or Capricorn, as neither one was represented on the love council. Us understands — Capricorns are such know-it-alls.
(And if you’re wondering: Noa is a Gemini, Diddy is a Scorpio, Smart is an Aries and Judd, Rodriguez, Affleck and Lopez herself are all Leos.)
Mr. Lopez
Lopez’s husband, Affleck, stars in the movie as Rex Stone, a cable news blowhard who appears in the background of several scenes, but the credits confirm that he’s also the motorcycle driver early in the film. The Biker and The Artist are together at the beginning of the movie, but it’s their breakup — depicted as a literal crash-and-burn — that propels The Artist on her journey of self-discovery. When she heals her inner child and learns how to love without losing herself, she finds romance with a man whose face is partly obscured but who clearly has the jawline of Affleck. Both The Artist and Lopez have found lasting love after a journey of twists, turns and underrated cop procedurals. Time is a flat circle, and Bennifer is here to stay.
This Is Me … Now: A Love Story debuts on Prime Video Friday, February 16.
