Every year, ELLE brings together the best and brightest women in Hollywood for one special night to honor the impact they’ve made in the industry and the work that still needs to be done. Read 2023 Women in Hollywood honoree Jennifer Lopez’s speech here.
Oh, my God. What a night. I’m gonna go off script, but I’m gonna come back to this. I feel so honored to be here. It is like a dream.
I echo every single sentiment that every single woman that is on the stage said. It is a very moving thing to be in a room full of powerful women who are championing each other and who are caring about one another and who are uplifting each other. It is just very, very moving.
So I wanna thank Nina for putting this night together, for doing this for so many years, and ELLE Magazine. Nina Garcia. You know, I’ve known you for so many years. We worked together for so many years and it was you, you know, who put me on covers in the beginning of my career and took chances on me and I appreciate you and I see what you’ve done and you think you are amazing. Thank you.
When I started out, again, I could look forward to playing the maid a lot of times, or the loud-mouth Latina. But I knew I wanted to be the leading lady. I was like, “I’m that girl! I’m that girl! I feel just like those women that I’ve watched the movie of. I can do this!” So, I'm gonna go back to my speech.
So this is kind of funny…because I was thinking about this on the way over here. So go with me on this for a second: I don’t have an Oscar, I don’t have a Golden Globe, I don’t have a Grammy, or a SAG award, or a BAFTA or a Critics Choice, or a Hollywood Film Award. I do a have a Palm Springs International Film Festival Spotlight Award. But this is my fifth “icon” award.
Of all the things that I thought I would grow up to be when I was a little girl, the last thing you know that was kind of on my list was ICON. I always look up the word “icon” every time this happens. The dictionary says “it’s a representative symbol, or someone or something that is worthy of veneration. So it’s about being venerated for things that you’ve accomplished,” which obviously I am very honored and flattered, and humbled by in this company. This award is also about being a representative symbol, in this case what is it is to be a woman in Hollywood. But when I think about that, and about the things that I spent my life doing and working at, it’s been so many different things.
You know, I started off as a dancer, and then started making movies, and then records and then creating my own brand somehow, and companies, and each step of the way and each transition, there seemed to be tremendous opposition—both literal, like physical, and emotional—to the idea that you could do many different things and be taken seriously.
The idea was that you were not as real a musician if you were also an actress, or you’re not a serious actor if you’re a dancer, or a legitimate business person or entrepreneur if you are an artist, but it went beyond that too: You couldn’t be good or credible at anything if you were sexy, and you couldn’t be sexy if you were a mom, and you couldn’t be intelligent if you were beautiful, and so on and so on. And you certainly couldn’t be any of those things if you were a lil Puerto Rican girl from the Bronx.
So it makes sense that I’m here being honored by ELLE magazine and other women in Hollywood, because you understand this struggle! You understand that the actual magic of being a woman is to be able to do many different things, and do them spectacularly, and quietly with our heads down day to day without complaining and most times with little appreciation and recognition.
That the things that women are usually criticized for and kept out of the rooms power because of, things like changing our minds like being emotional, being mercurial, and having our attention in several different places at once is actually our superpower and the essence of who we are. That is what it is to actually be a woman.
So as I stand here accepting this award in awe that this is my life. I echo the words from that lovely video we just saw: “Why cant we do all the things?!” I will always believe that we can, that all of you can, that I can.
Thank you for this honor thank you for seeing me, thank you for recognizing me as one of your own. I love you and I see you as well and appreciate every single one of your contributions not just to this industry, but to the whole entire world.
Thank you guys so much.
