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Best known as the movie that ignited real-life sparks between Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, "Gigli" tells the story of mob underling (Affleck) who gets in over his head on an assignment before receiving assistance from a sexy female enforcer (Lopez), whom he quickly falls for. MTV News correspondent Nick Zano sat down with the pair to find out just what attracted them to this hard-to-pronounce romantic comedy.
[Editor's note: Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez were posed the same questions separately, and their answers were combined for this piece.]
Nick Zano: So what attracted you to "Gigli"?
Jennifer Lopez: I think for me it was really reading the script and seeing that the writing was really clever and smart and funny. And there were these interesting situations with complex characters. You know, it was one of those scripts that you're like, "Oh there's something here for me to play. This is a challenging character."
Ben Affleck: I like the fact that this was a guy who was trying to be a tough guy, trying to be really hard and always trying to lay down the law, and always being wrong, always getting humiliated. ... I thought it would be fun to play humiliating himself, you know, like [the scene where I'm] flexing in front of the mirror, the whole thing. It was very liberating in that sense. Also I liked it because ... like, I've done some high-content movies, or FX movies, or, you know, very kind of traditional movies, and to me that kind of affords me the opportunity to do a movie like this, which is really a character-driven comedy. "Midnight Run" is my favorite comedy of all time, and ... the same director (Martin Brest) did this movie, so I knew right away the kind of comedy and the sense of humor we would share.
Zano: The flexing in the mirror, you know you've done that before. Every guy who's seen that scene went like, "Eh, that's funny."
Affleck: Exactly. You know, you really can tell something about people if you saw everybody alone in their mirror and what face they put on. You know, how they try to act in the mirror, what kind of personalities they try to work out, you really could know anything about them.
Zano: Jennifer, you play a really tough girl in this movie.
Lopez: She's kinda tough. I think some of my Bronx upbringing kinda helped with that, you know. You kinda have to be a little bit tough — street smart, anyway — when you grow up in the Bronx.
Zano: Ben, do you think Jennifer's character could kick your character's ass in the film?
Affleck: I think that's what we're supposed to take from it, and I don't think he has ever met a woman that he really believed could kick his ass before. He meets her and it's totally threatening to him, you know? And one of the cool thing is how it plays with the whole gender-role thing — like, he thinks he's supposed to be the guy, and this is how it's gonna be. She basically says to him, literally and metaphorically, "OK, I'll try being with you, but you know, I'm gonna be on top. I'm gonna be in charge, I'm going to be the man, and you're going to be my bitch." And it totally messes with his head and he can't figure it out. And it was really fun again to play one of these guys who's trying to be so, "This is how it is, I lay down the law," and then he runs into this woman that he wants so much. It's one of those things, like, what would you do? You know what I mean? If you could sleep with so-and-so, what humiliation would you go through?
Zano: She did the whole Jedi mind trick, man.
Affleck: She did, she worked such the Jedi mind trick on me. She was like, "These aren't the droids you're looking for. You're my bitch."
Zano: All right, you talk about types in the movie. Tell me what Ben Affleck's type of girl is. What's your type?
Affleck: My type is definitely a woman who is independent, secure, confident. It's got to be about respect, you know what I mean? I think attraction and respect — that is the one thing that people overlook a lot of the time, but it's really the same thing. If you really respect somebody, you really look up to them, they don't have to be the hottest this or the most that, but if you really admire and respect them, I think that's the kind of thing that doesn't go away. You see a lot of guys, like these old rich guys who end up with these little bimbo girls or whatever, knowing they'll get bored and so it drives them crazy, 'cause after the looks thing wears off, and it always does, you're left with somebody who you think is an idiot, and that just kills it. You have to respect a person.
Zano: What's the J. Lo type?
Lopez: I like, um, tall ... smart ... funny. Cute don't hurt. (laughing) That's about it.
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Photo: Columbia Pictures
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