J.Lo Finally Talks About Marc Anthony On ‘The Tonight Show’

Jennifer Lopez dropped by ‘The Tonight Show with Jay Leno’ on Monday to promote the new UPN show ‘South Beach’ that she is executive producing. J.Lo also opened up about her reclusive husband Marc Anthony for the first time since their marriage, perhaps realizing her secretive marriage to the non-high profile singer hasn’t done wonders for her career. Read on for a rough transcript.

Jay: Welcome back, everybody. My first guest is one of the biggest movie and recording stars in the world. Also executive producing the new tv show for UPN, called “South Beach,” airs Wednesday nights at 8:00. Please welcome Jennifer Lopez.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Jay: Hey, thanks for coming.

Jennifer: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Jay: I haven’t seen you in awhile. How is your new year going so far? Is everything cool?

Jennifer: New year’s is good. Yeah, we’re off to a good start. We’re filming the movie. Yeah.

Jay: Did you take time off for the holidays?

Jennifer: Yeah, I did. Yeah.

Jay: Oh, cool. Well, there you go. You’re keeping it —

Jennifer: I was with my family in new york over the holidays for Christmas, and then new year’s we had a little party which was kind of funny.

Jay: Okay, what happened at the party?

Jennifer: It wasn’t like a big party or anything. It was a small party with a few friends and family and stuff. But I have this one friend who is, like, very religious and everything. Know what I mean? Some of my friends are just regular, you know. No, not regular — I mean, like, not so religious. She’s like really, really religious. Listen, wait —

Jay: Now, hold on. Can you dig yourself out of this?

Jennifer: Just semi.

Jay: Just semi. More religious than regular people.

Jennifer: But not all — the point is, we’re there and hanging out. And, you know, your friends — I don’t drink, but my friends do.

Jay: Right.

Jennifer: And sometimes when there’s drinking, you know, people get loose and whatever.

Jay: Sure. They start cursing and stuff like that. Right? So, my friend, who is very religious, is like, “you know, you guys. You shouldn’t curse so much.” You know?

[ Light laughter ] And we’re like — I said, “I think you’re in the wrong house. But right now, not the right place.” It was funny. Because then we started doing karaoke. Do you guys do karaoke at all?

[ Cheers and applause

Jay: Sure, yeah.

Jennifer: No, karaoke can be fun. Especially when other people are drinking.

[ Laughter ]

Jay: Yeah, exactly.

Jennifer: Nobody really wants to do karaoke at first, you know? But then once everybody starts, then everybody starts getting into it. And so, you know, after a few glasses of wine my one friend, who is really religious —

Jay: Religious.

Jennifer: Yeah. Just gets up and grabs — and she, like, goes from “don’t curse,” to getting up, grabbing the mic, and just dirty dancing.

Jay: Wow! She became regular!

Jennifer: Yeah.

>Jay: Wow!

[ Laughter ]

Jennifer: Grinding and humping the air.

Jay: Hump in the air, oh. Wow!

[ Laughter ]

Jennifer: It was so — but it was really funny. It was really entertaining for us.

Jay: Now, do you ever — did you ever drink at all?

Jennifer: No. I don’t really drink that — no, once in a while I’ll have something.

Jay: A little something?

Jennifer: Nothing much.

Jay: Don’t you ever just get loaded?

Jennifer: Never.

Jay: Really?

Jennifer: No, no. There was a big thing because I never smoked either, and now I hate to smoke for the last two movies I was in. So I had to learn how to smoke and everything. And that was, like, a big deal for me.

Jay: So how do you learn? They brink a smoking teacher in?

[ Laughter ]

Jennifer: No, you just have to start smoking. Don’t smoke regular cigarettes, either.

Jay: Oh, well, neither does Kev.

[ Laughter and applause]

Jennifer: No, that’s not what I meant.

Kevin: I’ll hook you up, Jen.

[ Laughter ]

Jennifer: No, I mean — I meant cigarettes that are, like, herbal. You know? They don’t have nicotine or anything like that in them. You know, ’cause of the — I didn’t want to get addicted or anything.

Jay: Oh, right. But you learn the habit of it. You learn how to do it and inhale the smoke.

Jay: Now, are you one of these or one of these?

Jennifer: These. This.

Jay: And who — did you play, like, an evil character?

Jennifer: I was — you know, my character — well, I did it for two movies. And in the one, she was kinda tough. She was a reporter from Chicago. So, it’s more like that type of smoking. And then the second character I played was just — she was a a wife of a salsa singer. So she was more like this smoker.

Jay: That kind of — yeah.

Jennifer: That type of — you know.

Jay: See, I like the Nazi. The evil —

[ Laughter ]

Jennifer: My husband smokes like that. He’s not a Nazi.

Jay: Does he smoke like that?

Jennifer: Yeah, but he’s not a Nazi.

Jay: And how is he doing? Okay?

Jennifer: He’s doing good.

Jay: We have to get him to quit smoking. That’s not good.

Jennifer: Forget it.

Jay: It’s not gonna happen.

Jennifer: No, I don’t think so.

Jay: Can you switch him t the herbal ones?

Jennifer: He hates — they stink, the

Jay: Well, maybe Kev can hook him up.

[ Laughter ]

Jennifer: With the other cigarettes? Right, right. He better not start that either.

Jay: Now, you’re executive producing.

Jennifer: Yes.

Jay: Is that fun? That seems like a pain in cf1 o the —

Jennifer: You know, it’s a lot of work.

Jay: It is, isn’t it?

Jennifer: Yeah, you just — it’s all the behind the scenes stuff. which is fun, too, you know.

Jay: You know, it seems to me — I like this. I do my thing. I go home and I leave you know what I’m saying? Problems.

Jay: Yeah, but you’re the last one to go home.

Jennifer: But the thing is, it is about creating something from the very beginning. And that is exciting.

Jay: And this is kind of a a new area for you, right? I have a production company we’ve been trying to get off the ground for a years now.

Jennifer: This is our first year. We did two movies and we had this television show and another show that was gonna be on — your smoking. Smoking. So now, I expanded that night a little bit. Y know what I mean? Now I watch the “Desperate Housewives” and the “Grey’s Anatomy,” too.

Jay: Oh, okay. Yeah!

[ Cheers and applause ] I don’t know if that’s this network. I’m sorry, but —

Jay: Are you a “Dancin’ with the stars” — do you watch that?

Jennifer: No, but I want to. I want to watch it.

Jay: Well, you know could you if you wanted to..

Jennifer: No, I can’t.

Jay: You know, you are you could do it if you wanted to.

Jennifer: No, I just always miss it last year it got so heated.

Jay: Now, does Marc watch

[ Light laughter ]

Jay: No, he doesn’t seem —

Jennifer: He’s a computer guy. On the freakin’ computer all the time. What’s he looking for on the computer? Any idea?

[ Laughter ]

Jennifer: No, he likes looking up art stuff.

Jay: Art stuff.

Jennifer: Yeah. No!

[ Laughter and applause ] Jay, real art stuff, like . Painting and —

Jay: We have to talk. He looks up painting.

Jennifer: No, he’s — he likes to paint.

Jay: Oh, baby girl, you got a long way to go, baby girl.

[ Laughter ] We’re going to have a little talk during the break. Be right back with Jennifer right after this.

[ Cheers and applause ] ..

Jennifer: Great.

Jay: That’s kind of cool. So how does this work? You want to be a producer. Do you come one the idea for the show? Do people come to you and go, we have a bunch of ideas?

Jennifer: Both, both happens. Sometimes you have an idea for a movie
or television show or something, and then I have people I work with who bring ideas or other people bring stuff to our company.

Jay: It’s called “south beach.” What’s it about?

Jennifer: It takes place, obviously, in Miami, in south beach, and it’s about that time in your life, a bunch of young kids, like, a couple years into college, like, in their early 20s, late teens, and about that time of your life where you really are making that choice what your life is going to be like, whether you choose the good path or bad path. And do I stay in school? Do I go for a career? Do I steal that car? Like all of those — no, really, all the choices that you make. It’s that crucial time. You remember that time.

Jay: I remember. Did you go through that time? Did you have a time when you said —

Jennifer: I guess. I guess I did. You really do. There’s a time when you know, you just, you’re going to do this or that and you have to choose the right thing.

Jay: Was there ever a time when you realized — I can remember being 9 years old and a bunch of kid were going to steal something. You know, like —

Jennifer: It happened early for you.

Jay: No, but I remember making a conscious decision. I remember it. One kid had a knife a pocket knife.

Jennifer: That’s right.

Jay: And a porno picture which I couldn’t figure out what he was looking at. I didn’t know what it was, but I pretended I did, and I remember going, “you know something, I’m going to go this way.” It was the defining moment.

Jennifer: It really is.

Jay: That kind of thing.

Jennifer: The show touches upon that, all these kids down there, all incredibly cute, and so —

Jay: All really cute.

Jennifer: They’re all really cute.

Jay: Have you been involved in the casting?

Jennifer: Very.

Jay: Did the guys come in and take their shirt off?

Jennifer: No, I don’t do that. We read and see if they’re good actors.

Jay: Have you ever made a a decision based on the cuteness of the guy?

Jennifer: It doesn’t hurt if they’re cute.

Jay: Ah-ha, you’re honest.

Jennifer: That’s not why we choose them. The lead guy, matt, in the show is an absolute cutie, but the greatest thing about him is that he’s a really, really great actor.

Jay: We have a clip. This guy is so handsome. This is Vanessa Williams trying to get him into bed. This guy is so handsome. Look at this clip.

Jennifer: Oh, that feels nice.

[ Laughter ]

[ Cheers and applause ]

Jennifer: That’s our Matty.

Jay: What about the women?

Jennifer: They really went nuts.

Jay: You’re working with your husband?

Jennifer: Yes, we’re doing a movie, “The Hector Leveaux story.” He was like Billie Holliday. He was a salsa singer, and there was a label called Phonia records, like our Motown, where all of the artists went to one label and one specific type of music, and the salsa sound was born with him and all famous Latin artists. And it was an interesting time, and this one singer, hector Leveaux, defined what that music was. He was the voice and the french means the voice. He recorded 20 albums while he was alive but died very young, very tragic story.

Jay: Does Marc play him?

Jennifer: Marc played hector and I play Pucci, his wife. He loves Pucci.

Jay: I can see.

Jennifer: She’s great.

Jay: Is it weird like you work all day, do you talk shop at home? Like, you do the thing and come home and talk about —

Jennifer: Yeah.

Jay: Is that good — Dr. Phil says you have to be careful.

Jennifer: No, no, we work really well together. Surprisingly so. Like he has his own trailer and I have mine. You think we’d be together all the time.

Jay: You don’t want to do that.

Jennifer: We have more space working on the movie than we do when we’re at home and stuff.

Jay: Really?

Jennifer: It was nice. And we’re both so busy. We both had a lot to do.

Jay: Are you both workaholics?

Jennifer: No, he is not. I am. That’s a compliment. I am the workaholic, which is not so great sometimes.

Jay: Because I saw him in “man on fire.”

Jennifer: Yes.

Jay: It sounds like an insult. He was so good. I know it was him.

Jennifer: A lot of people say that.

Jay: We got this new movie with Denzel called “man on fire.” I went to the screening I go, “man, that sleazy guy, he was good. Who was is that thank?” I know that guy. It was Marc.

Jennifer: He’s a very good actor, incredible singer and great actor.

Jay: He plays a great creepy guy. Is he sexier as a creepy, like, a bad guy or is he a good guy?

Jennifer: No, a little of both is not bad.

Jay: But you like the bad boy?

Jennifer: Every girl does.

Jay: Really?

Jennifer: Yes, don’t lie! Come on, girls, you know.

Jay: I know. Are you going to Puerto Rico right now?

Jennifer: Yes, tomorrow morning we leave for Puerto Rico, going to finish the movie. We have, like, eight more days.

Jay: I love Puerto Rico. It’s a beautiful place.

Jennifer: It is.

Jay: It’s funny it was raining here and a rainforest. You go like this and it’s not raining.

Jennifer: Beautiful sunshine and then rain.

Jay: I know you got to go. Thank you so much, Jennifer Lopez.