Jennifer Lopez went into full-circle gratitude mode while accepting the Generation Award on Sunday’s telecast at the MTV Movie & TV Awards.
The multi-hyphenate star — a globally recognized singer, actor, producer, dancer, designer and beauty mogul — was also sure to thank those who lied to her and those who broke her heart. She said they all made her grow into the superstar she’s become.
“Since you cannot create truth unless you really lived it, I have a different kind of list of thank yous tonight,” said Lopez, 52, onstage at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica. “I want to thank all the people who gave me this life. I want to thank the people who gave me joy and the ones who broke my heart. The ones who were true and the ones who lied to me.”
“I want to thank true love and I want to thank the way I lied to myself — because that’s how I knew I could grow. I want to thank disappointment and failure for teaching me to be strong and my children for teaching me to love,” she said as the audience cheered and she began tearing up. The “Marry Me” star shares 14-year-old twins Emme and Max with singer and ex-husband Marc Anthony. She’s currently engaged — for a second time — to Oscar winner Ben Affleck.
“I want to thank all the people who told me, to my face or when I wasn’t in the room, that I couldn’t do this. I really don’t think I could have done it without you. I know I couldn’t have done it without the fans who saw the movies… You are the reason that I’m here, and I’ve been here, and I love you,” she added.
The award celebrates beloved actors whose diverse contributions to both film and television have turned them into household names, according to MTV. The “Love Don’t Cost a Thing” and “On the Floor” singer won the MTV Video Vanguard Award in 2018.
The Grammy-nominated Jenny from the Block has come a long way from her early days as a Fly Girl dancer on “In Living Color” to starring in the 1997 biopic “Selena” and beloved rom-coms “Maid in Manhattan,” “The Wedding Planner” and, more recently, the films “Hustlers” and “Marry Me.” Her colorful resume also includes starring in NBC’s “Shades of Blue,” a judging stint on “American Idol” and being a tabloid fixture for her love life and iconic fashion choices.
Touching on her films in her speech, Lopez said, “You’re only as good as the people that you work with, and if you’re lucky they make you better. And I have been very lucky in that regard. As an actor, I am not any of the women that I played, but there is a part of what is deeply true to me in each of those characters.”
She also thanked her longtime “ride or die” manager Benny Medina for being the one person “who believed in me from the very beginning… and he never let me stop believing in myself.”
Lopez will next appear in the documentary “Halftime,” which chronicles her 2020 Super Bowl Halftime performance with Shakira. The film debuts at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 8 and begins streaming on Netflix on June 14.