I remember when aspiring for reality television would be something a celebrity faced scrutiny over. Oftentimes, people would associate the fake and the 'plastic' with their depictions of reality. Nowadays, people don't judge over whether or not you do reality TV or not. It bleeds into social media already, who cares really? It's just more content in the mill. However, some celebrities of the older guard still remember the scorn they experienced when working in reality TV. This is the case for Jennifer Lopez and her time on American Idol.
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Recently, Jennifer Lopez speaks with comedian Nikki Glaser in a conversation for Interview Magazine. There, she candidly recalls when taking a role as a judge on American Idol was still a risk. "I'll do things that could be risky because I believe that they're going to turn out OK. I'd done all these big movies and made these albums and now they're asking me to do reality TV," J-Lo says.
Jennifer Lopez Risks Career Suicide as American Idol Judge, According to Her Team at The Time
Additionally, Jennifer's team really didn't want her to take the judge role for American Idol. They fear at the time that it would permanently ravage her reputation. Consequently, she wouldn't get the same opportunities within Hollywood with reality TV under her belt. ""'Don't do that or nobody will ever hire you for a movie ever again,'" she recalls, "And I was just like, 'No. I don't think that's what's going to happen. I think I have something to contribute.'"
Regardless, J-Lo takes the chance and stays on board as judge from 2011 to 2016. Ultimately, she explains how she follows her gut on these sorts of decisions. Even if you don't agree, she'll follow her intuition if it feels right. At the end of the day, she felt it was a no brainer. "I love music and I love mentoring people, and I wanted to share the things that I knew about the business. So it became more about, 'What do I think I can do with this?' When I'm choosing things, even if they seem like not the best idea to everybody else, if I feel it in my gut that it's the right thing to do, nobody can talk me out of it," Lopez explains.
