Hustlers, a film by Anapurana Pictures and distributed by STX, is already generating Oscar buzz after its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival 2019. Jennifer Lopez's performance has especially caught critics' attention in the movie which centres over a gang of strippers. But getting the film made was harder than one would assume.
The 50-year-old actress along with writer and director of Hustler, Lorene Scafaria recently spoke to Variety at TIFF 2019 about the Stripper movie. During Lorene's comments on the difficult process of making a movie about women doing "questionable things", J Lo interrupted to outright say it is just hard to get a movie made if its "about women – period." She added:
"I do. And when you have women characters at the front of it, it's a whole another battle," said J Lo. "And you go, 'Yeah it's all starring women. There's really no male characters in it.'"
Going by J Lo's words, it seems like the film's theme wasn't the problem in getting Hustlers greenlit and made but just the fact that it would be an all-woman starring movie. But perhaps, the success of movies of this fashion could lead to a paradigm shift in the industry and help filmmakers produce more woman-centric movies.
2019 is surely a big year for female-led films thanks to successful titles like Captain Marvel. But that didn't come without a hurdle as the movie faced attacks and fake negative reviews due to a controversial comment made by star Brie Larson. However, a box office earning of over $1 billion made up for it.
Earlier this September, Warner Bros. also released an all-woman stacked title, The Kitchen which opened to a warm reception. Others such titles like Charlie's Angels and Birds of Prey are set for near-future releases and perhaps, their performance at the box office could help in changing this perspective in the industry.
Directed by Lorene Scafaria, starring Constance Wu, J Lo, Julia Stiles, Keke Palmer, Lili Reinhart, Lizzo and Cardi B Hustlers releases worldwide on September 12.
