JLo Admits She Nearly Turned to Stripping

Jennifer Lopez knows how to play a stripper—her role in Hustlers scored her a Golden Globe nomination—and now, she admits, she nearly became one. "There was a moment in my life when my friends, who were also dancers, told me about making thousands of dollars at clubs in New Jersey. They said, 'You won’t need to be topless,'" the actor/singer/producer tells W Magazine. "It sounded awfully good when I was broke and eating pizza every day. But I never did it." She also admits she "was a little nervous" about doing Hustlers, which she co-produced, because she "had never played someone this dark or complicated."

"I liked that Ramona, the character I play, and the other strippers were looked at as equals to their patrons, the guys on Wall Street," she goes on. "Ramona reminded me of that girlfriend we all have who is exciting but can also get you into trouble. You always miss that friend when she's gone, but when you get together, you worry you might find yourself in some crazy situation. That's Ramona." And as she tells USA Today, she wants to make more movies about women: "Doing this movie was a big deal for me," she says. "One of the things I want to do at my production company with my partner (Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas) is to take the women from the background and put them at the forefront and tell their stories." (More Jennifer Lopez stories.)