Jennifer Lopez Weighs in on Bad Bunny Super Bowl Controversy: ‘I Don’t Understand’

J.Lo, who performed with Bad Bunny at the Halftime Show six years ago, also opens up about why her latest film project — executive-produced by ex-husband Ben Affleck — was healing for her amid divorce.

Jennifer Lopez is so excited about the thought of her former Super Bowl Halftime Show stage companion Bad Bunny taking the lead spot as this year’s performer that she’s not hearing any of the controversy about his selection.

No, seriously. She hasn’t heard any of it.

When it was brought up as part of her Today show interview with Craig Melvin, she asked sincerely, “Is there controversy?”

“Oh, come on,” Melvin shot back, refusing to believe that she didn’t know about the massive conservative backlash — that’s made it all the way to the White House. And yet…

“I swear, I don’t know,” Lopez said sincerely. So Melvin somewhat clued her in, without pointing fingers or calling out some of the criticisms about his music being primarily in Spanish. That fact, though, Lopez things is one of his strongest selling points, as well as a testament to what makes him special.

“I’m super excited for people to see him who think that because I think they’ll be pleasantly surprised,” Lopez said. “His music transcends language. It’s amazing what he’s done. He did something that a lot of people have never done in their life, and I’m so excited for him. I was excited when he performed with us at the Super Bowl and I’m excited to see what he does. He puts on a great show, he’s an amazing entertainer.”

As for hitting the stage with him six years ago when they joined Shakira for her halftime show, Lopez called it “a cultural moment,” and shared her own enthusiasm that “he’s about to blow everybody’s mind” in the driver’s seat of this year’s entertainment.

She’s also hopeful that her own next project will do the same. As she continues her promotional tour for Kiss of the Spider Woman, Lopez said that she believes there is a reason the controversial 1976 book by Manuel Puig is having another moment.

There have previously been a 1983 stage play,1985 film adaptation and 1993 Broadway musical of the book that challenged contemporary audiences with its depiction of LGBTQ+ characters and issues in Argentina in the 1970s … which is certainly in the public consciousness in the hostile U.S. political climate of the 2020s.

A passion project for Lopez, she was gushing about the film’s message and how much it meant to her to explore its themes when Melvin again shocked her out of her reverie when he said, “In the middle of this, filming this elaborate beautiful musical, your divorce was also finalized with Ben.”

“There you go!” she shouted in laughter, turning to the crew. “Look at this guy.”

But there was a reason connected to her film that he was bringing it up, as Ben Affleck is listed as an executive producer. And as she’s said in many interviews before this one, Lopez reiterated, “If it wasn’t for Ben, the movie wouldn’t have got made, and I will always give him that credit. Things happen, you have to keep going.”

In a way, she said that the theme of the film, which is largely about “escapism” for its prison inmate lead. “It’s about how movies and art save us in the hardest times of our lives,” she explained. “And doing this project was such a dream come true for me that it really got me through to kind of survive a moment that was difficult in my personal life.”

Melvin also slipped in a quick quip about how maybe Lopez could lead a return of Spider Woman to Broadway. “Yeah, I could,” she replied carefully. “There’s been some talk, there’s been some talk about that.”

In an interview last month with CBS News Sunday Mornings, Lopez opens up more about how filming on this dream project helped her achieve some clarity about what was going on in her personal life, and went on to declare the divorce the “best thing that ever happened to me.”

You can read all about how she got there in the story below.