Jennifer Lopez made a powerful new pledge after receiving a major honor!
On Wednesday, the Unstoppable starlet was honored with the Equity in Entertainment Award at The Hollywood Reporter‘s Women in Entertainment gala breakfast on Wednesday, presented by Lifetime.
Lopez grew emotional as she accepted the award, saying she was “so humbled” and unsure how to follow Kerry Washington’s powerful introduction. Washington, who received the Equity in Entertainment Award in 2023, passed the honor to Lopez this year.
“Thank you to The Hollywood Reporter for this Equity in Entertainment Award. I really am honored,” she began.
Lopez added, “When we talk about equity in entertainment, I, like so many others in this room, speak from experience.
The Mother star reflected on her early career, saying she often felt like an “underdog” boxed in by stereotypes before she had a chance to prove herself.
As a young Puerto Rican woman from the Bronx, she said, she wasn’t expected to be in the room—“let alone the center of it.”
She noted, “I was told in 100 different ways what roles people like me were expected to play, and I played some of those roles. I saw how stereotypes try to box me in before I even had the chance to show what I could really do. And then Selena came along.”
Lopez noted that Selena was a “film that changed the course of my career,” while thanking “trailblazers like Chita Rivera, Rita Moreno, Dolores Del Rio, Katie Huvado — Latina women who opened doors long before I ever dreamed of this career.”
She concluded her long speech thanking THR and vowed to continue to “keep pushing, keep imagining, keep insisting on a world where everyone gets to take up space. Let’s keep telling stories like Kiss of the Spider Woman that liberate people long before the world realizes how desperately it needs them.”
To note, the Equity in Entertainment Award honors those who amplify the voices of underrepresented communities in the entertainment industry.
