Jennifer Lopez Wouldn’t Let SNL Do An Impression Of Her For A Bizarre Reason
Jennifer Lopez shot down Melissa Villaseñor's SNL impression idea because her favorite color is green, not blue.
Jennifer Lopez shut down former Saturday Night Live cast member Melissa Villaseñor’s impression of her because the comedian did not know her favorite color. In a recent interview with the AV Club, Melissa Villaseñor revealed that she had pitched Jennifer Lopez on doing an impression (Villaseñor’s specialty as a performer) and that she had used an example in which she (as J.Lo) had said “my favorite color’s blue.” At that point, according to the SNL performer, Jennifer Lopez stopped her and said “Baby, my favorite color is green. Everyone knows that.”
It seems that was that for the proposed Jennifer Lopez sketch. Most likely, this was intended to be for the December 7, 2019 episode of Saturday Night Live which the singer-dancer-actor- hosted, as Melissa Villaseñor had been a featured player at the since. Since then, Villaseñor has left SNL for mental health reasons, which makes sense, given the legendary pressure of the long-running NBC sketch show and definitely given the frequently commented rigors of coming up with new material every week that exactly caters to the whims of very famous and powerful people in the entertainment industry.
Still, it is pretty funny that Jennifer Lopez apparently thinks the entire world is aware that her favorite color is green. To be fair, some of her most famous looks have been green, including the iconic Versace dress that she wore to the 42nd Grammy Awards in 2000 and that immediately became imitated the world over. There are A-list celebrities and then there are people so famous that even a dress they wore once has its own Wikipedia page.
It is also interesting that Jennifer Lopez also seems to think that getting her favorite color wrong would be so shocking to Saturday Night Live viewers that it would break the suspension of disbelief immediately. Of course, it may simply be that Jennifer Lopez was not interested in anyone performing an impression of her and shot it down at the first opportunity, which is presumably the prerogative of the host of the night.
Jennifer Lopez was hosting Saturday Night Live in part to promote her newest film at the time, the crime thriller Hustlers, which also starred Constance Wu, Julia Stiles, Lili Reinhart, Lizzo, and Cardi B. The film was a financial success and critically well-reviewed, but was also considered something of a latter-day breakout for Jennifer Lopez herself. It became her most acclaimed dramatic performance in years, though it seems she is still a bit miffed at not having received an Academy Award nomination for it.
Still, it is not like Jennifer Lopez really needed it. She has starred in everything from romantic comedies to science fiction serial killer movies to the one with the big snake, in addition to a mega-successful music career and status as a Latina cultural icon. Just keep it in mind, any impressionists out there: if you are going to imitate Jennifer Lopez, be sure to do your research first.
