Director Jason Bergh’s creative bond with global superstar Jennifer Lopez is going on six years now. The two previously collaborated on Halftime for Netflix, Lopez’s 2021 inauguration appearance, and much more. But Bergh, an Emmy Award winner and a 2019 NAACP Image Award nominated director, producer, and photographer, said he’s never seen Lopez like the one audiences will experience in The Greatest Love Story Never Told.
“When I started working with her, I saw a lot of the vulnerability. And I had always hoped that we would get to a point like this, you know, six years later, where she’s really kind of opening up because she’s an amazing human being,” Bergh shared. “I’ve learned so much from her. I’m inspired by her… She brings everyone up around her.”
Bergh was granted an all-access look into how Lopez boldly decided to spend $20 million to self-finance a three-part multimedia project that includes her upcoming album This Is Me… Now, and the musical companion film This is Me… Now: A Love Story, which quickly soared up the Prime Video charts earlier this month. At first glance, you might think The Greatest Love Story Never Told tracks Lopez’s attention-grabbing relationship with husband Ben Affleck. It’s more than that. It is a compelling exploration of Lopez’s 20-year journey to love and accept herself.
Self-esteem, psychology, and spirituality are vibrant costars in this intimate and empowering doc, which offers unflinching access to Lopez’s most personal moments as she strives to reclaim her own narrative through the making of This Is Me… Now. Interviews with her inner circle and candid home moments enliven the story — and yes, there’s plenty of Bennifer here. In excerpts from this exclusive MovieWeb interview, Jason Bergh unpacks working with Lopez, inspirations he drew from Oscar-winning director Ben Affleck, how he and A-list guest star Fat Joe go way back, much more. Read on and check out the video interview above.
Something Different in Jennifer Lopez
“I’ve been married four times now. I used to be terrified of being alone,” muses Jennifer Lopez in The Greatest Love Story Never Told. “I didn’t know what else to do by myself. I’ve decided to tell my story that I’ve never shared with anybody in the world.” She goes on:
I’m sure people watching from the outside were like, ‘What is this girl’s problem?’ What I portrayed to the world was, ‘Oh, this didn’t work out and it’s fine and I’m good and they’re good.’ And all of that was kind of bullsh*t.
That’s been tossed aside in this revealing look at the global icon, who has sold 80 million records, generated more than $1 billion at the box office, and whose Instagram feed is at 254 million followers and climbing. Beyond the glitz, director Jason Bergh said he noticed something was “just different” while working with Lopez on The Greatest Love Story Never Told:
“It felt different from the beginning. It felt different while we were filming it — just watching her kind of go through all of the different points of This Is Me Now… seeing the emotion as she’s going through… multiple different scenes and different kinds of feelings. Watching her go through that, for me, as a documentary storyteller… that was amazing to just be able to kind of have that look into her.”
On His Strong Bond With Lopez
One of the first times Bergh worked with Jennifer Lopez was when the singer was performing in Las Vegas. He knew of Lopez, of course, but as a New York native, he held a special fondness for the J.Lo the world came to know. “She was rehearsing and I just I said to myself, ‘Okay I got to do my job and I can’t be nervous. I can’t let her see any of that,’” Bergh said of his first collaboration with Lopez. He added:
“So, I literally went right up on the stage, and I had the camera there… I let her know my presence was there, but I also let her know that there’s space, and I’m not going to be up in her face and I want to be unnoticed… the fly on the wall. I want to be the observer of the human condition. And I wanted her to understand and know that off the bat — that I’m there to kind of shadow her story and not be in front of it.”
That fly-on-the-wall component shines through in The Greatest Love Story Never Told. “If you notice, a lot of the angles that I shoot are never really quite in front of her,” he added. “They’re always kind of off to the side or over the shoulder or through something. So, you’re giving the viewer… somewhat of a peek into her so they feel that they’re there. And I think from that point on, I think she knew that I wasn’t just there to be in her face and get my shots. It wasn’t about my shots. It was about her story.”
Jason Bergh’s Backstory
Jason Bergh was the son of a respected journalist and cinematographer. He’s long been fascinated by the intersection of sports, music, and culture, beginning his career documenting New York City street culture until he moved to Los Angeles in 2002 and started working with Interscope Records, chronicling many of their artists on the road via documentaries, directing live concerts, and creating the first ever live music series for Sprint on their mobile devices. Opportunities in brand advertising followed in collaborations with Jaguar, Pepsi, Beats by Dre, Samsung, Liza Koshy, LYFT, Disney, Red Bull, Public Enemy, and others. Of capturing people’s stories, he said:
“I think you just have to be subtle with how you document people, especially of that nature. They have cameras around them all the time and you just want them to feel comfortable… and it becomes a dance between the camera and between the subject, especially her [Lopez]. A lot of times working with her, the camera actually kind of takes over… and you’re moving with her. There are a lot of times where I’m tracking back or I’m following from the side. So, I think it’s just the respect for her space, really, and she knows that. I respect her space.”
Inspiration and Trust From Ben Affleck
Oscar-winner Ben Affleck’s (Good Will Hunting, Argo) Artists Equity production company, which he runs with Matt Damon, is behind The Greatest Love Story Never Told. The doc features intimate personal moments between Lopez and Affleck, with Affleck offering candid insights about his famous spouse. “Do you forgive me fully?” he asks Lopez at one point, referring back to their infamous 2004 breakup. We’ll let that sit there. (You’ll just have to tune in.)
“No, it wasn’t daunting,” Bergh said when asked if it was daunting to have Ben Affleck aboard the project. “I remember seeing the show Project Greenlight and just saying to myself, ‘How do I get an opportunity like that? How could I ever find that?’ I was documenting street culture in New York. You just didn’t ever feel like that was possible, and to have… his studio be the producers of this film was really an honor.” He elaborated:
“He’s been such an amazing support for filmmakers and for people. And so, what he brought to the table was just allowing me to really go and do my thing. He trusted me. I think he probably pulled a little bit of trust that Jen had from all these years and understood that I’m a good person and that I’m here for them. He really let me go and make the movie… you can only learn from someone like him.”
On Cameos by Fat Joe, Jenifer Lewis, and Jane Fonda
Guest stars abound in This Is Me… Now. Jennifer Lopez corralled Monster-in-Law costar and Grace and Frankie star Jane Fonda, and popular rapper Fat Joe, with whom she collaborated on in the singles And Hold You Down and Feelin’ So Good. (Fat Joe plays a therapist opposite J.Lo’s “Artist” character in This is Me… Now). Other cameos include: Trevor Noah, Kim Petras, Post Malone, Keke Palmer, Derek Hough, Sofía Vergara, Jenifer Lewis, Jay Shetty, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and guru Sadhguru.
“The Fat Joe of it all was really, for me, being from New York, and growing up on Fat Joe, Big Pantera Squad, and that whole kind of era… that was a moment of, ‘wow,’ and what he brought to the table also, inside the film,” Bergh said. “I think he did an amazing job.”
Bergh worked with Fat Joe 20 years ago, noting:
I brought him up to Mount Snow, him and Big Pun, to go snowboarding. We used to do these festivals where we bring musicians up. So I showed him this picture from 20 years ago and it kind of blew both of us away. We were just like, ‘Oh wow, that was a long time ago, I remember that.’
He’s quick to note that all the guest stars, “brought something so great to the table,” but Jane Fonda and Broadway legend Jenifer Lewis, who also delivered powerful turns in Black-ish and I Love That For You, truly inspired:
“That was real [with Jenifer Lewis]. There’s no script there. There’s no, ‘Do this or do that.’ That’s who she is… some of us were a little intimidated, others were like, you know, laughing, but she’s wonderful. And Jane Fonda, for me… I don’t even know if there are words that can really describe how magnificent she is. When she was on set, it was more like you’re kind of taking it in and asking yourself like, ‘Is this real? Is Jane Fonda really here?’ The banter that her and Jennifer had was so sweet and so special. I remember looking at the monitors and just saying, ‘Oh, this is definitely making it into the film. This is this moment..’ Every cameo was special.”
As for the biggest misconception about Jennifer Lopez, Bergh was candid:
I just know Jennifer Lopez, what I’ve experienced with her. I don’t know what misconceptions are. I mean, I do. But what you see is what you get. She is just absolutely driven… I have never had a bad day with Jen in six years. And that’s the truth.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
