J.Lo, Matthew McConaughey are still in love 20 years after The Wedding Planner
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Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey's 20-year Wedding Planner reunion feels more divine than the taste of brown M&Ms and the smell of sweet red plums and grilled cheese sandwiches.
The superstar duo came together Tuesday on Instagram to celebrate their iconic Adam Shankman-directed rom-com's two-decade anniversary, sharing adorable memories from the set while savoring the nostalgia of Hollywood's romantic comedy renaissance at the turn of the millennium.
"It still feels a little bit like it was yesterday when we were in the middle of that field with the movie theater doing that scene where you were about to kiss me," Lopez told McConaughey, referencing a key scene that sees her no-nonsense Mary swept up in the arms of McConaughey's charming doctor, Steve, whom she falls for while planning his wedding.
Lopez then recalled that McConaughey gently whispered "'Miss Lopez, I'm going to kiss you now!'" in her ear just before they shot the pivotal scene, which got her properly in the mood before the cameras rolled. McConaughey said Lopez's intense preparation and preparedness made her an ideal scene partner. "As an actress, besides that you love to get in there and do the dirty work and hard work.... you had things down," the Oscar-winning actor remembered. "You love choreography in your [music] and acting as well. I love your deliberation and intentionality and preparation with stuff like that."
While discussing the film's pop-cultural impact — the Jan. 26, 2001 release coincided with the debut of Lopez's J.Lo album, making her the first artist to have a No. 1 movie and album simultaneously — Lopez and McConaughey said they miss the escapist fantasy studio romantic comedies once provided, as they're an increasing rarity on the mainstream scene.
"You're very aware that you're doing something that will bring happiness [that will make people] dream a little bit about true love and finding that. That's everybody's quest and search in life is to find your place, where you belong, and these movies definitely do that," Lopez said. "I think people got away from wanting to have that for some reason because they wanted things to be real.... how dirty can we make it. How hardcore can it be? Once life gets hardcore like it did this past year, it gets really tough, and reality really hits you.... you kind of crave that again, and that is one of the joys of being able to reminisce on this movie today and hope that we have some more like that."
Speaking to EW in 2019, Wedding Planner writer Mike Ellis revealed details for a planned trilogy and accompanying television series that never got off the ground, which would follow Mary as she turned into a bridezilla ahead of her wedding to Steve.
"We'd also batted around the idea that, during the planning of the wedding, Mary found out she's pregnant…. Which would lead to the third movie: Mary planning her daughter's wedding!" Ellis said, adding that the central couple would've separated before the third film's timeline, but the act of planning their child's wedding would bring them back together. "The idea of what she'd want for her daughter and what her daughter wants would come into play, and whatever her journey was in the second movie, in the third movie she'd learn a lesson and try to teach her daughter what she's learned and probably try to talk her out of the grand spectacle of it all because it doesn't mean anything. What's important is the person you're going to be with, and she'd try to teach her daughter that lesson."
Watch Lopez and McConaughey reflect on 20 years of The Wedding Planner above.
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