For Us’ sake, Jennifer Lopez and Ralph Fiennes should never stop meeting in hotels.
The duo had a Maid in Manhattan reunion on Saturday, January 4, at the Parker Palm Springs for the Variety Creative Impact Awards, where Lopez, 55, was honored with the Legend and Groundbreakers Award. The pair posed for photos together after Fiennes, 62, presented his former costar with the honor while sharing a touching speech about her career.
Recounting his experience with the Unstoppable star on the 2002 rom-com in a video shared via Lopez’s Instagram, Fiennes said, “Once upon a time in another life and perhaps in a different epoch of movie storylines, there was this Republican senatorial candidate mooching about in a hotel in Manhattan, and there was as well in this same other life a maid in this hotel.”
He continued: “This wannabe Republican senator was struck by her good looks, but he couldn’t quite truly see her. This maid was masking something in her demure and mindful way. She was sweet and charming, but actually, she was concealing something. She was hiding a kind of superpower. Behind this maid’s mask, there was indeed a force, a force of creativity, a force of action, something so powerful which just couldn’t stop. An unstoppable force was coming out of this humble and unassuming maid in the hotel, and this maid, in fact, possessed extraordinary wings that unfolded, and off she flew.”
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Fiennes, who has also been lauded this year for his role in 2024’s Conclave, pivoted to Lopez in real life — calling her “inspiring.”
“But in this life, in this story, she has already been flying with determination from an early age, because I think she knows that she has something inside her which she must honor as she flies high,” Fiennes said. “She is honoring and fulfilling her extraordinary creative spirit, and sharing it, shining a light on the lives of so many people, inspiring them and brightening their days.”
Fiennes further celebrated Lopez’s singing, acting and dancing skills before praising her “spirit.”
“Her powerful energy just leaves the men [costars] sort of just left behind, and off she goes. She just blasts away,” he said before calling her an “unstoppable … goddess” and inviting her to the stage.
Lopez was brought to tears as she thanked Fiennes and quipped, “We really must stop meeting in hotels like this” — a line from their movie.
Lopez starred in a string of successful rom-coms in the 2000s, including Maid in Manhattan, The Wedding Planner and Monster-in-Law, all while pursuing her singing career.
While accepting her Variety award, Lopez said she didn’t “set out to break rules or ground or push boundaries or to challenge the status quo.”
“I set out to follow a burning passion against the advice of everyone around me,” she explained on Saturday. “How do you do what I wanted to do when your life circumstances, your race, or even your gender create an idea that it’s practically impossible to go from a tenement in the Bronx to starring in Hollywood movies? It’s just too preposterous to fathom. You just don’t belong. Because, of course, the life you’re born into literally maps out of defines your trajectory. I guess, for me, it was simple: it was just not listening.”
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Lopez thanked Fiennes in an Instagram post after the awards ceremony, sharing, “I cannot thank you enough Ralph Fiennes for your beautiful words and for our little Maid in Manhattan reunion today. It was wonderful to see you. You brought tears to my eyes. (That’s why I was sniffling through my whole speech LOL) I love you. Thank you so much…working with you was one of the great highlights of my career so far. I say so far because I hope I get to do it again someday soon for Maid in Manhattan 2…You never know…
.”
Wicked star Cynthia Erivo and Emilia Pérez director Jacques Audiard were also honored at the annual event as well as 10 “directors to watch,” including Zoë Kravitz for Blink Twice, Halina Reijn for Babygirl and Malcolm Washington for The Piano Lesson.
