Jennifer Lopez, one of the unofficial queens of the rom-com, is back with her latest addition to the genre, this time with a healthy dose of action mixed in.
Lopez and Josh Duhamel star in Shotgun Wedding, which follows the two as they gather their families for a destination wedding. But the ceremony gets put on hold when gunmen take everyone hostage. The couple must then set out to save their loved ones, which features a starry supporting cast including Jennifer Coolidge, Lenny Kravitz, D’Arcy Carden and Cheech Marin.
Lopez was drawn to the script, which she was sent after she had “just signed on to do Marry Me and was about to do it and was like, ‘Ah, I don’t want to do another wedding movie,’” she told The Hollywood Reporter at the film’s Los Angles premiere on Wednesday. “I remember, I was in my tub and was like, ‘Let me read this script they sent over. They keep asking me to read it.’ And then I read it and I was like, ‘Oh this is funny, this could be good; depending on who directed this, it could be really good.’ And then when we got [director] Jason Moore I was like, ‘OK, this is gonna be fun,’ and we got this amazing cast.”
Duhamel (who replaced Armie Hammer in the film after the actor exited amid his 2021 controversies) has known Lopez for years and “knew that it wasn’t going to be difficult for us to connect in a way that was realistic on film, because if we weren’t able to do that the movie wasn’t going to work and we talked about that,” he explained. “We talked about trusting each other and no matter what; I’ve got your back and you’ve got mine so go for it, don’t be afraid to do something silly.”
Coolidge plays Duhamel’s mother in the film, which he jokes “makes no sense” as she’s 11 years older than him, but called her “one of my favorites for a very long time. We had a blast working together — she’s very much an observer, she sits back and she’s dirty, she’s filthy and she’s hilarious. And you never know what she’s going to do on camera, by the way.”
The cast was, unsurprisingly, full of Coolidge stories, as Carden recalled how they were in the Dominican Republic shooting for months and the actress was proud to arrive with just a single suitcase.
Coolidge, however, showed up with seven full-size suitcases, as Carden teased, “White Lotus come to life,” with “at least one luggage full of silk kimonos.”
“She would come down to breakfast and I was like, ‘Note to self, you’re allowed to do this D’Arcy. You can wear a feathered silk robe and lean into your Coolidge,’” Carden joked. “That’s my advice for 2023: Lean into your Coolidge. Wear the silk robe.”
The film is also packed with stunts, featuring helicopters, boats and zip-lines (the latter of which was recreated on Hollywood Boulevard for guests to ride down the carpet), which Duhamel said was the highlight for him.
“Part of what I love about getting to make movies is the action stuff and getting to do some of these stunts,” he continued. “It’s a dream of mine, so for me, I never felt like any of them were too crazy. The more they let me do the better.”
Producer Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, Lopez’s partner in their Nuyorican Productions, said her craziest day, though, was when Lopez was doing a stunt where her dress gets caught in a Jeep and drags her along, but after the shot “the dress didn’t release. And we all sort of stood there for a second and Jennifer was like, ‘It’s not…!’ It was a moment.”
Because Lopez and Duhamel are playing a regular couple thrown into these big action moments, instead of professionals, director Moore said his approach was “let’s make it look like a big James Bond movie but the people at the center of it aren’t cops or CIA agents or Marvel stars, so let them learn how to figure out their power, and how do they work together as a couple.”
He continued, “Jennifer and Josh knew each other, they’ve known each other for a long time, so they embraced that and found a way to break things down in a way that they were getting closer as the movie was going on.”
Shotgun Wedding starts streaming on Amazon Prime Video Jan. 27.
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