Jennifer Lopez 'Really Started to Think' She'd Get 'Hustlers' Oscar Nomination: 'I Got My Hopes Up'

Jennifer Lopez was disappointed after being snubbed by the Oscars.

The actress received high praise for her performance in the 2019 movie Hustlers, portraying a real-life exotic dancer who targeted and schemed Wall Street clientele out of money. Directed by Lorene Scafaria, the film also starred Constance Wu, Julia Stiles, Keke Palmer, Cardi B and Lili Reinhart.

Despite getting major accolades during that year's awards season — including nominations at the Golden Globes, SAG Awards and Independent Spirit Awards — Lopez, 52, was left out of the Best Supporting Actress category at the 2020 Academy Awards.

In her new Netflix documentary Halftime, Lopez reads a September 2019 article from Glamour on her phone in bed about positive reviews for her performance, and cries about the line, "Frankly, it's thrilling to see a criminally underrated performer get her due from prestige film outlets."

The nominees that year were Kathy Bates for Richard Jewell, Scarlett Johansson for Jojo Rabbit, Florence Pugh for Little Women, Margot Robbie for Bombshell and, the eventual winner, Laura Dern for Marriage Story. Hustlers got zero nominations.

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Lopez said in the documentary that she had difficulty sleeping the night before the nominations were announced, and she told herself, "It's gonna happen, we're gonna be good."

While asleep that night, "I dreamt that it happened," she said. But when she woke up and saw a text from someone and realized it didn't happen, "I was like, 'Oh, s---.' "

In voiceover, Lopez said, "The truth is, I really started to think I was gonna get nominated. I got my hopes up because so many people were telling me I would be. And then it didn't happen."

"I had to ask myself, 'What does that mean?' I do this not for an award or do my hits up there and seem like I'm the best performer in the world," said Lopez. "No, I do this to tell stories and to effect change and to connect with people and make them feel things because I wanna feel something. That's why I do it. Because I actually wanna make the world a better place in my own little way."

She added, "At the end of the day, when somebody meets you they don't go, 'Oh my God, you have 12 Grammys!' They don't say that. They go, 'Oh my God, that song you wrote made me feel and got me through. When I saw you onstage, I realized I could be there too.' "

Lopez said she's going to "keep working," despite the snub: "And I'm gonna be unafraid to get loud and use my voice in the best way that I can."

The actress previously spoke about the Oscars disappointment back in 2020, calling it a "bit of a letdown" and saying, "I got so many good notices — more than ever in my career."

She added at the time during Oprah Winfrey's 2020 Vision: Your Life In Focus Tour, "Most of my team has been with me for years. I think they had a lot of hopes on that. They wanted it too, and I felt like I let everybody down a little bit."

"I needed to go through the Oscar snub, the Super Bowl being, you know, what it is — all of the things that I went through in the last year," she added at the time, noting that after being rewarded and let down, she realized, " 'Oh my God, I don't need that. I'm actually here and I am okay and I am enough. I don't need this award right here to tell me I'm enough. I don't need it.' "

Halftime is now streaming on Netflix.