Jennifer Lopez delivered a powerful speech while accepting the Generation Award at the 2022 MTV Movie & TV Awards on Sunday.
The actress and singer, 52, was honored with the award that “celebrates beloved actors whose diverse contributions to both film and television have turned them into household names.”
During her acceptance speech, Lopez acknowledged how much her roles have meant to her and the impact of those who have helped her — or attempted to hold her back — along the way.
Reflecting on her previous roles, she said: “I look at those movies and I see all the wonderful people that I’ve been blessed to know and to work with. You’re only as good as the people that you work with, and if you’re lucky, they may make you better. And I have been very lucky in that regard.”
“As an actor, I’m not any of the women that I’ve played, but there is a part of what is deeply true to me in each one of those characters,” she continued.
“I want to thank all the people who gave me this life,” she said. “I want to thank the people who gave me joy and the ones who broke my heart. The ones who were true and the ones who lied to me. I want to thank true love and I want to thank the way that I lied to myself because that’s how I knew that I had to grow.”
“I want to thank disappointment and failure for teaching me to be strong and my children for teaching me to love,” she continued. “I want to thank all the people who told me, to my face or when I wasn’t in the room, that I couldn’t do this. I really don’t think I could have done it without you.”
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