Barbara Nitke/STXfilms

Hustlers is a film about a cunning group of women who decide to take on Wall Street on their own terms. It stars a stellar cast including Jennifer Lopez, Constance Wu, Cardi B, Lili Reinhart, Keke Palmer, Julia Stiles, and Lizzo. In the trailer, Jennifer Lopez’s character, Ramona, says:

“These Wall Street guys. You see what they did to this country? They stole from everybody. Hard-working people lost everything, and not one of these douche bags went to jail. The game is rigged, and it does not reward people who play by the rules.”

Hustlers is based on a fascinating article written by Jessica Pressler. Jessica writes candidly about the experiences of these women, particularly Samantha and Rosie (seemingly the inspiration for Jennifer Lopez’s and Constance Wu’s characters in the film).

The movie premieres on September 13th, so the cast is currently promoting the film. Here’s everything I learned from the Hustlers press junket.

Variety

Constance Wu did an interview with Variety where she described the heart of the film as the following:

“I think the heart of the movie is…the sisterhood of the girls and the friendship between Ramona (played by Jennifer Lopez) and my character, Destiny. A lot of people are like, ‘oh, this is a stripper movie,’ and I’m like, ‘no, it’s not.’ It’s a movie about people who have been strippers before, and I make that distinction because it’s about more than just their occupation. So often, we stop our judgement there and then make so many assumptions, but all these women are different.”

In a separate interview with PeopleTv, Lili Reinhart echoed Wu’s statement:

“I think it’s definitely going to surprise people. I think the trailer sort of presents itself like a party and it is, but there’s also so much more underneath that…you take away from it a lot more than you thought you would. It’s not just a stripper movie. You’re getting a story about friendship and about these women and about survival.

Getty Images

J.Lo, Constance Wu, Lili Reinhart, Keke Palmer, and Cardi B did an interview with Entertainment Tonight where J.Lo described the film as the following:

“It’s just a fun, sexy, kinda dangerous world. What I like to think of is some kind of a Robin Hood-esque journey where they’re stealing from the rich and to give to…themselves.”

The cast laughed then Constance Wu added that she loved the film because:

“Lorraine, our director…she made sure that there are women of all types, all shapes and sizes, all different backgrounds. And that’s what I love about it – because it’s really body positive in that sense.”

STXfilms

In an interview with Fandango All Access, J.Lo and director/writer, Lorene Scafaria, broke down the film. They spoke about the scene (pictured above) where J.Lo’s character teaches Constance Wu’s character how to pole dance. Jennifer describes the scene:

“The most important thing about the scene, and what we wanted to get was the friendship between them – that she became like a big sister to her. She was just starting out and taking her under her wing and kinda teaching her the ropes.”

Lorene agreed, and added the following about these two characters:

“They had such a great chemistry together. They have such a great rapport and really have this big sister/little sister relationship. This was a beautiful scene to play that out.”

STXfilms

In an interview with Jimmy Fallon, Constance Wu mentioned that Jennifer Lopez broke her nose on set while filming a fight scene:

“She’s trying to grab this phone out of my hand, and you know, we had a great choreographer. We had, like, a whole safety meeting and everything, and on the first take…the phone conked me right on the bridge of my nose. She felt so bad! She was like, ‘I’m so sorry,’ and I was like, ‘Girl, we got it! It’s totally good. Don’t worry about it.’ And then, she did it again.”

Popsugar

The cast of women did a joint interview with Buzzfeed. It was fun to see how these actresses interact with each other while playing a fun, harmless quiz. One question asked the women to describe what their friends would describe their energy as. The options included: charismatic, chaotic, sensual, romantic, confident, and cunning. Jennifer and Lili answered confident, Keke said charismatic, and Cardi said that she is “definitely chaotic.” Constance said:

“I’m going to pick romantic because I’ve done some dumb things for dick.”

Haha. The final Buzzfeed question was to “choose a male celeb to give a seductive lap dance to.” The options included: Drake, Charles Melton, Idris Elba, Shawn Mendes, Donald Glover, and The Jonas Brothers. J.Lo read “any Jonas Brother” out loud, and that is when Constance added, “Or all three at the same time.” J.Lo picked Shawn Mendes, Constance chose Donald, and Cardi made everyone laugh when she said, “I’m married. I ain’t picking nothing. Uh Uh. My husband’s gonna see this,” while Keke said that Idris could get it.

The film is already getting rave reviews from audiences and critics. It comes out in theaters in September 13th! Make sure you catch this movie while it’s in a theater near you.

Notes Worth Mentioning:

• For more fascinating interviews with the actual women that Hustlers is based on:

-The Hustlers 20/20 with ABC News – Part 1

-The Hustlers 20/20 with ABC News – Part 2

-The Hustlers 20/20 with ABC News – Part 3

-An Access interview with Roselyn Keo

• Jennifer Lopez posted a behind-the-scenes look into how she mastered her pole dancing skills for the film, claiming that pole dancing was one of the hardest things she’s ever had to learn. Coming from pop icon multi-talented artist J.Lo herself, that’s saying a lot.
• Scenes were filmed in an actual strip club in New York called the “Show Palace Gentlemen’s Club NYC.”