Jennifer Lopez reveals that she pᴀssed on 2002’s Unfaithful, a decision that she still regrets today. Directed by Adrian Lyne, the erotic thriller follows a couple in the New York suburbs whose marriage turns dangerous after the wife engages in an adulterous affair.

“Adrian Lyne offered me Unfaithful,” Lopez confirms on The Howard Stern Show. After Stern asked the star why she turned the movie down, Lopez says that “The script wasn’t good.” Though Lopez wasn’t impressed by the script, which was written by Alvin Sargent and William Broyles Jr., she admits that Lyne still “made it great.”

Unfaithful ultimately starred Richard Gere and Diane Lane, and the latter ended up earning a nomination for Best Actress at the Oscars. Stern asks whether Lane’s Oscar nomination makes Lopez’s decision to turn the film down one that is hard to live with, and the star admits that it is. Check out her comment below:

“It’s funny. It haunts me. It haunts me a little bit. It’s like the one that I turned down that it was just like, ‘Why did you turn down working with Adrian Lyne? What were you thinking?’ I didn’t even know what the hell was going on in my mind at the time. Who knows what was going on with me at the time.”

Lane’s nomination marked the only Oscars recognition for Unfaithful, and the actress ended up losing to Nicole Kidman for her role in The Hours (2002). Unfaithful was a hit with audiences, though, grossing $119 million worldwide. On Rotten Tomatoes, the project has a mixed 51% critics’ score but a better Popcornmeter score at 68%.

Around the time of Unfaithful‘s release, Lopez was starring in films like The Wedding Planner (2001), Angel Eyes (2001), Enough (2002), and Maid in Manhattan (2002). Also in 2002, Lopez starred opposite Ben Affleck in Gigli, which remains one of the biggest box office bombs of either star’s career.

Lopez has not yet received any nominations or wins at the Academy Awards, but that could be about to change with Kiss of the Spider Woman, which hit theaters on October 10. Also starring Andor star Diego Luna, director Bill Condon’s musical drama has been met with a generally positive reception from critics, with Lopez’s bold supporting performance cited as a key highlight.

In her Kiss of the Spider Woman review for ScreenRant, Mae Abdulbaki awards the film a score of seven out of 10, praising the strong performances and musical numbers while bumping on certain story and tone elements. Of Lopez’s performance, Abdulbaki writes:

But while Luna is dependably good and Tonatiuh is a revelation, it’s Lopez who steals the show. She plays Luna playing Aurora and the Spider Woman, whose flashy final musical number is so good it got cheers at my Sundance screening. Lopez is everything Molina describes Ingrid to be: stunning, beguiling, confident, and thrilling. She exudes charisma and embraces the campy dialogue like a pro. This is Lopez’s moment and she gets just enough of the spotlight to shine without overshadowing Luna and Tonatiuh’s characters.

Kiss of the Spider Woman follows a mixed bag of films for Lopez, who recently appeared in Unstoppable (2024), which was generally well received, as well as the critical dud that was Atlas (2024). Before Atlas, she also led This Is Me… Now: A Love Story (2024), The Mother (2023), and SH๏τgun Wedding (2022).

Though Unfaithful may be a lingering regret for Lopez, she continues to find success with viewers with other projects, with The Mother emerging as a major viewership success on Netflix even if it wasn’t well-received critically. With Lopez potentially in line to earn some awards recognition for Kiss of the Spider Woman, it’s clear things have turned out just fine for the star.