Jennifer Lopez's Team Said “American Idol ”Would Make Her 'Just a Reality Star.' Why She Trusted Her 'Gut' and Did It Anyway

Lopez was a judge on the show on seasons 10-11 and 13-15

Becoming a judge on American Idol was a risky move for Jennifer Lopez — but her intuition drove her to do it.

In conversation with Nikki Glaser for Interview Magazine released Wednesday, Oct. 9, Lopez opened up about her decision-making process behind joining the singing competition show as a judge.

"I’ll do things that could be risky because I believe that they’re going to turn out OK," Lopez, 55, said. "I’d done all these big movies and made these albums and now they’re asking me to do reality TV. I’ve had kids and I haven’t worked for a couple of years."

She continued, "American Idol was a big show at the time. It really comes down to, what do I think I can bring to something? When all of my advisors were like, 'Don’t do this, you’re going to be reduced to just a reality star.'"

Related: Jennifer Lopez Admits It Was 'Scary' to Be on Her Own This Summer but Learned She's 'Capable of Joy All by Myself'

At the time, the idea was "looked down upon" — and her team warned her "nobody will ever hire you for a movie ever again." Still, she didn't budge.

"I was just like, 'No. I don’t think that’s what’s going to happen. I think I have something to contribute,'" she wrote. "I love music and I love mentoring people, and I wanted to share the things that I knew about the business. So it became more about, 'What do I think I can do with this?'"

Moving forward, the "On the Floor" singer has trusted her gut with every business decision — and it paid off.

"When I’m choosing things, even if they seem like not the best idea to everybody else, if I feel it in my gut that it’s the right thing to do, nobody can talk me out of it. It’s the same thing when I went to Vegas," Lopez said of her residency, which kicked off in 2016. "They were like, 'That’s where entertainers go to die.' And I was like, 'No.' And it launched me into a whole new part of my life."

Lopez joined the American Idol judges panel on season 10 and stayed for two back-to-back seasons. She then took a hiatus and returned to the show for three more seasons to share her music knowledge with the contestants.

Related: Jennifer Lopez Gets Emotional at 'American Idol' Finale

In 2020, Lopez spoke to PEOPLE and Entertainment Weekly's editorial director about her exit.

She had been under the spotlight for decades at that point and she felt that "people knew who I was, like they could feel my heart." Joining the show made her realize "they really didn't."

“They saw, ‘Oh, she’s a person, she loves music, she’s super emotional, she cares,’ [and] it made me more human to them," she said at the time.

She added, "Being a part of Idol and that being a part of my legacy, being on one of the greatest television shows ever, all of it feels like such a blessing."

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