Fans convinced Jennifer Lopez's co-star in $100m film 'really doesn't like her' (2024)

Jennifer Lopez has been grabbing a lot of headlines recently thanks to her new $100million Netflix movie, as well as intense speculation around her marriage to husband Ben Affleck.

However, lately fans have been distracted online specifically by one of the 54-year-old’s co-stars in the film Atlas.

J-Lo leads the cast in the action sci-fi – which has managed to defy its awful reviews to capture a huge 28million views in its first three days on the streaming platform – alongside Marvel and Barbie actor Simu Liu and 2024 Oscar nominee Sterling K. Brown, as well as British stalwart Mark Strong.

Lopez, Brown and Liu have recently been doing a pretty packed press schedule as a threesome, giving group interviews, and during a few of these fans have become obsessed by the idea that Brown, 48, is ‘shading’ his co-star.

In clips from last week that have been going viral, people have been eating up the idea that This Is Us star Brown is quietly mocking chart-topper and actress Lopez when she’s right there in the room with him.

One filmed interview with Unilad showed Lopez and Sterling being asked by co-star Liu about their go-to comfort meal, with Lopez responding: ‘I grew up – I’m Puerto Rican. So I like rice and beans…’

Sterling then interrupts in a high-pitched voice, exclaiming: ‘Are you Puerto Rican? Get outta here! Arroz con pollo, frijoles, ahh me gusta…’

The thing that has sold many a fan on this being evidence of Brown not being thrilled by his co-star is a completely deadpan look he seemingly throws to the camera immediately after his ‘get outta here’.

True, it could very possibly be a general moment of him letting his overall boredom for the press tour shine through – the actors were hitting the promotional trail hard – but fans have been loving the expression (or lack thereof), already turning it into a meme.

‘If I send you this photo, just know I’m TIRED of your s**t,’ posted @MediumSizeMeech on X alongside a screengrab, with @OliviaMesser bringing out an Office reference and responding: ‘She’s Michael Scott and he’s doing the Jim Halpert face to literally every camera in sight.’

‘I have watched this video a million times. I love Sterling K. Brown so much. He is pure gold. Xoxo,’ praised Blake Daniel.

Others on TikTok noted the ‘odd tension’ between Lopez and Brown, while @duch*esszoe0 commented: ‘Sterling being messy and I’m here for it.’

Another clip that got fans’ chins wagging was footage of Lopez, Brown and Liu on the red carpet at Atlas’s Hollywood premiere, where Brown and Liu showed off their Spanish-speaking skills in front of Lopez and the press.

Shang-Chi actor Liu suddenly switches to Spanish to answer a question, leading Brown to pretend shout at him for the surprise move (also in Spanish), while J-Lo jokes to the reporter: ‘He speaks better Spanish than I do!’

She then adds, in an honest moment: ‘I’m always being shamed for my Spanish, all the time. They make me so panicked to speak in Spanish!’

Later the clip shows Brown helping out Lopez when she struggles to find the right word in Spanish, much to the reporter’s amazement, before interjecting with the odd comment.

Now this clip is likely just an actor flexing and showing off their language skills because they can – and fair enough – but it was another that fans were running with online, alleging it was evidence of Brown being pretty over Lopez.

‘Someone needs to please end all our misery and tell us what J-Lo did to Sterling K. Brown,’ quipped @urbanmdernism as she shared the clip on X.

‘Cringe,’ observed one fan of the interaction, while @canering added: ‘Omg they both showed her up. Feels deliberate. Embarrassing for her.’

‘Sterling!!! Love me some him such a great actor [sic],’ tweeted @ViVenomVixen.

Further fuel was also added to the fire the next day, fans insisted, when Brown wasn’t at the Mexico City red carpet, leaving press duties to Lopez, Liu and director Brad Peyton.

Others aren’t so convinced by the theory that Brown isn’t a fan of Lopez though, with @MollyVegas asking: ‘They all seem to get along well. What am I missing? Genuinely asking because I haven’t seen anything but friendly interviews every time someone posts things like this.’

Alongside the theory that Brown might just be trying to keep himself entertained during the press activities for the film, where actors can often be asked the same question over and over again, there is also the possibility that all three get on and are just having fun gently ribbing one another.

Another explanation could also be that this so-called ‘beef’ blowing up on the internet is actually perfectly timed to distract from the rumours running rampant over the state of Lopez’s relationship with husband Affleck, who she married in 2002 after an initial broken engagement in the early noughties.

He hasn’t been seen supporting his wife while she promotes Atlas, as he has often done with previous films like rom-com Marry Me.

There were also shock claims earlier this month that their marriage was on the rocks because the 51-year-old Batman actor allegedly felt as though he was ‘temporarily insane’over the last few years in his relationship with Lopez, according to PageSix.

Lopez was later directly asked about these reports during press for Atlas, which saw Liu leap in to say, ‘Okay we’re not doing that’ before Lopez leaned forward to coldly chastise the unidentified press member, adding: ‘You know better than that.’

Whatever the truth behind Lopez’s relationship with Brown – or Affleck for that matter – Atlas has certainly seized the public’s attention one way or another.

Metro.co.uk has contacted reps for Jennifer Lopez and Sterling K. Brown for comment.

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