JENNIFER LOPEZ HAS just released her first studio album in 10 years, and she is being characteristically extra about it. To commemorate the release of This Is Me… Now (a direct callback to her 2002 record This Is Me… Then), Lopez has written and starred in a feature-length musical fantasy movie entitled This Is Me… Now: A Love Story.
A narrative visual album in the vein of Beyoncé’s Lemonade, This Is Me… Now is a genre-hopping, tone-shifting, at-times incredibly meta exploration of Lopez’s high profile personal life, which once again became a subject of much public scrutiny following her recent remarriage to Ben Affleck.
Lopez pulled out all the stops on This Is Me… Now, and called on a whole bunch of her most famous friends to make cameo appearances in the movie, most notably in the form of the “Zodiacal Council,” a cosmic Greek chorus inspired by the twelve star signs—and played by a truly eclectic, elaborately dressed bunch of celebrities.
Who are the Zodiac Council in This Is Me… Now?
The first of the Zodiacs to speak, and perhaps the most enduringly famous of the twelve special guest stars, is Jane Fonda as Sagittarius, who bemoans Lopez’s dating choices. Fonda and Lopez have been friends ever since they worked together on the 2005 romantic comedy Monster-in-Law.
Rapper-turned-actor Post Malone plays Leo, and appears to be channeling his own rockstar persona while portraying the famously flirty Leo behavior. This continues Malone’s foray into acting, after an uncredited voice cameo in Sony’s animated SpiderVerse movies and an appearance in Spenser Confidential. He also has a role in the upcoming Road House remake with Jake Gyllenhaal.
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Sofia Vergara, who has received acclaim for her recent performance in Netflix’s cartel drama Griselda, plays an easily-distracted Cancer, while singer and actress Jenifer Lewis pulls double duty as the twin sign Gemini. TV host Trevor Noah is Libra, pop star Kim Petras plays Virgo, and actress Keke Palmer breaks out a spot-on Maya Angelou impersonation as Scorpio.
The Zodiacal Council is rounded out by three figures from outside of the entertainment industry. Author, podcast host and self-help coach Jay Shetty is Aries, scientist Neil DeGrasse Tyson is Taurus, and yogi and mystic-to-the-stars Sadhguru is Pisces.
The segments of This Is Me… Now which feature the council squabbling with each other in space while commenting on Lopez’s earthbound adventures have received a mixed reception online, with some viewers enjoying this addition of even more wacky mystical elements, and others finding it cringeworthy, pointing out how each celebrity’s parts were filmed in isolation and green-screened together.
Lopez has explained her reasons for including this celestial peanut gallery in the movie, as well as the thinking that went into selecting each performer for the Zodiac Council sequence.
“This represents all the people who comment on your personal life,” she said. “You have your girlfriends who are talking about you. You have your coworkers, your family, all of that. With me, you add the media on top of that. I always had a Greek chorus commenting on my life, so I said, we need to show this hopeless romantic that there are always people watching.”
She added that director Dave Meyers was the one who came up with the “surrealistic” idea of making these commentators represent the Zodiac, but that she hand-picked each celebrity. “I love all those people, but I wanted people who have a certain philosophy about love and life that resonates with me, people that I feel would understand what I’m trying to do here. Everybody was picked and curated for that reason.”
Philip Ellis
Philip Ellis is News Editor at Men’s Health, covering fitness, pop culture, sex and relationships, and LGBTQ+ issues. His work has appeared in GQ, Teen Vogue, Man Repeller and MTV, and he is the author of Love & Other Scams.
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