As the temperature outside starts to heat up, there’s no doubting many will start looking for shade. But I’m not too sure the kind of fun shade that some fans think Oscar-nominated actor Sterling K. Brown recently threw at Jennifer Lopez is the kind they’ll be grasping at anytime soon. I’ll explain.
During the press run for Lopez, Brown and “Barbie” star Simu Liu’s latest Netflix film “Atlas,” the trio of actors sat down with Unilad to answer a variety of questions. “Atlas” follows Atlas Shepherd (Lopez), a brilliant but misanthropic data analyst with a deep distrust of artificial intelligence, who joins a mission to capture a renegade robot with whom she shares a mysterious past. But when plans go awry, her only hope of saving the future of humanity from AI is to trust it.
When asked by Liu what their go-to comfort meal was after a long journey, J-Lo began her answer by prefacing with the fact that she’s Puerto Rican so she leans more towards rice and beans. However, her explanation must’ve been one that Brown had heard a thousand times before, as he commenced to throwing what many people online viewed as a subtle jab.
“Go-to comfort meal? It could be any — well, I grew up, I’m Puerto Rican. So I like rice and beans...” Lopez said, to which Brown interjected: “Are you Puerto Rican? Get out of here. Arroz, frijoles, a me gusta French toast.”
“Sterling K Brown & JLo gate has me weak, we did she do to him? but now i love him even more,” wrote one user on X/Twitter.
“Idk what JLo did to sterling brown but he is being so shady on this press tour lmao. like nice af and also shady af,” wrote another.
“Sterling K Brown telling J-Lo “You’re Puerto Rican? Get out of here!” Is the most unique way to tell somebody wrdgaf,” wrote another.
“I need to know what happened between Sterling K. Brown and JLo because he is not letting her breathe in this press tour,” wrote another.
Whether or not Brown’s shade was serious or silly, it looks like we may have an answer to why he poked fun at her after all. In another interview with Access Hollywood, Brown revealed that he was “big” Lopez fan back in the day and that it was her first music video on MTV that may have spawned a three-and-half years-long breakup between him and his then-girlfriend, now-wife Ryan Michelle Bathe.
Brown described how back when he and Bathe were dating, they decided to watch the premiere for Lopez’s first music video on MTV years ago. As the “American Fiction” star was watching, Bathe was watching him for his reaction, which was intentionally calm and still and without blinks. That in turn caused his eyes to water, prompting his wife to question: “are you crying over JLo?”
“I should’ve changed the channel,” Brown jokingly told the outlet. Needless to say, Bathe and Brown found their way back to each other eventually. So in a sense, because Lopez was unintentionally responsible for their breakup, maybe that’s why Brown is poking fun at her...to get back at her for the misery she unknowingly caused.
I mean, it’s plausible...right?