Jennifer Lopez: Outspoken Ant

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

September 30, 1998 / 9:45 AM EDT / CBS

You might say that for actress Jennifer Lopez, the next stop on the way to the top is on the ground floor, in the new animated movie called Antz. She'll also launch a singing career with her debut album this year, reports CBS 'This Morning' Co-Anchor Mark McEwen.

Lopez provided the voice of Azteca, a worker ant who can stop the sting in a can of Raid. "It's very different from acting on television or acting in film," Lopez says. "You're in the room with a microphone by yourself. There is no other actors there. Basically, they just give you your lines. It takes a lot of imagination."

Lopez first gained notice on the TV variety program In Living Color. She says that, at first, stardom brought her a lot of pressure, trying to follow her own successes. "But then," she adds, "I realize how lucky I am."

Lopez hasn't made a lot of friends in Hollywood. In a recent interview in Movie Line magazine, she criticized many of her peers, including:

Cameron Diaz: "A lucky model who's been given a lot of opportunities."
Winona Ryder: "I was never a big fan of hers."
Gwyneth Paltrow: "Tell me what she's been in. I don't remember anything she was in. Some people get hot by association."

Lopez calls those quotes "misconstrued statements," and says, "The people I love know who I am. They know that was a misrepresentation of my personality."