Jennifer Lopez said it 'hurts' to be an 'underdog' in Hollywood: 'I always feel like I was scrapping from the bottom'

• Jennifer Lopez is a triple threat in Hollywood, but said she's felt like an "underdog."
• "There is a club that I just wasn't a part of," the actor, singer, and dancer said.

Jennifer Lopez may be a successful pop star in the US and Latin markets, an accomplished dancer, and an actor in iconic rom-coms and critically-acclaimed movies alike, but she feels she still has to fight for respect in Hollywood.

"I think I'm an underdog. I always feel like I was scrapping from the bottom. Always," Lopez recently told Rolling Stone. " I always felt like I wasn't the one that was supposed to be in the room."

The "Marry Me" star added that her attitude towards success might have something to do with her ethnicity and upbringing. "That's part of being Puerto Rican and from the Bronx and a woman," she said.

According to Lopez, the fact that her family wasn't wealthy and didn't have connections in the business before she got famous gave her the determination she needed to become successful in the entertainment business. "I just went out there and said, 'Fuck it. I'm going to just try. I'm going to try to get in here,'" Lopez said.

The mother of two has "made it" in Hollywood by most people's definition of the term, but she's very aware that she hasn't received the same level of critical recognition as her peers. She's released nine studio albums, including the "Marry Me" soundtrack, throughout her over 20-year music career, which got her two Grammy nominations and no wins.

For her acting, she's earned two Golden Globe nominations and no Oscar nominations, despite widespread acclaim for her performance in the 2019 film "Hustlers."

Lopez previously told Oprah Winfrey in a March 2020 interview that her Oscars snub that year was a "little bit of a letdown."

"I was a little sad because there was a lot of buildup to it," Lopez said at the time, explaining that she'd read numerous articles suggesting her Oscar nomination was a given, only to be disappointed.

She's also felt a sense of exclusion in her career as a singer.

"It's just 20, 25 years of people going, 'Well, she's not that great. She's pretty and she makes cute music, but it's not really this and that," Lopez told Rolling Stone. "I think I've done some nice work over the years, some really nice work. But there is a club that I just wasn't a part of."

"And I always acted like, 'Yeah, I'm good. I'm fine. I'm OK.' But it hurts to not be included," she continued. "I don't know if I will ever be. There is an inner circle, like, 'We are the great artists.' And then there's the pop artists."

Despite feeling like getting the recognition that she wants is an uphill battle, Lopez said she's constantly "manifesting" gratitude in her life "to be doing the best I can and make the world a better place."

"Marry Me" will be in theaters and streaming on Peacock on February 11.