The 9 most shocking moments from Jennifer Lopez's new Netflix documentary 'Halftime'

Lopez is a global superstar and a "triple threat" as a singer, actor, and dancer. She was asked to perform at the Super Bowl in 2020 for that reason. But that doesn't mean the NFL didn't push back against her ideas every step of the way, the documentary shows.

The halftime show director, Hamish Hamilton, rejected Lopez's idea of having a female symbol on stage because it would have been "contentious." In another moment shown in the documentary, the NFL pushed back on how many cages she was allowed for her performance.

In one of the most surprising moments of the film, at about the one-hour, 11-minute mark, Lopez begged NFL producer Ricky Kirshner to talk to his colleagues so that everyone would give her some leeway with creativity.

"We're here trying to make this work and every day it turns around with somebody giving me some negative energy of 'oh, we can't have this, we can't have that.' We're trying to squeeze this down to the bare minimum," she said, frustration evident in her voice.

"It's hard because it's such a big stage, Rick. It's such a big stage and it's such an important show and all of us have dreamed of doing it and it's been a nightmare since we started," the "I'm Real" singer continued.

Kirshner agreed with her but reminded Lopez that the performance had a time limit for a reason. Lopez understood but kept fighting for a meaningful finale.

"I'm trying to give you something with substance, not just us out there shaking our fucking asses and fucking belly dancing. I want something real. I want something that's gonna say we belong here and that we have something to offer," she said, referring to Latin American people.

"I don't want to fight," an exasperated Lopez ended the call. But she did fight every step of the way to bring the 2020 Super Bowl performance to life.

Hindsight is 20/20, so in the year 2022, we know Lopez is a performer who deserves respect.

But "Halftime" reminded us that there was a time when she was laughed at almost constantly. The film showed comedians like Jimmy Kimmel insulting her and Conan O'Brien telling a racist joke at her expense.

The film also reminded viewers of the racist "South Park" episode that featured a JLo hand puppet singing a song called "Taco-flavored Kisses."

It also featured reminders of how many men in comedy joked about JLo's butt and the iconic green Versace dress she wore to the Grammy's in public because she had Latina curves and didn't fit typical beauty standards, which valued extreme thinness at the time.

"It was hard when you think people think you're a joke, like you're a punch line," Lopez said in "Halftime.

"Halftime" also chronicled how much the media's obsession with Lopez's personal life overshadowed her talent sometimes in the early 2000s.

The aforementioned comedians made jokes that were unacceptable, but print media didn't hold back on the racism, either.

In one of the worst examples, the documentary showed a message from an unnamed publication presumably to Ben Affleck.

"Don't get friendly with the help, let alone marry them," it said.

Lopez admitted that the stress of the criticism got to her. She described her relationship with the media at the time as "dysfunctional" and "abusive. "

At about the 26:30 mark of the film, Lopez said, "There was many times where I was like, 'I think I'm just going to quit.' I had to really figure out who I was and believe in that and not believe anything else."

"I said to her once, 'doesn't this bother you?'" Lopez's fiancé Ben Affleck said in footage in the film. "And she said, 'I'm Latina, I'm a woman. I expected this. You just don't expect it. You expect to be treated fairly.'"

The actress opened up about her relationship with her mother, Lupe Rodriguez, in the documentary, revealing that her love of dance caused a rift between the two when it distracted a young Lopez from school.

"My mom was like, 'If you're gonna live in this house, you're gonna get your education.' So we got into a bad fight one night, and I just left," the "Hustlers" star said.

Later on in the doc, Lopez spoke about her mother's tough attitude towards her children.

"She beat the shit out of us," Lopez said.

Rodriguez, for her part, said in the documentary that she was "far from the perfect mother."

"The one thing I can always say, everything I did, I did with their best interest at heart," Lopez's mom said.

Lopez's child Emme features prominently in the documentary, and during one scene, it's revealed that Emme and their dancer friends helped inspire a key part of Lopez's halftime show.

While rehearsing at an unnamed studio, Emme told Lopez that one of their friends dances at the same studio. Lopez then agreed to walk out and say hello to everyone and subsequently observed a Latin dance class with talented performers of all ages.

After being blown away by the dancers, Lopez then brought the idea of including them in her halftime show to NFL officials.

Lopez was concerned about having two performers split the already tight time constraints of the halftime show.

"We have six fucking minutes," Lopez said in the film, noting that it gave her little time to sing a good portion of any one song. "We have to have our singing moments. It's not going to be a dance fucking revue. We have to sing our message."

"This is the worst idea in the world to have two people do the Super Bowl," the "Love Don't Cost a Thing" singer continued. "It was the worst idea in the world."

In another scene in the film, Lopez's longtime manager Benny Medina was said to have supported his client's feelings and even said the NFL's choice was insulting.

"Typically, you have one headliner at a Super Bowl," Medina said, per Entertainment Weekly. "That headliner constructs a show, and, should they choose to have other guests, that's their choice. It was an insult to say you needed two Latinas to do the job that one artist historically has done."

"Halftime" paints a clear picture of how hectic the first few months of 2020 were for Lopez.

Between rehearsals for the 2020 Super Bowl, doing early shoots for the 2022 movie "Marry Me," and participating in interviews and events for the 2020 Oscar race, Lopez seemed to be working almost 24/7, flying between Los Angeles and Miami.

In one scene, Lopez got a visit from her doctor, who she calls Dr. Sugermint, in her dressing room. The doctor told her that she might need medicine because she has an "upper respiratory" illness.

Lopez then said: "I've been a little depressed. I'm not gonna lie. I think that took my immune system down. I've just been working long hours, and I'm away from the kids. It all just makes me a little bit sad."

"Something's got to change, Dr Sugermint. Next year. I'm transitioning slowly," she added.

One of the significant parts of Lopez and Shakira's 2020 Super Bowl performance was its statement on immigration.

At one point, Lopez's child Emme and other kids sang her hit "Let's Get Loud" from behind bars and in cages as a commentary on reports that migrants (including children) were being detained "in cages, sleeping on mattresses on the ground, under foil blankets."

While Lopez said in the documentary that she didn't want to make a "political" statement, she was "afraid" for her own children, prompting her to use the performance to bring the US together.

However, a scene towards the end of the documentary revealed that leaders of the NFL tried to get rid of the cages the night before the Super Bowl.

"That night, the higher-ups at the NFL saw it for the first time and they're like, 'Hey, you can't do that," the "Waiting For Tonight" singer recalled in the film.

Lopez's manager Medina added: "The NFL had a real concern about making a political statement about immigration."

In response, Lopez stood her ground and was able to keep the cages in her final show.

In the beginning, the film shows the hard work Lopez put into making the 2019 film "Hustlers." In the film, based on real events, Lopez plays a stripper-turned-con-artist, meaning Lopez had to learn how to pole dance for the role.

Lopez has shared behind-the-scenes video of her pole-dancing training in the past. However, the scene about it in "Halftime" seems to be from far earlier in her training. After being shown a couple of moves, Lopez sat down and showed her bruises to the camera.

This is the first time Lopez has shown the injuries from her training, but she once told Jimmy Fallon on "The Tonight Show" that she took pictures of her bruises to prove she learned to pole dance rather than use a stunt double.