The cast of ‘Hustlers’ worked with real strippers to master their moves and mannerisms for the film.
The ladies in the Hustlers cast were looking to get money… authentically.
So much so that the film brought in a real-life stripper, Jacq, to help make their moves and mannerisms more genuine to the roles they were playing.
“I really appreciated that J.Lo was like, ‘Jacq, how can I make this more authentic?’ On a number of occasions, she asked, ‘How can I make a scene more real?’” Jacq tells ET. “She was like, ‘What would somebody do in a VIP situation like this?’”
Though Jennifer Lopez and the film's other stars, including Constance Wu, Lizzo, Cardi B, Lili Reinhart and Keke Palmer, have all been around A-listers, they didn’t necessarily know how to behave around a high-profile man while playing a stripper.
“When the scene with Usher, like, ‘How would a stripper respond in that situation?’ And in the scene with Usher, like, ‘What would you say to Usher, like, when a famous guy jumps into the club, what would you say to him?’ And I was like, ‘Ask him his name,’” Jacq reveals. “There’s nothing a famous guy loves more than you not knowing who he is.”
The authentic tips that Jacq provided, though, weren’t just about the dancing or the pole.
“Strippers in New York keep their money strapped to their bodies. We can’t carry purses, they get stolen,” she explains. “There are rules around it. So I taught all the girls to tie money to your wrists or ankles, so we see all these girls with cash in rubber bands and that’s how New York strippers do it, so I made sure everyone had their money secured correctly.”
So who in the cast had the best moves?
“Cardi knew how to move. I didn’t have to teach her anything,” Jacq says. “Lizzo had moves. We already know this, but she was up there having a great time being super confident.”
On Thursday, Lopez shared a lengthy 13-minute video of herself going through the process of learning how to work the pole in preparation for the movie. The veteran performer noted that her work on the pole was one of the most challenging things she’s learned in her career.
“This is just as hard as anything I’ve ever learned,” she said. “It might be one of the hardest. I’ve gotten cuts and bruises and stuff for movies, but I’ve never had a bruise like this for anything I’ve done.”
Hustlers hits theaters Sept. 13. Follow @jacqthestripper on Instagram.
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