Jennifer Lopez has stepped into the shoes of more than 25 characters since she first made waves as Tejano icon Selena Quintanilla in 1997’s Selena. She’s played a filmmaker confronted with an enormous and deadly snake (Anaconda), a psychologist who travels inside the mind of a serial killer (The Cell), a wedding planner who falls in love with her client (The Wedding Planner), a hotel maid who gets her Cinderella moment (Maid in Manhattan) and a stripper who masterminds a Robin Hood–esque plan to rob her rich clients (Hustlers). But in the new documentary Halftime, J.Lo is very much herself and reflecting on the role of a lifetime: The one she’s been playing in the public eye for the last three decades. 

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Directed by Amanda Micheli, Halftime peels back the curtain of stardom around J.Lo, allowing the audience into her inner circle as she navigates awards season and the lead-up to her acclaimed Super Bowl halftime show with Shakira in 2020. 

To celebrate the film’s world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in her hometown of New York City, Jenny made a triumphant return to the block (or, at least, just a few miles from it), walking the red carpet at the United Palace theater in Washington Heights. Her arrival elicited screams rivaling the traffic piling up outside the venue as crowds gathered to try and catch a glimpse of the festivities.

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“To be back in Jennifer’s hometown, just a stone’s throw from the Bronx, it means so much to us,” Micheli told Netflix. “It’s like a dream come true.” As for why she wanted to tell this particular story now, she said, “To me, this is a movie about a woman finding her true north. Our culture is so youth obsessed, I saw this as a movie about Jennifer coming of age at 50.”

“I haven’t seen the finished product yet,” Lopez told Netflix ahead of the screening. “I’m nervous but I’m excited.”

Inside the theater, the mood was jubilant as festival co-founders Robert DeNiro and Jane Rosenthal introduced Lopez’s longtime producing partner, Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, who revealed the movie started as a project to chronicle the singer’s 50th birthday but turned into something much bigger along the way. Still, Halftime, which catches Lopez in some of her most vulnerable moments, wasn’t always an easy sell. 

Lin-Manuel Miranda

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Onstage ahead of the movie, Micheli expressed her gratitude to her star and subject for taking a leap of faith. “Thank you, Jennifer, for having the courage to share your story. I know it wasn’t easy to share your story but I know this film is going to mean a lot to little girls and a lot of older girls like me.”

That prophecy came true in the immediate aftermath of the evening. As the credits rolled, a curtain rose to reveal dozens of young girls, who performed the routine from the Super Bowl halftime show depicted in the movie, to a mashup of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” and Lopez’s own “Let’s Get Loud.”

Robert De Niro

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In a grand finale, they all converged around an emotional Lopez, who confessed that she had initially planned to sneak out but couldn’t bear to miss the performance. And as is only fitting, she had the last word: “Thank you!” Let’s get loud, indeed.

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