.jpg?20260602')
When Ted Lasso star Brett Goldstein wrote a romantic comedy with Jennifer Lopez in mind, he never thought it would actually materialise. He had never met her and had no expectation he ever would.
But the British actor, best known as Roy Kent in the football series, sent the script for Office Romance to her anyway.
“We sent it to her with a note that said, ‘We wrote this for you. You’re at the top of our list. It’s a list of one. If you don’t do this, we’re not going to make this film, but no pressure. Hope you enjoy it!’ Thank God it turned out she did actually like it.”
Luckily Lopez, 56, who has starred in some of the best-loved romantic comedies of the late twentieth centuries – including The Wedding Planner and Maid In Manhattan – more than liked it, she wanted to make it.
“I read the script, and I thought it was so funny and really sweet. Office Romance is a very classic romantic comedy, but with these unexpected jokes. It’s a little different from the other romantic comedies that I made, which are very sweet and wholesome,” admits the Hustlers star, whose musical hits include Jenny From The Block, On The Floor and Let’s Get Loud.
“I was fan of his [Goldstein]. People know that I’m obsessed with Ted Lasso. My favourite character is Roy Kent, and my favourite storyline is Roy and Keeley Jones’s [Juno Temple]. When he sent the script, I was just like, ‘They wrote this for me?’ It was great.
“I was really busy when they first sent me the script. But then it came back around a year later, and we did it. When something’s meant to be, it’s meant to be.”
Office Romance, co-written with Ted Lasso co-creator Joe Kelly, is a charming love story about Jackie, the powerful CEO of an airline, played by Lopez, who runs a tight ship in her business, including a strict “no dating” policy for all her employees.
But when a handsome new lawyer, Daniel [Goldstein], starts working for her, their secret office romance takes off, and the two workaholics stop playing by the rules and start following their hearts.
“Office Romance is the first time I’m the boss. I’m not playing someone with all these aspirations, who’s the maid or the wedding planner working for the rich people,” says Lopez.
“Jackie is actually the CEO of her airline, AirCruz. She built this company. It’s usually the woman who is hoping to be saved in romantic comedies. But that isn’t the case at all here. Jackie is very powerful. She has her own life. She’s not really looking for love. She’s a very different kind of character for me to play.”
“This is a film for grown-ups about grown-ups. From the starting point, Jackie has made it. She’s done the work. But there is a secret sadness underneath her that she can’t let people see,” adds Goldstein, who is also the co-creator of the comedy-drama series Shrinking.
“We always thought of Office Romance as a love letter to workaholics. These are two workaholics, and they’re both very good at their jobs. They both work very hard. They love what they do, and that’s their favourite part of life.
“But there’s an accusation that can be made against workaholics, which is that working is a way of avoiding real life. I think there’s some truth there for both of these characters. What they see in each other is a kindred spirit, and they connect over that.”
Lopez agrees. “Both of them start in a place where they’re quietly content, but not fulfilled as people. They see that in each other, and they also have an admiration for each other. That’s where love always begins,” she adds.
Before filming began, it was hard to say if Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again filmmaker Ol Parker would be able to capture the chemistry between Goldstein and Lopez on screen – but he was optimistic, because the script was “really contemporary and cool”.
“Often, rom-coms have a lot more rom than com, and I thought the script was incredibly funny. And I thought the obstacle was brilliant as well. Every rom-com has one, whether it’s class, gender, money – or something theoretical, like friendship in When Harry Met Sally… I thought this script [had] a smart obstacle, and that’s really rare. I loved it,” says the filmmaker, 56.
“I’ve got a hot new theory on how chemistry works: It’s magic. Sometimes it works with someone, and sometimes it doesn’t. It’s about being intensely present with each other and admiring your co-star in the moment while you’re filming. If you’re both connected like that, you get chemistry,” adds Goldstein.
For Lopez, the elusive question of chemistry lingers until the work begins. “You just don’t know until you meet and you start working together. Because you could really get along with somebody and even really like them, but it doesn’t always work on camera. But when we were filming Office Romance, you could see that there was something magical happening,” she says.
It’s one of the reasons why Parker says directing Lopez in this romantic comedy was the easiest gig in the world.
“Lopez is the queen of this stuff. She knows the film better than anyone, knows everyone’s lines. She’s a machine. She’s first on set every day and last off it. Then she jets off to do a concert over the weekend and comes back to set on Monday with more energy than everyone else.”
Office Romance comes to Netflix on Friday, June 5.
&uuid=(email))