(Spoilers for Hustlers will be found below.)
Jennifer Lopez isn’t the only actor-musician in Hustlers (although she’s the only one who might be nominated for an Oscar). The real-life stripper drama also stars Lizzo and Cardi B and in an amusing cameo — last chance to click away before getting spoiled, even though Hustlers is the least likely “spoiler alert” movie ever — Usher. The “Yeah!” singer was a hit-making machine in the mid-to-late 2000s, when the movie takes place, and if “Love in This Club” is any indication, he was also a constant presence at the club, strip or otherwise. It’s also the song that plays when Usher enters Moves, and the dancers, including Ramona (Lopez), Dorothy (Constance Wu), Diamond (Cardi B), Annabelle (Lili Reinhart), Mercedes (Keke Palmer), and Liz (Lizzo), rush the stage. It’s a delightful scene that, according to writer and director Lorene Scafaria, was conceived in 2016.
“It’s one of those things when you write something in and then you go, ‘Yeah, okay, but when we get there, who’s it actually going to be?’ It was, at first, assuring him that what the scene represents is a celebration. The glory days,” she told Vulture. “But I remember the hardest part was convincing him that his hair was going to be okay.” Usher’s look now is different than Usher’s look then, in 2008, so Scafaria told him that he could wear a hat, along with a necklace, jacket, and sunglasses. Why? Because he’s Usher, baby:
“I told Usher, ‘If you want to say something, let’s talk about it.’ Usher came up to me after we did one take, and he goes, ‘I’ve thought about what I wanted to say. I wanted her to ask my name, and I’m going to say ‘Usher, baby. I was like, hell yeah!”
That’s also been the reaction to his cameo from people who saw Hustlers.
You can instantly tell #Hustlers was made by women because it treats female friendships, J Lo’s dramatic chops and Usher’s dimples with exactly the amount of reverence they all deserve.
— Christina Izzo (@christinalizzo) September 11, 2019
Watching the entire cast dance to Usher on the club's stage in Hustlers gave me so much life. That scene is my fuel for the rest of weekend.
— Jeff Probst Malone (@snailermo0n) September 13, 2019
I fangirled so hard when Usher came out on Hustlers
— ashley (@jdbslatingirlxo) September 13, 2019
Hustlers has Fiona Apple's Criminal, Bob Seger's Night Moves, Usher's Love in this Club, and not one but TWO Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons songs in it… y'all already KNOW!!!!!! hard to keep my ass in my seat tbh!!!!!
— Courtney LeSueur (@courtneylesueur) September 13, 2019
And the Usher scene. OMG. Iconic. #Hustlers
— Micaela (@missmicaelajade) September 13, 2019
https://twitter.com/noorxx/status/1172326546075344898
Hustlers has montages set to Fiona Apple, Lorde, Usher, Sean Kingston. Masterpiece tbh
— ty (@DennisDuganFan) September 13, 2019
The only problem with the scene: there’s no timeline where Jennifer Lopez is losing her mind over Usher, and not the other way around.
.@JLo jokingly asks @Usher what his name is in #Hustlers and I’m like let’s be real IRL he was fangirling over you when he was a small child (but rightfully so)
— Kelsee Becker (@Kelsee_B) September 13, 2019
(Via Vulture)
