Michelle Buteau Pretended to Not Know Anything About Jennifer Lopez When They Met — Including 1 Unique Thing They Have in Common
Over the past two decades, Michelle Buteau has risen through the ranks as a comedian and become one of the hottest new funny ladies on TV. In recent years, Buteau has crossed over into the film and TV world with appearances in movies and a hosting gig on Netflix‘s hit series The Circle.
In her 2020 stand-up comedy special Welcome to Buteaupia, the comedian spoke about her experience filming a movie with none other than Jennifer Lopez.
Michelle Buteau has crossed over from comedy to acting
Michelle Buteau first got into stand-up comedy when she was living in New York just days after the September 11 attacks. She cut her teeth for five years before landing her first stand-up special on Comedy Central.
Buteau continued to work as a comedian, and in the 2010s, began appearing in scripted roles on screen. What started as guest spots on shows such as Key and Peele and Russian Doll has since blossomed into movie roles such as Someone Great, Always Be My Maybe, and the upcoming Valentine’s Day movie Marry Me starring Jennifer Lopez.
Michelle Buteau pretended to not know anything about Jennifer Lopez when they met
Buteau told the story of when she first met Lopez on the set of Marry Me in her Welcome to Buteaupia special.
“The hardest part of working with J. Lo is pretending that I didn’t know everything about her,” Buteau said honestly. “I know everything about J. Lo. For example, I know that we have the same birthday. But I didn’t want to tell her on the first day because I don’t want to be the creepy girl on the set, you know what I mean?”
“But there’s always someone at the office that’s into astrology — you know who you are,” she said to laughter from the crowd. “So we had one of those a**holes on set. I said, ‘OK, I’m going to wait for my moment.'”
“And sure enough, three weeks later, he goes, ‘Ugh! You and Jen have the same face because you’re both Leos. I said, ‘Oh! This is my moment,'” Buteau recounted. “So I said, ‘Jen! You’re a Leo?’ She said, ‘Yes!’ I said, ‘Jen, I’m a Leo!'”
Buteau then asked the Selena star when her birthday is and acted surprised when she learned they were both born on July 24. “She said, ‘No one has my birthday.’ I said, ‘I know! It’s so special,'” Buteau continued.
Michelle Buteau asked Jennifer Lopez to have a joint birthday party
“I said, ‘Jen, we should have a joint birthday party!’ And then she walked away and didn’t talk to me for like three hours,” Buteau went on. When she came back, Lopez began to grill the comedian about her dating history — specifically, if she has any experience with Leos.
Buteau said bluntly that she’s had a taste of every astrological sign under the sun (literally), and the “Let’s Get Loud” singer began to tell her about her past with dating Leos.
“She was like, ‘Ugh, I was engaged to a Leo.’ I said, ‘Really?'” Buteau said obliviously. “She’s like, ‘Yeah, it wasn’t the easiest with Ben.’ I said, ‘Ben who? Benjamin Button? Benjamin Franklin? Who’s the Ben?'”
“Yo, I was so good at this, Meryl Streep would be like, ‘Give that b*tch the Oscar, OK?” Buteau joked. “‘Just give the b*tch the Oscar!'”
