Hustlers Release Date, Cast, And Plot

Get ready for Hustlers, the new female-led movie starring Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu, as the film looks like it's going to be off the chain! With a star-studded cast and a girl squad to die for, Hustlers was filmed in New York City, according to Entertainment Tonight, and, by the looks of it, is going to have some pretty emotional moments. Plus the costuming is definitely a throwback to the 2000s, when Juicy Couture was king and belly button rings were all the rage. And according to a post on Lopez's Instagram page, she got super ripped for her part in the film. Our girl still has it!

So now that the trailer is out, what do we know about the plot of Hustlers? Who's starring in the film, who's working behind the scenes, and when is Hustlers going to be in the theaters? Read on to get every detail about this upcoming, female-fronted, action-packed, and super sexy film.

After watching the Hustlers trailer and finding out who all of its stars are, it's a little hard to be patient for the film to drop. But given that the cast and crew only started filming in March of 2019, according to an article in Glamour magazine, it might be a while before the movie is ready for its big screen debut. There's a lot that happens in post-production, after all. 

But fortunately for fans, Lopez broadcast the release date to the world on social media in April. "By the way, I have a secret," she revealed in a video on her Instagram page. "The release date for Hustlers has just been set for September 13th. We're coming to a theater near you. Look out!" That's an incredibly fast turnaround, so perhaps the crew of Hustlers knows how many people are stoked to see it. Or maybe we're just lucky!

One of the most exciting things about Hustlers is that rapper Cardi B is finally making her major motion picture debut, according to an article in Rolling Stone. Frankly, it would be a massive oversight not to have Cardi B star in a movie about female strippers given that she herself was a stripper for many years, something she raps about quite candidly. Chances are we'll get to see some of her money moves on the big screen!

Even though Cardi B is given top billing as Diamond, according to an article in Cosmopolitan, the rapper was reportedly only on the set of Hustlers for one day. That's because she has a seriously booked calendar right now, so who knows how much of her we'll get to see throughout the movie. Regardless, it's going to be super fun to see how she interacts with the other characters and if she has to do much acting at all.

Although this is Cardi B's first time on a film set, she's no stranger to being on camera, as she starred in Love & Hip Hop on VH1 from 2015 to 2017. 

Along with Cardi B, the rest of the Hustlers cast is chock-full of A-list girl power, according to IMDb. Crazy Rich Asians actress Constance Wu plays Destiny, a single mother who decides to start stripping in order to take care of her family. She's mentored by longtime stripper Ramona, who's played by Jennifer Lopez, and who comes up with the idea to scam their clients. What a great pair of leading ladies!

Wu and Lopez are joined by Riverdale actress Lili Reinhart as Annabelle and Scream Queens star Keke Palmer as Mercedes, two strippers who are friends with Ramona. Additionally, Silver Linings Playbook actress Julia Stiles plays Elizabeth, a reporter who's writing about how the whole scam went down for a magazine. Finally, the one and the only Lizzo will join the principal cast as Liz, rounding out a phenomenal group of leading ladies. Hopefully Sasha the Flute will make an appearance as well!

It's not just the actors with top-billing in Hustlers who are super hot and in demand. Rather, the supporting cast is also brimming with all kinds of talent, according to IMDb. For starters, Transparent actress Trace Lysette has taken on the role of Tracey, and Academy Award-winning actress Mercedes Ruehl will also appear. Additionally, Madeline Brewer from The Handmaid's Tale will play Dawn, newcomer Mette Towley will bring Justice to life, and She's Gotta Have It actress Stormi Maya will delight audiences as Angel.

It's not just women who will appear in Hustlers — someone has to get scammed, after all! To that end, singer-songwriter Usher will also appear, potentially as himself, which is sure to be a treat. And to round everything out, actors Frank Whaley, Brandon Keener, Steven Boyer, and Jon Glaser will also have parts in the film, likely in various states of intoxication and undress given the plot of Hustlers.

If you haven't watched the Hustlers trailer yet, you're totally missing out! It opens with Ramona instructing Destiny on how to pole dance in an empty strip club, while showing off the skillful and sexy moves herself. "Front hook, ankle hook, knee hook," Ramona explains. "From here you can do the carousel." We're then treated to brief appearances from both Cardi B and Lizzo, juxtaposed with images of a crowded strip club cheering for Ramona. Our girl really does have some moves!

After that, the trailer lays out the motivation for the big scam, and brings you right on board with it. There are also plenty of scenes with the women celebrating, making tons of money, and having a blast until it all comes down in the end. With Cardi B's "Money" playing in the background and plenty of clever and quotable lines from Ramona from beginning to end, the trailer shows just how much fun Hustlers will be.

So what can you expect to happen in the plot of Hustlers? If it wasn't already obvious, the film focuses on the lives of female strippers set just after the 2008 crash on Wall Street, according to the trailer. In a move to care for her family, Destiny takes a job at a strip club, where Ramona mentors her. Meanwhile, Ramona, tired of seeing her greedy Wall Street clients scam hardworking Americans, devises a plot to get rich by drugging them and stealing their money. She's joined by Destiny and her savvy crew of strippers, who live the high life while scamming men left and right.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and eventually Ramona and the other women are caught by the police. That's all we'll say about that, lest we spoil the plot for you. But for sure, the film is going to be one wild ride.

While the plot of Hustlers reads like the Hollywood movie that it is, it's actually based on a true story, which Jennifer Lopez discussed in an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live. "It's based on a true story about these girls from Scores in New York who took a bunch of Wall Street guys for a bunch of money," she explained to host Jimmy Kimmel. "It was a hustle." It's crazy that this actually happened!

One big reason that this story saw the light of day was because of the work of journalist Jessica Pressler, who broke the story in New York Magazine (it now resides at The Cut) at the end of 2015. Pressler interviewed Roselyn Keo, the character Destiny is based on, and laid out everything that happened with lurid detail. In a nutshell, Keo worked closely with a fellow stripper named Samantha Foxx, who presumably inspired Lopez's character, as well as a crew of strippers, sex workers, and thieves, to steal as much money as they could from rich men. If ever reality sounded like a movie script waiting to happen, this would be it.

If you're going to star in a movie about female strippers, of course you're going to have to learn how to pole dance. That was something Jennifer Lopez took very seriously, as she trained extensively for her role in Hustlers. She even had a portable stripping pole in her home and had a teacher from Cirque du Soleil come give her lessons. "It's very hard!" she exclaimed in an interview with Jimmy Kimmel Live. She added, "I have bruises everywhere. It's so hard. I have a lot of respect for people who do the pole."

Lopez provided a peek into how she was learned how to pole dance on Instagram (via TrueExclusives), showing fans how good she got at it. Keke Palmer also took pole dancing lessons, and she strutted her stuff in a post on her Instagram page as well. Not to be outdone, Lili Reinhart shared her moves in an Instagram story (via Cosmopolitan), where she's full on upside-down. Talk about some serious skills.

Just as Hustlers is female-fronted on screen, so too is it helmed by a woman behind the camera. The film is directed by Lorene Scafaria, according to IMDb. Scafaria also directed the films Seeking a Friend for the End of the World and The Meddlers, as well as episodes of the television show New Girl. Scafaria also wrote the screenplay for Hustlers, based on Jessica Pressler's tell-all article, of course. Additionally, the film editing, production design, and art direction were all done by women. Go team estrogen!

When asked about the opportunity to direct Hustlers in March of 2019, Scafaria responded that she was pleased as punch about it. "I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to work with this dynamic group of women," she gushed in an interview with Variety. "We're grateful to have assembled such a powerhouse cast and can't wait to start filming at the end of the week." You know they had to have fun on that set, too.

Julia Stiles, who plays the journalist who broke the Hustlers story to the world, fell in love with the project from the outset — and knew she had to be a part of it. "I was so interested in the story and the script, the director and the cast, that I told the director, 'I don't care. I will sweep the floors, I will make coffee and sandwiches for everybody because I just want to be a part of this,'" she shared in an interview with BuzzFeed News' AM2DM. "It felt like ... they really hit on something." Hey, if an actress of Stiles' caliber is willing to fetch coffee and make lunch just to be involved in the film, you know it has to be good.

The 10 Things I Hate About You star also opened up about her character and the way she changed as she got to know the women and their motives. "I start off skeptical of them and maybe judgmental, and very quickly come to realize that they were kind of entrepreneurs, dare I say," she continued. Well, in a way, they really were.

Unsurprisingly, Julia Stiles had nothing but good things to say about her experience on the set of Hustlers. "It's incredible. I've honestly never worked on such a professional, focused, and quiet set too, a respectful set," she confessed in an interview with Cosmopolitan. Given just how many sets Stiles has been on, that's some seriously high praise.

In particular, Stiles was especially impressed by the work of two of her co-stars, Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu. "I think a lot of the work that Constance and Jennifer have to do is really, really challenging, not only in the fun hair/makeup/wardrobe that they have [but also] the transformation that they're going through," she continued. "But there's actually a deeply rooted emotional story behind it, so everybody's been really respectful. It's great." If all of this comes through in the movie as it did in the Hustlers trailer, we're all in for a big treat.

While Cardi B is not shy about her stripping days, she's also not afraid to share that's she's done some less-than-moral things to get by. To that end, she ended up in hot water when an old Instagram Live video resurfaced (via Hip Hop Rachet), in which she confessed to some less-than-savory activities. "I had to go strip, I had to go, 'Oh yeah, you want to f**k me? Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's go to this hotel,' and I drugged n***as up, and I robbed them," she says in the video. Sound familiar?

But instead of kowtowing to appease her haters, Cardi B defended her actions. "I never claim to be perfect or come from a perfect world wit[h] a perfect past," she wrote in an Instagram statement (via Elle), noting, "I never even put those things in my music because I'm not proud of it and feel a responsibility not to glorify it." She added that, at the time, she had "very limited options" and that, like anyone else, she can't change the past. Could Cardi B have drawn from her experiences for her role in Hustlers?