How 'Hustlers' differs from the real-life story it was inspired by (2024)

Read more: Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu shine as strippers-turned-con artists in 'Hustlers'

"Hustlers" the movie is pretty faithful to the original article, but changed a few aspects of the story, as is the norm for Hollywood adaptations. For obvious reasons, Keo and Barbash's names were changed to Destiny and Ramona, respectively, and certain elements of the original story were exaggerated for dramatic effect.

Here's how the movie version of "Hustlers" differs from the real-life story that inspired it.

In the movie, Ramona is shown to be the ringleader of the group, while in the article, the leader is more unclear.

Ramona, played by Jennifer Lopez in the film, is undoubtedly the ringleader of the group in "Hustlers." She shows Destiny, played by Constance Wu, how to dance early on in the film, and later recruits her to help scam men after the 2008 recession cripples the strip club where the women have been working.

But in the article, things are a bit more unclear. Keo's version of events is primarily referenced, even though she's a self-professed liar. Keo certainly makes it seem like she was the glue holding the operation together in the New York Magazine story.

While the women were incarcerated in Rikers after they were caught, an officer asked Keo and Barbash which one of them was the leader.

"[Barbash] pointed to me," Keo said in the article. "I pointed to her."

Usher is never mentioned to have visited the club in the article.

One of the film's more jubilant scenes is when singer Usher visits the strip club where the women are working, pre-recession. A joyous Lizzo bursts into the strippers' dressing room to announce that Usher has arrived — and everyone quickly rushes out to dance for him. Lopez, Wu, Lizzo, and Cardi B all give pretty sultry performances, and the night is referenced as "one of the last good nights" at the club before the recession hits.

But sadly, the article doesn't make any mention of a visit from Usher to the club. While it's not necessarily a stretch to place him in a strip club — Usher even got in on the joke and played himself in "Hustlers" — it's not something that was included in the original article, either.

Ramona wasn't shown to have plastic surgery in the film.

The article calls Barbash a "[creature] of the night" who'd "crossed a plastic surgery Rubicon," but Lopez, who plays the Barbash character in the film, clearly didn't need any plastic surgery to look good.

Even though Lopez's character is implied to be one of the older women in the group, no mention is made of plastic surgery — something that the article implies is Barbash's guilty pleasure.

The article didn't mention any serious injuries that men suffered at the hands of the women — but the film exaggerates one such instance to dramatic effect.

Despite their dangerous tactics — which involved drugging men with a specialty co*cktail of MDMA and ketamine — the article doesn't mention any of the women having to take their clients to hospitals.

But one of the particularly memorable scenes in "Hustlers" involves a client who got too drunk and tried to dive off his roof into the pool — only to land on the concrete and seriously injure himself. Destiny ends up coming to the rescue, and takes the man to the hospital, pretending to be his distraught wife.

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  • The director of 'Hustlers' describes the 3-year struggle to make her gritty gangster movie, and not let it turn into 'Ocean's 8 with strippers'