Los Angeles, May 8 (IANS): Actress-singer Jennifer Lopez laments that she should have landed more action roles when she was younger.

After spending many years making rom-coms, Lopez mixed things up with her latest projects 'Shotgun Wedding' -- in which she took on more action sequences -- and 'The Mother' -- in which she plays a former assassin who comes out of hiding to protect her daughter -- and the actress said she enjoys the thrill of playing a tough character onscreen, reports aceshowbiz.com.

"(The Mother) was a lot of fun (and also) a lot of work... (I wish I had gotten) these types of roles that I'm getting now, funnily enough, when I was a little bit more, you know, spry. But a little bit, you know, younger... (They are) kind of empowering, and it makes me feel strong and good. And it was great," Jennifer explained on "The View".

The actress went on to explain movies bosses decided to carefully plan out the fight scenes for 'The Mother' so Jennifer could use her time more efficiently.

Jennifer added: "We have to be efficient. I can't be fighting eight hours a day. After like an hour, I'm like, OK. So they had to be really efficient and they choreographed it almost like a dance, which is good for me since I'm a dancer."

During the interview, Jennifer also opened up about her marriage to fellow film star Ben Affleck, revealing he's a brilliant dad to her twins from her marriage to Marc Anthony.

The actress said: "He is honestly the best dad I've ever seen. He's so involved. He teaches me about how to kind of interact with the kids sometimes."

"He's just so in tune. He's such a brilliant guy anyway, like he's so learned in so many things, and you could just tell when he had his kids, he must have read every book and everything that you could possibly learn about children, and he applies it. He's present, and that's all you can ask for is a present, loving dad who cares and shows up every single day, and that's who he is."