Queen Latifah enjoys success on her own terms

‘She doesn’t judge’
It appears that her “Hairspray” co-stars get her. 

“She reminds me of Oprah in a lot of ways because she’s so wonderful,” Travolta said. “There’s this graciousness about her and richness of spirit. She always makes you feel so comfortable, in good hands and cared for. She doesn’t judge. She’s rich in personality.”

And while Blonsky went on about how cool it was to work with one of her “idols,” Pfeiffer found the Queen a bit distracting.

“The hardest thing about working with her is that we’d just crack up,” Pfeiffer said. “There was one scene in which I was particularly hateful to her and I was being so stupid and I was really having a hard time not laughing. I’m so grateful that she’s so (cool) because and has such a great sense of humor because I couldn’t do those scenes with anyone who wasn’t. She enabled me to really go for it and really commit because I knew she was feeling how hard it was for me.”

With two more films in the can and a summer concert tour to complete, one of the only things Latifah is feeling these days is tired. When asked what was the one thing she hadn’t had an opportunity to do in her career, she responded, “Sleep.

“I hear about it, but it’s just this elusive thing that people keep telling me about — especially people who don’t work, they know about it. And people who drink a lot — no, I’m just playing. Um, I want to do some kind of smart thriller, action kind of crime drama. I want to shoot a gun again because that’s always kind of fun for me because you don’t get to do that in real life. And I wouldn’t mind doing some type of sci-fi thing. I like sci-fi.”

Could there be a “Transformers 2” in her future?

“Sure, as long as I get to shoot something.”

The Queen’s quips On young Hollywood: “Most of young Hollywood is not cutting up. Most of young Hollywood is doing all right, but they’re young. You know what I mean? They probably just need to take it down a minute — back up, take a step, look in the mirror and make sure you’re all right. Hire a damn driver. We all have to learn the hard way sometimes. It’s OK to ride in the backseat sometimes. Designated driver, that’s what I have to say to the young people.” On rap and the double-standard: “I think it’s OK, hell yeah, to self-police. We should have been doing that a long time ago. But you have to understand that’s a big whole can of worms — the music industry. When people started tying the music industry to the rap game and Don Imus it was irritating to me because it’s a totally different situation. But I think it’s about time we started policing ourselves and encouraging ourselves to sort of clean certain songs up because (the profanity and N-words are) just not necessary.” On working with John Travolta in drag: “He’s a sweet person. After a while it was weird. I’m still trying to get used to seeing him as John. I saw him as Edna for so many months. You started treating him like a lady, opening doors for him and all that.”

Miki Turner is a freelance TV producer/writer in Los Angeles. She can be reached at

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