From While Queen Latifah may be best known for her performances in Chicago and Hairspray, she plays loads of other roles in real life: She's a Jenny Craig spokeswoman, CoverGirl makeup model, hip-hop artist, hit-making film producer, CEO of a record label, and owner of five hamburger stands … there's more.
"I've always been like this, before it was called multitasking," says the 38-year-old Newark, New Jersey, native cheerfully. "I'm not going to say I have ADD, but it's almost like I need this kind of variety to keep my interest."
Born Dana Elaine Owens, she has answered to Latifah ever since she was eight, when a cousin gave her the nickname. "Queen" was added as she rose to the top of the hip-hop heap, where bragging rights come with the territory.
If anyone deserves a crown, it's Latifah. Her easygoing aura and klieg light smile create a stir in the Beverly Hills restaurant where Reader's Digest meets her. One well-wisher after another-both friends and strangers-makes a beeline for her table, each ready with a hug and a request. (Over the course of two hours, she is asked to sing at the Democratic National Convention, appear at a benefit for muscular dystrophy, and star in a movie.) Every time she answers, it's with a genuine sweetness and diplomacy that's matched only by the wise beekeeper she plays in her upcoming movie The Secret Life of Bees. Quite unlike August Boatwright, however, she has no plans to handle hives again anytime soon.
Q. What's it like to have a million bees as your costars?
A. I've never been more terrified in my life. I mean, I can jump off cliffs. I can drive a car at 150 mph. I can ride a motorcycle that fast. But the bees? If they're not in a good mood? All I could think of is, I'm going to get stung. I mean, it was hard to say my lines, be in character, and work with all these bees flying around me. I'm not going to deny it.
Q. You're an Oscar nominee, a Golden Globe recipient, and a Grammy winner. A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame has your name on it. Do you have any celebrity attitude that you can't believe you've picked up?
A. I try to avoid all that. I've tried to be in Hollywood but not of Hollywood. I never say "Let's do lunch"-unless I'm joking.
Q. Let's be serious, then. When did acting click for you?
A. In my first year of high school, when I played a part in Godspell. I went to an all-girls' Catholic school. My freshman year, they brought in boys from different schools and a director from outside who was really hard-core. He made us work and got us into not being anywhere else but right there in the play when Jesus is about to be hung on the cross. I remember, when that part came and we were carrying his body and singing, I was just moved to tears. I remember my aunt coming up to me after the show and saying, "Dana, you were great." She was so proud of me. I think I realized that you could connect to people through being this [character]. And I thought that was kind of cool.
Q. Did you pick up any life lessons when you were a power forward on your high school basketball team?
A. Defense first, I guess. [Laughs] It helped me to learn to work with lots of different kinds of people and be a team player, to be able to move your ego out of the way and block out whatever else is going on in your life and focus on the task at hand. My coach drilled the word composure into our heads. I've used that throughout my entire career.
Q. In 1992 your older brother, Lance, was killed in a motorcycle accident. How did you explain to your mother that you were going to continue riding?
A. Honestly, I think that my brother and I had such a close relationship that she expected me to get back on that bike. It was the last thing my brother and I did together; every day, we rode bikes. It's my way of connecting with him. I'm sure my mom didn't like it. But I think she just put me in God's hands.
Q. You've always talked about how heavily you rely on your mother's counsel. Sum up her best advice in three sentences.
A. Believe in yourself. Stay in your own lane. There's only one you.
Q. Share a family beauty secret.
A. My grandmother's skin was beautiful. I asked her how she did it, and she said, "I'll tell you what I do: Take a little baking soda, put it in the palm of your hand with a little warm water, and just rub it on your face. It naturally exfoliates."
Q. What did you take into consideration when you agreed to become the new face of Jenny Craig?
A. If anything, I was worried about alienating my big girls. I didn't want them to think, Hey, she's leaving us. But if I can be an example of loving yourself regardless of what you look like, I can be an example of loving yourself and being healthier.
Q. Would we find diet food in the studio for your upcoming album?
A. I told my partner, Shakim, "If I'm doing it, we're all doing it together." Everywhere I went, I had my Jenny Craig with me. At three o' clock in the morning, we're all hungry, but we have healthy stuff. It became slang in the studio: "What's up with the JC?" When I made my goal weight, I texted them, "goal weight," and everybody was like, "Yeahhh!"
Q. You're working on your own line of clothing for bigger women. How do you feel about the term "plus size"?
A. I don't like it. The majority of women are plus size. The other ones [should be called] less than plus.
Q. Since you're a Queen, how would you prefer to be immortalized-on currency, on a postage stamp, or in an oil portrait hanging in a museum?
A. I love a good museum. As long as it's a really popular one and I'm in a section with lots of light and visitors. Put me in the pop art section.
Q. Would we find diet food in the studio for your upcoming album? A. I told my partner, Shakim, "If I'm doing it, we're all doing it together." Everywhere I went, I had my Jenny Craig with me. At three o' clock in the morning, we're all hungry, but we have healthy stuff. It became slang in the studio: "What's up with the JC?" When I made my goal weight, I texted them, "goal weight," and everybody was like, "Yeahhh!" Does this mean she's coming out of the closet (partner)?!?!?!
Q. Would we find diet food in the studio for your upcoming album? A. I told my partner, Shakim, "If I'm doing it, we're all doing it together." Everywhere I went, I had my Jenny Craig with me. At three o' clock in the morning, we're all hungry, but we have healthy stuff. It became slang in the studio: "What's up with the JC?" When I made my goal weight, I texted them, "goal weight," and everybody was like, "Yeahhh!" Does this mean she's coming out of the closet (partner)?!?!?!