Queen Latifah helms new romantic comedy
“Just Wright”

Sandra Varner’s Celebrity Profiles

JUST WRIGHT stars Queen Latifah (“Secret Life of Bees,” “Bringing Down the House,” “Chicago”) as Leslie Wright, a determined and focused physical therapist who gets the dream job of working with NBA All-Star Scott McKnight (Common – “Date Night,” “Wanted,” “American Gangster”). 

Queen Latifah, CEO of Flavor Unit Entertainment and star of the
new romantic comedy, “Just Wright” with co-stars: Common,
James Pickens, Jr, Paula Patton, Phylicia Rashad, Pam Grier

All is going well until Leslie finds herself falling for Scott, forcing her to choose between the gig of a lifetime and the tug-of-war inside her heart. 

Oblivious to her romantic overtures, McKnight is instead drawn to the affections of Leslie’s gorgeous childhood friend Morgan (Paula Patton – “Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire,” “Déjà Vu,” “Idlewild”), who has her sights set on being an NBA trophy wife. 

Is Leslie destined to play the role of “best friend” forever or will Scott finally see that what he always wanted is right in front of him?  Set against the world of championship basketball, the game of love takes on the battle of the sexes in the romantic sports comedy JUST WRIGHT, starring three of Hollywood’s most talked about personalities as they navigate the full-court-press of love. 

The inspiration for JUST WRIGHT came from a simple concept: a Cinderella story set against the backdrop of the NBA. That phrase turned out to be the beginning of a six-year journey for Queen Latifah and her longtime producing partner Shakim Compere to the feature length film directed by Sanaa Hamri (“Something New,” “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2).

I sat down with Latifah at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York City to discuss “Just Wright” --

Sandra Varner (Talk2SV): You not only star in this movie but you are also in charge along with your business partner and co-producers, making numerous decisions.  How many men were considered to play your love interest in this film?

Latifah: Not very many because this is a very complex character to me: he had to be a jockey, a man’s man, he had to be strong and, at the same time, he had to be sensitive and kind.  I thought the character should be “looking for love,” love jazz music and just be real mellow about his thing.  He had to love his momma too so he had to come with many different levels.  There were not a lot of people, I felt, who could handle Paula Patton and me, so there wasn’t a long list of people that I could just put this role in their hands and trust them with it.  It was a fairly short list.

Sandra (Talk2SV): And that’s why you chose Common…?

Latifah: Yes, because he has all those qualities and the ability to bring all that stuff to light. I felt like he had it in him and that’s the producer’s voice I’m speaking in (laughter).

Sandra (Talk2SV): As producer and star of this film, how do you switch gears between the two?

Latifah:  Luckily, I wasn’t the only producer on this film: I had my partner Shakim (Compere) and Debra Martin Chase working with me on this film.  Between the three of us, we were able to tackle the upper tier aspects that we had to deal with and I could step in and step out as I needed to because they had it covered.  If I wanted to step in more, on certain things, that was fine too.  That’s how we worked together.

Sandra (Talk2SV): This film project seemed like a nice juncture for you as you are fast becoming known as someone who can get things done in this business; to see you in this role showing a vulnerable side in your character is a new reflection.  Talk about that please.

Latifah: You know, the person [that] I am in real life, I’m strong but I’m also vulnerable, that’s just a natural human quality.  I don’t know any person who is just strong, strong, strong and gets things done with no weaknesses at all, no vulnerabilities, no bad days, you know.  I just don’t know those people. But, that’s just life. My character in this film, I mean, it’s OK for her to be vulnerable, but for me to deliver that emotion, I have to be able to tap into it.  Tap into that side of me whether I am vulnerable right now or whether I have been in my past, I know that I’ve felt that way before.   So, it’s easy for me to take that element and bring it to this character because she’s strong, she gets things done and I relate to those aspects of who she is.

Sandra (Talk2SV):  As an iconic figure who graces magazine covers, is a Cover Girl spokesperson, a music producer, artist, actor, role model and the list goes on, how do you interpret the fact that your beauty and body image are equal parts to your success? 

Latifah: I believe I am a beautiful woman, my mama told me so long ago. And, I believe it comes from the inside out.  I think I am a curvy woman and I like that.  The older I get, the more I even love it.  It just feels better and better and better; I don’t know how that happens but it does. I think body image wise, I’ve accepted myself for who I am and I think people who are out there, who tend to look at me, see that in me. They see that I’m not even thinking about it like that.  If anything, I’m celebrating it, I’m not hating it. I’m loving it and I’m saying, ‘we’ can do anything.  I can do whatever I want to do and it has nothing to do with ‘just’ that; if anything, that aspect enhances what I want to do.  I think many young girls and women have had an opportunity to see that in me and it’s not cocky.  It’s not conceited, it’s loving and appreciating who I am.  I think they’ve just been able to ride with me on that. I look at it like this, ‘we’ are all in this together so come on, let’s go, you know.  So, that’s how I feel about that.

Sandra (Talk2SV): You juggle many responsibilities, principally as a business executive.  What are your comments on being an entrepreneur…?

Latifah: On being an entrepreneur:  I’m intelligent, I’m capable, articulate and always have been.  I’m smart. I was never one of those people who wanted to have someone else making decisions for her. I knew I was capable of doing so.  There were times when I would see guys come along and try to manipulate my mind, early on, as a teenager, whether it was in ideas that I had or even in a relationship. At the same time, they were my classmates so I’m like, ‘you can’t even get a ‘C’ in this class and I’m supposed to listen to you?’ You know what I mean? I wasn’t down for that earlier, you know. I’m like, ‘OK, I’ can’t be your equal, but you can’t even get grades like I get.  You can’t even speak as well as I do, saying things to me like, ‘you look real cute …uh huh.’ I just wasn’t raised like that. I was never raised to date a guy who couldn’t address me correctly: how are you, how are you doing, what’s your name, very nice to meet you, or couldn’t speak like a gentleman. You had to be able to at least speak like a gentleman even if you wanted to speak some slang later.  Approach me like a lady and that’s just the way my father was. He treated my mother like that so I couldn’t accept those kinds of things and all those influences lent to me being and to having my own mind and making my own decisions.  Therefore, those same influences led to me having my own business.  When it came to me deciding whether I wanted a manager or not, my partner and me just talked about that; he always respected my mind and my thoughts and we were always able to create things together.  We were in agreement about why should we sign it (business opportunities) over to someone else when we can build it ourselves. I found a like mind in my partner, Shakim, and we were able to create all these things from beginning to end, open up our own management company and create new movements from there on.  Business wise, I’ve always been a free thinker and I’ve always had a partner to bounce things off of and vice versa.  So, being an entrepreneur is a natural thing.

Sandra (Talk2SV):  Your comments on Common as a rap artist turned film star…

Latifah: I’ll tell you the good thing about it is Paula Patton is my friend and I think she’s amazing in this movie and she’s hilarious. She is so unlike her character that it’s nice to watch somebody act and come up with stuff all the time. Common is my friend and it’s the same thing to watch him. We’ve been friends for awhile and I knew he really wanted to, even before he started getting into film.  I watched him.  We had conversations about it.  He took classes.  I knew his work ethic, his heart was driven in that direction and it was just a matter of time. 

He has done great work in the movies that he’s been in, but this was a chance for him to really show different levels and different abilities.  We had a conversation about it and he was like, ‘Yo, I really feel I can do this, I really feel like I can pull it off.’  I said to him, ‘Are you sure you can do that, you really feel like you could do it?  Because if you can’t, it’ll be different.  This will be that career changing moment for you, where people will look at you in a different way; it will be a great opportunity for you. I would love for you to do it.’  

It was a real conversation between friends and I knew that Sanaa is his friend too.  She knew him way before this movie and we talked about it too.  Sanaa said to me, “I can pull it out of him, whatever he needs to be, I could pull it out of him.”  After that, I said, ‘OK, you’re going to get him to do what we need.’  Listen, this guy is an amazing person; he’s the kind of person that shows up to work with 100% every day without any attitude, no gimme this, gimme that.  He’s a genuine and kind person and, at the same time, he’s going to give you a 100% of whatever he has.  That, to me is worth much more than someone who’s so, ‘I’m so talented and I’m so special, but I have an attitude, I’m cocky, get thee behind me,’ you know what I mean?  That kind of attitude was not what this character required.

This character required the cockiness, brashness and competitiveness of an NBA player coupled with the body, the fitness, the sexiness and a three-point shot that he could pull off.  He’s very athletic so he had all the physicality but then it required layers of sensitivity needed within a guy who wants love, who loves jazz and who loves his mother.  A guy who likes a nice clean, classy house, and not a bunch of ‘hoes’ running around in it; not being at the party every day.  Who can pull that off?  Who do you believe it from? You believe it from Common-- you know what I mean? And, that to me was like, ‘yeah let’s do that.’  He’s with it, I’m with it, I believe him, and others will believe him.

Sandra (Talk2SV):  What can we expect next from Flavor Unit Entertainment?

Latifah:  This month, we start shooting “Single Ladies” in Atlanta (GA) with LisaRaye McCoy, Stacey Dash, and Lauren London as the main characters.  It is a kind of “Sex and the City,” set in Atlanta, based around these women living their lives.  I don’t want to give you everything on that one, but we’re actually still casting a little bit and pulling together our last little pieces.  It’s going to be very hot and steamy.  Interestingly, LisaRaye McCoy is strangely the ex fiancé of an NBA player; she doesn’t even realize it at the time, but it kind of happens in the most wicked of ways and she bounces back really strong.  Stacey is amazing and this is going to be an amazing TV series. It’s going to be a two-hour movie event and then become a series after that on VH1.  It’s going to look gorgeous and the chemistry between those three is going to be one of the best things on TV, I would like to say.

More on Queen Latifah:

She is a musician; television and film actress; a label president; an author and entrepreneur. Blessed with style and substance, Queen Latifah has blossomed into a one-woman entertainment conglomerate. Heralded by the press and the industry as a force to be reckoned with, Latifah has quite simply done it all and shows no sign of slowing down.

Latifah has had amazing success in Hollywood in recent years, and became the first hip hop artist to be crowned with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on January 4, 2006.

She received rave reviews, an Oscar® nomination for Best Supporting Actress, a Golden Globe® nomination and a SAG Award™ nomination for her portrayal as Mama Morton in Miramax’s CHICAGO. 

Following CHICAGO, Latifah starred in Disney’s box office hit BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE, on which she also acted as executive producer.

Her latest TV Movie, “Life Support,” in which she was both the star and executive producer, is a true-life drama, in which she plays a mother who overcomes an addiction to crack and becomes a positive role model and an AIDS activist in the black community.  Latifah received rave reviews as well as an Emmy® nomination, a Golden Globe win and a SAG Award win.

In July 2007, she starred in Neil Meron and Craig Zadan’s HAIRSPRAY playing Motormouth Maybelle, starred in MAD MONEY starring alongside Diane Keaton and Katie Holmes.  In 2008, she starred in THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES, alongside Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys and Dakota Fannning, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood. THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES won the Hollywood Film Award at the Hollywood Film Festival.