Queen Latifah on Star: "She's Extremely Flawed, But She Never Gives Up"

Queen Latifah said it plainly: "She's a character who is extremely flawed, who's been hurt, who's made mistakes that have had dramatic consequences on h…" — and Premier Guide Miami was in the room when it happened.

On February 6, 2017, FOX hosted a press conference call with Queen Latifah — Carlotta Brown on Star — ahead of upcoming episodes of the Lee Daniels drama airing Wednesday nights at 9:00 p.m. on FOX. Premier Guide Miami was among the outlets on the call. Below are the key exchanges from the conversation.

What drew you to Carlotta? What do you like most about this character?

I think how much she's been through and how many mistakes she's made in life, but how gifted she is at the same time. She's a character who is extremely flawed, who's been hurt, who's made mistakes that have had dramatic consequences on her life and her future. Yet she still has a huge capacity to love, and she never gives up. She never stops trying. She never just completely gives in to one side. She always keeps trying to challenge and grow and change, and it doesn't necessarily look like it because she may play it real cool and calm sometimes, but she's always going through a lot underneath. She's much more complicated and much more challenging for me as an actor to play than people might think because there are so many layers underneath what Carlotta is feeling that I have to find so many angles into her at all times.

Can you talk about having a trans daughter on the show and what that's meant to you?

That was also one of the big draws of Carlotta. The topic of being trans or having a trans child — these things are very topical. More importantly, the thing that Lee and I talked about when we developed the concept of this show was the fact that everybody doesn't know the right thing to say. It's a new experience for a lot of people, and if we could only communicate about it, we could grow to understand each other. We wanted to show the conversation — what Cotton is feeling and why Cotton feels this way and what Cotton is going through. Then let's deal with Carlotta and what she's feeling and how can a mother and child build a bridge between each other when they both love each other but they're worlds apart on so many other things. We're not trying to answer every question for everyone. We're just trying to show what the situation can really be like. To both of us, that's a more interesting way to show it rather than just say here's the perfect politically correct answer to everything.

Do you think it's important for culture — for television and film — to take on more of the fight over the next four years, or are we purely for entertainment?

I think music and art are one of the greatest ways that have moved the conversation along throughout history. What's important is not being afraid to bring up the conversation. You have to at least bring up the conversation. For any brave, creative person, to not be afraid to deal with what's going on in our actual world is to be part of the greatest creative thing they've ever done. It's what made Norman Lear one of the greatest ever — the fact that he wasn't afraid to jump into these topics and push the envelope and made some of the greatest TV ever invented. The flip side of that is the escapism of it all. It also creates an opportunity for people to check out from all that serious stuff for a minute and just escape, have fun, make a musical, or have some fantasy. I think it feeds the escapism as much as it feeds the reality. I'm hoping that entertainment can be one of the ways that we can allow it to breathe a little bit, blow off some steam, rather than just have it be a powder keg and explode.

On Carlotta's wigs and what they represent:

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Carlotta is not a stereotype. She is someone we know, but the women we know love to spend time on their hair. Hair is very important, particularly in the Black community. So even though she's busy running a business and has many hairstylists around, she doesn't really have time to really do her own hair like that, so wigs are a way of her changing up her look, expressing herself, doing something a little different, and keeping it fresh. These wigs are not primarily very expensive wigs. If anything costs over $20, Lee will pretty much call me and tell me to take it off because he makes sure that we connect to a community that is really shopping in that price point but still wants to look good and still wants to express themselves even if they don't have a lot of money. This is still a way of her feeling special even in the midst of everything going crazy around her.

On the Carlotta and Pastor Bobby relationship:

What's interesting about Carlotta and Pastor Bobby is they are both very flawed people who had a very checkered past and found Jesus and found some peace and growth and forgiveness in Jesus by following Jesus. But their lives are still what their lives are, and they come with the baggage they come with. Pastor Bobby is one of the few sweet spots in Carlotta's life. For a couple of hours, she could escape from everything going on in her life and just be in church and be in his arms and have someone who could care for her for a change where she's normally caring for everything else. She tried to protect that relationship from her life — to just hold on to this little piece of Heaven for as long as she could. The fact that she kept secrets from him is probably what hurts him most, and the concern about how he'll react to the whole truth of her is what may concern her most.

On the deficit of honesty in media and Norman Lear's legacy:

It's only shocking because somewhere along the line, we got so afraid to actually talk about the real deal from a real person's mouth. It wouldn't be so shocking if we had dealt with this in a real way all along. It's only shocking because we had a deficit of honesty. We haven't talked about it through media, which is a way that we've always watched. Norman had a way to make it funny, make it entertaining. In the next four years, there's going to be a lot brought up, and I'm hoping that entertainment can be one of the ways that we can allow it to breathe a little bit — smooth the edges and allow people to express themselves without it being so super contentious.

On her personal theme song:

I come from a music world, so I have a million songs that speak to me, but I think Bob Marley is a go-to at all times. I think he's probably the greatest artist ever because you can always throw Bob Marley on at a party, and I don't care what kind of crowd is in there, there's always a Bob Marley song that somebody will dance to or connect to. He's super universal, beyond comprehension. If I feel like I need 'Every Little Thing Gonna Be All Right,' then that's fine. If I need 'So Much Trouble in the World' to just deal with what's going on at the time, I have that. Bob would be my go-to.

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Queen Latifah on star — this is the kind of conversation Premier Guide Miami was built to have. Follow us for more Love Miami.