by Jeanne Wolf | March 7, 2003
She can get down wit' ya or get downright elegant. Rappin' Queen Latifah's music has been upstaged lately by her acting, thanks to her Academy Award-nominated performance as Mama Morton in Chicago.
Now, the onetime Dana Owens pushes the envelope even further in Bringing Down the House, an Internet dating farce with Steve Martin, a film she also exec produced through her own company. In House, uptight lawyer Martin thinks he's courting a slim, brainy barrister online, but Latifah turns out to be a hip-hoppin', slang-slingin' prison escapee.
Clearly taking Hollywood by storm, Queen Latifah takes a moment to riff on boob grabbing, chick fighting and the joy of getting stuff free.
Well, your character in Bringing Down the House is sure one sexy and cheeky lady.
It was a dream role, 'cause Charlene was just so ghetto fabulous. How often do you get to go to work and just have fun and dress cute and wear pads that fill out your backside in a black-girl kind of way? And then you've got Steve Martin grabbing your breasts all day. That's some good livin'.
What was he doing besides grabbing your breasts?
Man, you never knew. I mean, he'd, like, whip out a banjo on you at any given moment and just start strumming away. Steve is just so damn talented. One of the things that surprised me was the way he would do a scene differently with each take. But everybody in the cast came to the table willing to be like little kids--forget their inhibitions and just be innocent.
Did it take some work to get Steve to sound like he was in the 'hood?
Actually, he's not as square as you might think. He knows what's goin' on. But to have Steve saying things you don't normally hear him say was the fun part. To hear words coming out of his mouth like, Where's Tyrese at? I was walking around the house after work just repeating some of the stuff he said, because it's just so damn funny.
There's some pretty pushed-to-the-edge racial jokes in the film. Were you worried about going too far?
We actually removed a whole bunch of jokes we thought were just too much. People still might get offended, there's always that possibility. But some of the jokes had to be there, because they illuminate the ignorance of the characters. Plus, they're funny. Maybe the humor is not PC, but just because a person is PC doesn't mean they're not racist.
