Queen Latifah stars as a hard-working single mother trying to make ends meet in the comedy movie Mad Money co-starring Katie Holmes and Diane Keaton. Off screen, Queen Latifah’s just as hard-working as her character. “She's entrepreneurial. She's not just an actress. She's an entertainer. She's a business woman. She's running a huge team of people. It's utterly fascinating,” said Keaton of her co-star.
In addition to acting and running a business, there’s also the music aspect of Queen Latifah’s career. Queen Latifah says that while she’s recognized for both films and music, it really all depends on the age group of the audience as to which is more important. “It’s interesting. People my age, in their 30’s, they definitely think… I have never been asked, ‘When are you going to put a rap album out?’ so many times. ‘You going to make another rap album?’ Grown people, they know me as a rapper turned actress, business woman, whatever. Younger people know me as more of an actress and now kind of a jazz singer. Their mommas bought the album, or their fathers, and they are hearing my jazz music playing somewhere. They are seeing me in musicals. It’s kind of weird. It depends on what the age group is though. Grandmothers, they just love me.”
Mad Money finds Queen Latifah, Diane Keaton and Katie Holmes teaming up to rob their employer – the Federal Reserve Bank. Keaton’s character’s the brains of the group, Holmes is the quirky one, and Queen Latifah’s ‘Nina’ is the emotional heart and soul of the film. “I’m a woman with two kids, two boys at that, a single parent, and Katie’s character is married but they don’t have any kids,” said Queen Latifah. “ Diane’s [and Ted Danson’s] character[s], they are married but their kids are grown, and they don’t even call. They are disconnected. I really have a little more to lose, a little more to think about, and just having kids it kind of seasons you up to keep you alive and fresh in certain ways.”
Director Callie Khouri revealed something very interesting about Queen Latifah at the film’s Los Angeles press junket, something even the actress didn’t know about herself. Told that Khouri said she’s able to perfectly recreate takes, Queen Latifah replied, “I don’t remember doing that. I try to keep things consistent, but obviously her directing she sees things I probably don’t even realize I do. I did see one angle of something we shot in Junior’s restaurant that was shot, it was a POV of me and then a cross over my shoulder onto Diane. I thought, ‘Wow, I’m doing the exact same thing there that I’m doing there.’ That sometimes doesn’t happen. You cut to an over the shoulder and somebody’s posture or face is a little bit different. It’s something that is hard to match sometimes. I did notice that one time, but maybe she saw something that I didn’t see.”
Khouri also suggested that acting is like music to Queen Latifah. “Acting is very musical to me,” confirmed Queen Latifah. “I think that music plays a big part in the way that I act and even in the way I do ADR. Even the way that I overdub or lip synch my dialogue when we have to fix it for sound. My ears are just wired a little differently, having to harmonize or match things - like unisons. When I am singing in the studio, or rapping, I guess you get used to doing that.”
Queen Latifah says it was pure joy working with Keaton and Holmes on Mad Money. “Diane is feisty as hell,” revealed Queen Latifah. “She is in all these damn comedies but she is hilarious. She can get at you, boy, but she is really funny. We just clicked. We kind of just clicked immediately. She could say anything to me; you never know what the hell is going to come out of her mouth. It’s always going to shock you, and it’s funny. She’s really smart and she knows what she is doing. It’s nice to be around somebody like that, you know? She’s got really cool kids. They both have cool kids, they all have cool kids.”
“Katie, I didn’t really have any preconceived notions about her. I knew Tom Cruise for years, so I never really listened to what the media says about Tom. I know my experience with him. He’s always been a sweetheart and a nice guy, and that’s my experience with him for all the years I’ve known him. Katie, I never really knew, so I really had nothing to think about her. All I know is that the person I met is really sweet, generous, kind, opinionated, and fun to work with. That’s pretty much it.”
Queen Latifah’s character only agrees to being a part of the scheme to rob the bank because it means she’ll be able to send her two young boys to a better school. Looking back over her own career and how money changes things, Queen Latifah was able to point to the specific moment when a healthy paycheck first made a difference. “I guess when I could pay my momma’s rent. That was pretty quickly. I don’t know that money really changed my life. I guess it depends on what you are talking about, what kind of change you are talking about, because I already had a very rich life. Money just enhanced all of that. I knew when I could buy a car with my own money that it was a big thing. I started paying my mom’s rent, come home and take care of stuff, or buy a round of drinks. I couldn’t really do that before.”
“When I was 21 I bought my mom our first house that we owned. That was pretty exciting. It was a beautiful contemporary and she still lives there. That was pretty exciting and nice to be able to do. Or buying a nice car… But I had so many friends and family. Nobody ever tried to take advantage of me. Everybody just comes out and starts hitting you up for money, nobody really did that to me in my family too much.”
