July 2003 Sneak Peek : Scary Movie 3 : A Q&A with Queen Latifah

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Interviewed by Wilson Morales Sneak Peek : Scary Movie 3: A Q&A with Queen Latifah On the heels of her blockbuster film, Bringing Down the House and an Oscar nomination for her role in Chicago, Queen Latifah has just been added to the cast of Scary Movie 3. Since the Scary Movie franchise began, they have gone onto spoof many films and this time it will spoof The Matrix Reloaded. Her character’s name is LaQuisha and she will be teaching The One (played by Anna Faris) how to fight and control her strength. Eddie Griffin will be playing her husband Orpheus. Also featured in the film are Charlie Sheen, Anthony Anderson, Pamela Anderson, George Carlin, Fat Joe, Macy Gray, Regina Hall, Ja Rule, Jenny McCarthy, Denise Richards, Simon Rex, and Camryn Manheim. Dimension Films will release Scary Movie 3 nationwide on Oct.3, 2003. From the set of the film, Queen Latifah spoke briefly about her role in the film. WM: What drew you to do this film? QL: I’m a big fan of spoof movies, and this is the third installment, and as long as it’s funny, then I’m with it. If you’re not going to be in the Matrix, then spoof the hell out them. I still get the Neo coat, and that’s what it’s all about for me. It’s all about the Neo coat. That’s the only reason I’m doing this. It’s not for the money, the accolades or the humor, it’s just for the coat. I get to do a cool fight scene and stuff. It’s going to be fantastic. WM: What will your character do in the film? QL: Well, I’m trying to teach “The One” how to fight. She has to realize that she’s the One and all the things she can do being the One. So I use my husband Orpheus as a demonstration tool. Eddie Griffin plays my often cheating husband. WM: What can you say about Eddie Griffin? QL: Eddie is Eddie and he’s so freaking funny. He’s just quick. He’ll come up with something so quick to add to the scene it that makes it even funnier. It’s fun. It’s getting to play with him cause we’ll just keep thinking of things and adding to it. WM: Is Anna Faris funny as well? QL: Anna makes me want to laugh all the time with everything and she’s just a funny person in real life that sometimes she runs in (the scenes) with these lines, and I’m like, “Hold it, hold it. Cut.” And then you get to laugh. WM: What more can you say about your character LaQuisha? QL: LaQuisha is quite a number. LaQuisha is a combination of all these different characters. As you will see, she gets to play the sexy woman from the Matrix, and she gets to play Neo and she also gets to play a girl from around the way, almost like a spoof from “Bringing Down the House, but it’s that girl ain’t trying to hear anything. Don’t even try it. You can’t get over on her and if you try to, she’s going to scream on you and blow your spot up. She’s quick to open her mouth when it comes to Orpheus cause he a very badly behaving husband, but he loves her. He just likes to cheat too much. So she goes crazy a lot. WM: Do you think Jada (Pinkett-Smith) will see the film? I know that Jada is going to laugh at it. She’ll probably go take the kids to go see it. I would think that Lawrence Fishburne would laugh at it too. Keanu I’ve met, but I don’t know him well enough to say he would laugh, but if he would do “Bill & Ted’s Bogus Adventure”, I would think he has a sense of humor. I think they would probably get a kick out of it and really feel good about it that their movie was so large, it was worthy of being spoof in another movie.