Queen Latifah on New Good American Campaign and Why She’s Sharing Her Story in Upcoming Biopic (Exclusive)

“Style is a never-ending story because I think style is a bit of a mindset,” Queen Latifah tells The Hollywood Reporter in an exclusive interview.

Style is a big topic of conversation these days, as the rapper-slash-actress stars in a new Good American campaign released Thursday. For Latifah, joining forces with the Khloé Kardashian and Emma Grede-created brand made sense. She says she likes everything from the “people who back it” to the “people who wear it.”

“I’ve worn Good American for quite some time now in various projects,” Latifah explains. “I’ve worn their jeans on The Equalizer. I’ve worn a suit of theirs at the Super Bowl, to an after party. I wore a denim outfit just the other day to my bodyguard’s 60th birthday. We partied all night.”

Latifah praises the brand for its size inclusivity, saying that she has a variety of people in her life that can wear it. “This works for who I am and the women and people who I speak to,” she says.

For the actress, style is something personal. “Style is everywhere. It’s everything. It’s emotion, it’s an attitude. But it is sort of timeless,” she says, adding that she’s lived through “many, many styles.” Latifah emphasizes that at the end of the day, it all comes down to what she feels comfortable in.

The Equalizer star laughs at the style of the 90s coming back in full force. “Get back in those baggy jeans, oversize this and that,” she jokes. “Things go around and come back around. It’s fun to watch it happen.”

The rapper-slash-actress is also opening up about the upcoming biopic about her life. The film, produced by Flavor Unit Entertainment, Westbrook Studios and Jesse Collins Entertainment, is the first in a slew of independently financed hip-hop biopics. Producers for the film include Latifah and Shakim Compere for Flavor Unit Entertainment, Will Smith and Miguel Melendez for Westbrook Studios, and Jesse Collins and Dionne Harmon for Jesse Collins Entertainment. 

“We’ve been talking about it for a while,” Latifah says about the project, which has yet to announce who will be writing or directing.

The actress says the idea behind the slate of biopics is to bring quality stories to life from people who were actually there. “We’ve seen a lot of people tell our stories who weren’t there and really have no idea how much more involved these stories are. It’s important to see how it all happened from people who were actively in the room,” she says.

Latifah says she’s enjoyed keeping her private life separate from her work, but that she’d be happy to share “how it all happened.” She explains that the biopic has made her reflect on life and its ups and downs.

“My older brother was alive at that time, my mom was alive at that time and a big part of helping me become who I am,” Latifah adds. “It’s been quite a reflective time recently. I suppose maybe that’s why I’ve been a little sensitive. I think it snuck into my subconscious.”

Latifah and the team are working to figure out fine details of telling the story of how she came to be, she says, but she’s feeling positive about the film and the other slate of hip-hop-centric biopics that will come after it.

“I’m hoping that it will be inspirational to any artist or any person who’s setting out to do something that hasn’t been done before or wondering if they can accomplish what they want to,” she says. “Maybe when they see what we went through to get to where we’ve gotten, they’ll know that things didn’t just happen overnight and we also got quite lucky and quite blessed in a lot of ways. So go for it.”