Queen Latifah To Play HIV-Positive Character In "Life Support"

CNN.com:

PASADENA, California (AP) -- Queen Latifah never does the expected. So when asked about the challenges of playing an HIV-positive wife and mother, as she does in HBO's "Life Support," her answer was, indeed, surprising.

"The only challenge was trying to stay in character when you've got people driving past you on the street going, 'Queen!' 'Do it Latifah!' 'That's LATIFAH!' " she says of the on-location shoot in
Brooklyn last year for HBO's "Life Support" (Saturday, 8 p.m. EST, currently on HBO On Demand).

"Most people try to be respectful, but they're excited to see you and they're hitting you with the name or some record that you did, so that was the greatest challenge," she says. "Playing this
character wasn't."

To play Ana, a peer counselor at an AIDS facility in Brooklyn whose past drug addiction has put a strain on her family relationships, Latifah (nee Dana Owens) channeled the muse of the New York
streets where the New Jersey girl hung out as a teenager.

"I grew up around these women and around these streets, so it was probably one of the more relatable backdrops that I've been able to sort of step into," says Latifah at a press conference.

"I really felt like I really could relate to the characters, to the situations, a family disrupted by drug addiction. I could relate to that just in my own family," she continues. "So I could relate to Ana's sense of wanting to get out there and see what life had to offer, although we took dramatically different turns. And redemption as well, having the second chance of really trying to repair those relationships after you feel like, OK, I messed up, but I'm back on track and I really want to get things back to where they were."