It's not everyday that one finds themselves in the company of an Oscar winner, an Oscar nominee and the youngest actress ever to be nominated for a Screen Actors Guild award.
The Eagle recently sat down with the award-winning cast members of the new film "The Secret Life of Bees," based on the bestselling novel by Sue Monk Kidd.
"Bees" is about a young girl in 1964 who escapes from her bad home life and finds herself in the shelter of three African-Americans. The film includes a strong female cast, which includes Dakota Fanning, Queen Latifah and Jennifer Hudson.
Queen Latifah plays August Boatwright, the matriarch of the film who takes in Fanning and Hudson's characters and lets them work on her bee farm.
Boatwright is one of the many independent, African-American women that Queen Latifah has played.
"I've enjoyed playing strong female characters," Latifah said. "Even some were written for men originally that I was able to reconfigure into a role for me."
Latifah originally began her career as a rapper, but soon broke into television and film. She had an Oscar-nominated turn in "Chicago" and played the main character in "Living Single," an Emmy-nominated TV show based on her life.
Though often referred to as the "First Lady of Hip-Hop," Latifah is quite content in her own skin. Wearing no makeup, jeans and a loose cap, Latifah made jokes about her upbringing and how, despite her fortune, friends tell her she acts like she's "still from the hood."
"I think me being comfortable in my own life translated into me being comfortable on set everyday," she said.
Latifah's only prerequisite for doing the film was that Dakota Fanning be cast as Lily.
"That was my deal breaker," Latifah said. "You have to have someone amazing to be able to pull off that role and Dakota ... she's just cool beans. She's as much a vet on this as anyone."
Fanning plays protagonist Lily Owens, an emotionally distraught teenager who is trying to cope with situations way beyond her years.
Though one may have preconceived notions of 14-year-old Fanning being a "child star," a sit-down with the actress proved that, though articulate and professional, Fanning is no different from any of her peers, giggling and blushing when she received compliments about her work.
Tristan Wilds, who plays Dakota's love interest, Zachary Taylor, in the film, gushed about his younger co-star.
"She is so grown up!" Wilds said. "Like, she made me look at myself like 'Dang! I'm a little boy!'"
The character of Lily is a mentally draining role, but Fanning said she does not take her character's emotions home with her.
"When they say 'cut,' I'm myself again. I'm not in the character anymore," she said. "I just really enjoy what I do and I enjoy getting to work with those people and have a good time."
Jennifer Hudson plays Lily's caretaker in the film, Rosaleen Daise. Hudson began her career as the sixth runner-up on the third season of the popular show "American Idol." She has since gone on to win an Academy Award for her portrayal of Effie White in the film version of the Broadway musical "Dreamgirls" and appeared in the film version of the popular HBO series "Sex and the City."
"When I sit in interviews and they're like 'the winner of this and that' and all these things and I'm always like, 'Are they talking about me?'" she said. "It still hasn't sunk in yet."
Hudson's character is the victim of some of the more racist and violent scenes in the film, a situation that Hudson at first was not prepared for. Director Gina Prince-Bythewood prepared exercises for both Fanning and Hudson to perform together, including recreating settings in which both were treated as they would have been in the South in the 1960s. Hudson said playing the character of Rosaleen was an eye-opening experience.
"Here I'm playing a character who is being beat just because she's trying to register to vote," Hudson said. "I don't think that I would be able to appreciate a time like now with the possibility of an African-American president as much as I do had I not gone through that."
"The Secret Life of Bees" opens in theaters Oct. 17.
You can reach this writer at thescene@theeagleonline.com.
