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Image credit: Queen Latifah: Robert Erdman/Icon International

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Bringing Down the House

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But Latifah certainly knows how to fight for her career. After earning raves for her performance as a bank robber in the 1996 crime drama ''Set It Off,'' she expected more big-time big-screen jobs to come her way. ''I got a lot of offers, but they weren't good,'' she says. ''So there was nothing I could really do about it. I had to wait for the better material. I've avoided being typecast for a long time, so it was good I had 'Living Single' to fall back on.''

After costarring on the Fox sitcom for five seasons, she spent two years hosting her own daytime talk show. But her résumé wasn't enough to persuade ''Chicago'' director Rob Marshall that she was right for the role -- no surprise, since Kathy Bates, Bette Midler, Liza Minnelli, and fellow talk-show vets Rosie O'Donnell and Whoopi Goldberg were all being considered. Latifah auditioned three times before she finally convinced the director that the role should be hers. ''My intention was to get it,'' she says. ''I had a touch of nervousness but not 'I can't do this.' I never take on a job that I don't think I can do.'' Says ''Chicago'' executive producer Craig Zadan: ''After the nominations, she was giggling and screaming and then she stopped and said, tongue in cheek, 'Of course we got the most nominations. No other movie has royalty in it. 'Chicago' has a QUEEN.'''

It took that kind of self-assurance to make ''Bringing Down the House,'' which she helped develop and cast. Originally filled with what she says were too many racist characters, the first draft was ''a wreck and offensive,'' she says bluntly, ''but it was funny, too. The question was, Can we make it what it needs to be? [So] we head-cracked together and talked about how to change things.'' Adds director Adam Shankman (''The Wedding Planner''): ''We did a huge amount of tightening.... We were walking a line, and there were jokes that I thought might be questionable, but [Latifah] is a one-woman NAACP.'' Says Latifah, ''In terms of my own personal beliefs, integrity has never been a problem -- what I believe in and what I stand for.''

Latifah has certainly had her share of shake-ups. After the 1992 death of her older brother Lance, who was killed in a motorcycle accident at age 23, Latifah considered quitting the business altogether. She credits rapper-turned-actor Heavy D for talking her into sticking it out. Fame ''can be...interesting,'' she says cautiously. ''People say, 'I'm sorry your brother died -- can I have your autograph?'... Maybe I was too simple, but it was pretty trippy.''

Things only got trippier. In 1996 she was arrested in L.A. after a loaded .38 and marijuana were discovered in her car (she received a fine and two years' probation). She says she carried the weapon because she had been the victim of a carjacking several months earlier, during which her companion was shot. After the arrest made headlines, she says, ''It was really embarrassing. I was just really worried about [how it would affect] my family.''

She'll be making headlines of a different sort should she become the triumphant long shot on March 23. In the meantime, she's keeping busy developing movies through her production company Flavor Unit, which she hopes will ultimately deliver, among other genres, strong African-American fare. And she's still got her hand in the world of hip-hop -- her company continues to manage new rap acts. So is there any room in her future for more of this acting thing? Latifah lets out a hearty laugh and polishes off her drink. ''Well,'' she says, ''my mother raised me to always have something to fall back on.''