Queen Latifah Rocks Gray Box Braids On The Set Of ‘Miracles From Heaven’ + Ava DuVernay's Advice On Succeeding In Hollywood & Why She Passed On ‘Black Panther’

Queen Latifah is back to work on a new film. The YBF actress was spotted shooting scenes for a faith-based film titled Miracles From Heaven with Jennifer Garner in Atlanta recently. Peep the pics and find out the advice Ava DuVernay gave about moving up in Hollywood and why she walked away from Black Panther inside….

Following her EMMY nomination for her title role in the HBO film Bessie, Queen Latifah is hard at work on new film.

We told you the actress/raptress has joined the cast of Sony’s faith-based drama Miracles From Heaven, produced by Meagan Good’s husband DeVon Franklin and Bishop T.D. Jakes.

While deets about her actual role have yet to surface, new pictures of Queen dressed as her character have popped up online. The Bessie star was spotted rocking gray box braids while dodging traffic with Jennifer Garner (who’s currently going through a divorce from her husband Ben Affleck) and young actress Kylie Rogers on the set in Atlanta.

Below is a synopsis of the film via press release:

Miracles From Heaven is based on the amazing true story of the Beam family, whose 10-year-old daughter, Anna (Kylie Rogers), is diagnosed with a rare life-threatening disease that tests their family and everyone's faith. As they meet with doctor after doctor to find a cure, or at least offer some respite from Anna's severe symptoms, it is not until she has a near death experience that a miracle happens that changes their lives forever.
 

It will hit theaters in March 2016.

On top of this new film, Queen is also currently doing voice over work for her role as the female woolly mammoth Elle in the upcoming film Ice Age: Collision Course, set to drop Summer 2016.

In other movie news....

Director Ava DuVernay is dishing secrets on how to make it in Hollywood. And for women and minorities looking to move up the ranks, she advises them to “follow the white guys.”

During her keynote Q&A at the 2015 BlogHer Conference in NYC over the weekend, the SELMA directress explained how women and minorities can get ahead in Hollywood by learning from their white counterparts. She revealed,

"You gotta follow the white guys. Truly. They’ve got this thing wired," she advised during her closing keynote at the 2015 BlogHer conference, held at the Hilton in New York City. “Too often, we live within their games, so why would you not study what works? Take away the bad stuff — because there’s a lot — and use the savvy interesting stuff and figure out how they can apply. It’s a good one for the ladies.”

She then addresses how women have been taught to ask for the things we want rather than just taking what we want. She said,

"Women have been trained in our culture and society to ask for what we want instead of taking what we want. We've been really indoctrinated with this culture of permission. I think it’s true for women, and I think it’s true for people of color. It’s historic, and it’s unfortunate and has somehow become part of our DNA. But that time has passed.”

Preach!

Later, she discussed why she decided to pass up directing Marvel’s upcoming superhero film Black Panther (starring Chadwick Boseman as the first African American superhero), which she vaguely answered before. While she recently cited creative differences as the reason she won’t be directing the film, the Hollywood director went more into detail during her Q&A.

She revealed,

"For me, it was a process of trying to figure out, are these people I want to go to bed with? Because it’s really a marriage, and for this it would be three years. It’d be three years of not doing other things that are important to me. So it was a question of, is this important enough for me to do?"

She continued,

"At one point, the answer was yes because I thought there was value in putting that kind of imagery into the culture in a worldwide, huge way, in a certain way: excitement, action, fun, all those things, and yet still be focused on a black man as a hero — that would be pretty revolutionary," she continued. "These Marvel films go everywhere from Shanghai to Uganda, and nothing that I probably will make will reach that many people, so I found value in that. That’s how the conversations continued, because that’s what I was interested in. But everyone’s interested in different things."

Interesting. While she won’t be helming the film, she did say she plans on watching it once it hits theaters. We do too!

 

Photos: Splash/WENN
 

 

source: theybf