‘Just Wright’: Can a summer rom-com subvert Hollywood stereotypes?

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

This past awards season, the stars of “Precious,” Gabourey Sidibe and Mo’Nique, were center stage. While the actresses dazzled on the red carpet and collected awards statuettes, many in the media pointed to their reign as a positive wave of change in Hollywood, which has continually placed stick-thin actresses on a pedestal.

Meanwhile, Vanity Fair placed a handful of svelte, non-ethnic actresses (think Carey Mulligan and Amanda Seyfried) on the cover of its annual Hollywood issue, which prompted outrage from critics and bloggers who claimed the selection wasn’t representative of modern-day Hollywood.

But was it? When looking at the upcoming summer movies, many of the leading ladies that will grace the big screen seem to be uniformly of a similar size and color: Katherine Heigl, Megan Fox, Sarah Jessica Parker, Cameron Diaz, Kristen Stewart. One exception? Queen Latifah.

The Oscar-nominated actress stars in “Just Wright,” a romantic comedy out Friday in which she shares the screen with rapper-turned-actor Common. He plays Scott McKnight, a hot shot NBA star who initially passes over Leslie Wright (Latifah) for her conniving, supermodel-esque best friend (Paula Patton). When Scott injures his knee, Leslie, a physical therapist, nurses him back to health. It’s only after months of one-on-one time that Scott begins to realize that he may be more attracted to Leslie and her inner beauty than the dime-a-dozen gold diggers clamoring for him from the sidelines.

“I think there was some courage in Queen taking on the role,” Common said in a recent interview with The Times. “But it gives a lot of inspiration to women across the world to say, ‘I don’t have to look a certain way to be beautiful. That guy I want will come.’ There’s something in the way a person carries themselves and exudes that confidence that’s attractive.”

It’s a message that helped attract the director, Sanaa Hamri, to the project as well.

“What drew me to the project was how much Queen wanted to show an all-American woman who is a regular-size woman,” Hamri said. “She is what most women look like. She relates to the everyday woman and wanted to put herself in their shoes to encourage being free within one’s self and body.”

Just before taping an appearance on David Letterman on Tuesday, we chatted with Queen Latifah about how far she thinks Hollywood has come in diversifying its ideal of beauty and what her role has been in helping to change stereotypes.

24 Frames: So often we see a leading lady who conforms to the conventional ideas of beauty. Why don’t you think we see a wider range of women on the big screen?

Unfortunately, this is America, and we can be very superficial. If the media is purporting one thing to be an ideal of beauty and that’s where a lot of the dollars go for advertisement … you want to buy the clothes are that are those kind of women. So it kind of takes away from who everyone is. This is a big, broad country, and most women do not look like that. Most women are not a size two. So I don’t think it really plays to what America looks like, but I guess people aspire to that on some level. But you have to be who you are, whoever you are. And that’s why I’ve never changed, because people have been able to see me be me. You have to see an America Ferrera, a Renee Zellweger, a Catherine Zeta-Jones, a Meryl Streep and Jennifer Hudson and Gabby Sidibe and different types of leading women in leading roles so people can see those who resemble themselves.

You’re one of the few full-figured women we see on screen. Has it been a challenge to be accepted in the industry?

It’s become easier, but it has been a challenge. Because first of all, I had to convince everyone I could do it. If you were to ask someone when I started my career, ‘Can she be an A-list actor?’ they’d say no, because their thinking was small.

So how did you overcome that?

I never wanted to be put in a box. It was just a matter of convincing people through the years who were important to my success that I was going to do this with our without them. I’m not a dummy. I’m a businessperson as well, so myself and my partner have created these opportunities where they didn’t exist. We think of ways to create scenarios or scripts or records where the stories otherwise wouldn’t have been told.

I think many women can relate to Leslie’s experience of being passed over for their more beautiful friends. Is that something you can relate to as well?

Definitely. I went through that my freshman year of high school. I ran with this crew that had a couple of drop-dead gorgeous girls in it and I saw how guys would swoon over them, but we also had guys that were into us. I saw the challenges they faced as pretty people. They were smart girls, but people would be so caught up in their looks and couldn’t appreciate their minds or spirits. I think it’s a double-edged sword.

Do you think women see you as a positive role model?

I absolutely do. And it’s actually inspired me through the years. There were times when I was over this business, and I’d hear someone tell a story of how their daughter wanted to sing and her classmates teased her because she’s a bigger girl, but they saw me and it was like, ‘Forget them, she can do it.’ That means a lot.

-- Amy Kaufman (Twitter.com/AmyKinLA)

David Lee / Fox Searchlight Films. Top photo credit: Jennifer S. Altman / For The Times.

Clicking on Green Links will take you to a third-party e-commerce site. These sites are not operated by the Los Angeles Times. The Times Editorial staff is not involved in any way with Green Links or with these third-party sites.