Queen Latifah On Filming The Equalizer In New Jersey & Being A Black Woman Leading The Show
Premiering tonight on CBS after the Super Bowl is The Equalizer, creators Andrew Marlow and Terri Miller’s upcoming reboot of the 1980s’ crime drama of the same name. Starring Queen Latifah as Robyn McCall, the series will move to its regular Sunday (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) time period on February 14, 2021.
Written by Marlow and Miller, who will both be serving as showrunners, The Equalizer is a reimagining of the classic series starring Academy Award nominee and multi-hyphenate Queen Latifah as Robyn McCall, an enigmatic woman with a mysterious background who uses her extensive skills as a former CIA operative to help those with nowhere else to turn.
McCall presents to most as an average single mom who is quietly raising her teenage daughter. But to a trusted few, she is The Equalizer – an anonymous guardian angel and defender of the downtrodden, who’s also dogged in her pursuit of personal redemption.
The series stars Queen Latifah, Lorraine Toussaint, Chris Noth, Tory Kittles, Adam Goldberg, Liza Lapira and Laya DeLeon Hayes. The reboot is executive produced by Latifah, Marlowe, Miller, and Martin Chase Productions’ Debra Martin Chase along with original series creator Richard Lindheim and Shakim Compere of Flavor Unit.
Very recently, a handful of journalists were invited to speak with Latifah about the show. Here are some of the highlights of the Q & As from press conference.
What are your thoughts about the popularity of reboots in general and what they offer, both to the people who consume them and the people who make them?
Queen Latifah: You can go either way, because some people don't want to see reboots of certain things. But some people have loved certain projects and would love to see them updated or rebooted, because of the idea of it. I think The Equalizer has an idea that is a constant. Seeing someone who jumps in and stands up for someone who can't fight for themselves, is something I think we all have in our hearts somewhere; especially seeing someone with the skillset of Robyn McCall. That's not what we often see. But there are people doing this right now somewhere. We're going to see it our way on television. You fall in love with shows and then they go away, and then you miss them. Then you have this sort of melancholy feeling about it and and you wish you could see it again. If a story is rebooted and told in the right way, it develops a own brand new audience. That's what we're going to do with The Equalizer now. We're going to retell this idea with in a whole different way now and today's audience. We will take a lot of stories from today's headlines that will be relevant to today's audience. and have some fun with them. Get some action in between, and get a little little heat going on TV on Sunday night.
Being from New Jersey, what did it mean to you to be able to film this in the state and do you think any of the Jersey influence has come on to the show?
Queen Latifah: I think the Jersey influence is is the bones of the show. It’s underneath everything we do. Most of the people who are here are from New Jersey. We're very close to New York obviously. We just a hop, skip and a jump. Jerseyans have this thing about us. If you can grow up here you can go anywhere in the world. You can. We just we just have a thing. That's just a jersey thing. I'm hoping that does translate. I'm hoping that it does come across in our in how we shoot and how we feel and how I'm able to play this role and, and what I'm able to bring across on camera, as well as everyone else. I'm hoping that it rubs off on those who aren't from here. And they get a little bit of Jersey sensibility, a little Jersey style. It means a lot to me for us to be able to, more importantly, employ New Jerseyans.
We have been hit pretty hard this year. Because of the pandemic, we've been through a lot this year. It's nice to bring some business here to New Jersey, right back home. We’re right back where it all started; to make sure that there are some people who have an opportunity to put food on the table every week. When I get too tired, I'm always inspired by the fact that I got to get up, I got to get up, I got to get to work. If I don’t get to work, 200 to 300 people don't go to work. So it's one of the reasons I don't miss too many days off work. Because it really means a lot to me to make sure that that we work. With the success of this show, work will be more and more and we can expand and hopefully life will continue to get better and better. We won't have to shoot so much with masks all the time. When we won't be quite in a COVID situation, which is very challenging. But we're doing it. We're making it. We're gonna continue to make it.
The original creator of the original series is involved. What type of input did he had? Was it in the script or in the casting?
Queen Latifah: Richard Lindheim just passed away very recently, not more than a week ago. God bless him. He was involved every step of the way. He had been in every meeting. He was in every pitch. He was just so excited with the idea of this show being rebooted, and with me as the lead. He and I just hit it off from day one. We just talked sci-fi all the time. We just love to have conversations about the cosmos, about the universe and about science and things like that. He did get an opportunity to see the first episode and he thought it was great. Then he transitioned, so I felt like he blessed this project. I appreciated that. I appreciate the opportunity to take something that he he created. Hopefully we, the partners, the writers, the showrunners, Andrew and Terry will take it to another level.
Do you have a favorite scene so far?
Queen Latifah: I have a bunch of favorite scenes. I love all the scenes that I play with Lorraine Toussaint. I love all the scenes, I can't say. I like the scenes when we get to be one on one. There's just something more intimate about that. So there are certain things I get to play with Lorraine and with Chris Noth, and with Laya DeLeon Hayes, who plays my daughter. Of course, I love doing all of the action sequences where we get to really kick some butt. I enjoy playing those intimate scenes where actors are going toe to toe in some crazy weather. It could be 30 degrees of weather, but it doesn't matter because the scene is going so good that you don't even feel it. I don't know if I have a specifically favorite scene. I do have a favorite shot. I think after someone tries to blow me up. When I get up off the ground, and I decide I'm going to get you back, there's this look on my face. And I'm like, "Ooh, that was a good look." Even I'm scared.
What is it like to be in a full on action series? With the stuff that you've done so far, is there anything that you're proud of that you've accomplished that maybe you weren't able to do in other projects that you've done?
Queen Latifah: Well, I think it's a lot more work involved, I'll tell you that much. It's definitely a lot more work, I have a great amount of respect for stunt people, and what they have to do to accomplish. Making people like me look really good. Because obviously, I can't do all of the stunts, I'm able to do some. I'm able to do a lot of intimate, close contact fighting and things like that. But I'm not getting crashed on a table or doing certain things. I ride motorcycles, but there's certain things that I'm just not doing on the bikes at this point. I would have done it in my 20s. But maybe not now. But there are people who do that amazingly well. So I have a lot of respect for the stunt people that are involved in our show, and our coordinators. They really work hard at creating these intricate scenes that don't look like things that you've seen before. And our directors. I think they work very well with our directors and our dps at making sure that they shoot these scenes and that they look cool. They look like they happen in a blink of an eye. But you can still see me take guns disarm people in various ways. That's the most important thing, just making sure everything looks sharp and crisp.
There's a dance to it. it's choreography. It's learning things by beat and I think being a rapper/ singer/ artists has helped me throughout my career in terms of rhythm. When it was Living Single, everything is timing in a sitcom. Your joke has to come off. That joke has to come. It's a rhythm to it. So it helped me then and that rhythm is helping me now with the choreography. It becomes a song in my mind. Where it might be a watch for someone else, it's a song in my hand, I gotta whip you by the time that hook comes. I need to have this fight over by the time this chorus is over in my brain. So that's how it works. We've had some great some people, so I really appreciate that.
Being a Black woman, what does it mean to you to be in this role?
Queen Latifah: It means the world to me to be in this role. It means that you get to see what life is really like. You and everyone,. Hopefully millions of people who will tune in to watch the show will get to see what it really is like for a black woman in this position. Black woman in general have been equalizing for eons, you know, from Hatshepsut to Stacey Abrams to my grandmother. I've watched black women be strong, caring, sensitive, handle their business and be entrepreneurs. I remember my grandmother always saying, "I used to work at Picatinny Arsenal loading shelves for the war." So we've been involved. You just haven't seen it as much as you should see it. Here I am. I'm here, and Lorraine’s here and Laya's here. So you'll see three generations, at least on this show. But this is just something that is really important to see. There are things that I will catch you and there things that are not all the same. Also, let me say that one Black woman is not all Black women. There are things that we will get to see that are different from one to the next.
That's important, because we're dynamic people. Human beings are different from one to the next. We can't just show one version of what a Black woman is. I think we've seen that way too much. The more we get to get an opportunity to be in the writing room, or to be the producers of the show, or the directors of the show, the props department of the show, the wardrobe, or the makeup or the hair, or the grips, we get to catch things that other people might not catch because they're not a Black woman. So it's important that we're in these positions because you'll get to see things more through our lens and what things are really, truly like; not the idea of what they would be like or a caricature of some sort. No.