Queen Latifah is an absolute icon. Her legendary career started way back in the early 90s when the Queen was a rapper, always speaking on important issues in our society. Her luxurious career has been through a roller coaster of events since then, but Queen Latifah has become a successful actor, movie producer, songwriter, comedienne and has been involved with several other ventures. Her latest move, however, is her upcoming role in the biopic on blues icon Bessie Smith titled Bessie, which as expected, the legendary Latifah gave a performance to remember.

She recently sat down with Uptown Magazine for an in-depth interview, where she talked about the new biopic and her role as the blues icon. “It was a little odd but it was also a quiet, relaxing thing. Sometimes she was so alone, and it was a moment for Bessie to acknowledge her vulnerability, which I can completely relate to. When you get to strip it all down and have a moment to yourself, sometimes the world comes crashing down in that little moment, or maybe it’s a moment of peace,” says Latifah.

While this sexually overt role of Bessie might have been a bit of a deviation from what the award winning actress is used to playing, she says this role isn’t much different after all. “I don’t find [this nude scene] any more uncomfortable than kissing a girl in Set It Off and sticking to the script. You have to take your mind off of yourself and honor that character.”

The interview shifted towards Queen Latifah’s talk show being cancelled and how the successful star is dealing with. Spoiler alert: she’s doing just fine. “The first thing I did was take a proper vacation,” and in regards to her show being cancelled, she said, “obviously it was disappointing but I don’t look at these things as catastrophic failures.”

Read the full interview here.