SANAA LATHAN NEWS, INTERVIEWS & UPDATES



News for 2/27/2006


The following interview appeared in the February 2006 issue of Vibe Magazine





News for 2/6/2006


Sanaa Lathan Is Into 'Something' Good

By Michael O'Sullivan
Washington Post Staff Writer


Like many who grow up in show-biz families, actress Sanaa Lathan says some of her earliest memories are of the world of performers. The daughter of director-producer Stan Lathan, who got his start directing the PBS series "Say Brother," and dancer Eleanor McCoy, who appeared in the original Broadway production of "The Wiz," the star of "Something New" (see review on Page 42) wasn't exactly rocked to sleep as a baby in a dressing-room steamer trunk, but she came pretty darn close.

"My mother was teaching dance classes when she was eight months pregnant," says Lathan, whose birth didn't put her mother out of commission for long. "She would put a blanket on the floor under the piano and have me there in her rehearsals and dance classes." Needless to say, as a child she was all too familiar with the notion of Take Our Daughters to Work Day.

"I danced through my whole childhood," remembers Lathan, 34. "I actually wanted to be a dancer, probably up 'til junior high, and then that kind of got shifted." Realizing how hard the life of a hoofer can be and that "many people don't respect people in the entertainment industry all that much," the self-described "brainy kid" and "tomboy" started thinking about other career paths. "I said, 'You know, I don't want to go into the arts. I want to be a lawyer or a doctor. I wanted to have a respectable job.' "

That all changed, however, when a minority recruiter from Yale Drama School showed up at the University of California at Berkeley and convinced the English major, who by that point had begun working with a group called the Black Theatre Workshop, that R-E-S-P-E-C-T could be spelled with an MFA instead of a JD.

"I think me getting in [to Yale] in a weird way validated me in terms of wanting to be an actress. I had a real strong desire to be respected." Plus, when it all came down to it, Lathan says, "I wasn't really all that interested in law. So I'm happy I got in, because, once I was there, I realized that this is what I'm supposed to do."

Though she has had an enviable Hollywood career so far, life for this up-and-coming star hasn't changed all that much since her breakout performance in 2000's "Love & Basketball." That film, in which she played a promising athlete opposite then-real-life boyfriend Omar Epps, brought her national attention, but as far as the actress was concerned, it could just as easily have been her last job in the business. "Every movie that I do," she says, "I have yet to know what I'm doing next before the movie's over."

"It can be pretty scary. There's a lot of faith involved," Lathan says, explaining her "strong intention to not take jobs for money."

Er, can we bring up 2004's "Alien vs. Predator," in which Lathan did battle against two sci-fi beasties in subterranean Antarctica?

"Listen," says Lathan, without missing a beat. "I don't know what you thought about it, but I thought that this was really special, in that this is a fierce-ass woman who is very" -- and here she pauses, but only for a second, as if she's wondering whether she's about to go too far in her own defense -- "mythical and heroic, if you want to just get deep with it. I mean, it's entertainment, but it's a first, in that this is two major franchises coming together, and it's a black woman who is the sole survivor. I, just on that level, wanted to do it."

True to her latest project's name, Lathan believes her work on "Something New" is another first. There have been interracial love stories in film before, she explains, but no movie this high-profile involving a black woman with a white man, instead of a white woman with a black man. "That really is something new," she insists, but not just for that reason alone. "Usually those films are the couple against the world, but this is about her dealing with her internal struggle about being with a white man -- which is real."

It's a struggle she knows all too well. "I've even dealt with it in terms of dating interracially, where there's a certain guilt that happens, because of our history," she says. "Our history is so loaded, we're so intertwined, yet there's so much unconscious stuff that happens. Like you could be in a happy, wonderful dating situation with a white man, and then be terrified to go to a black event. I've literally talked girlfriends through this, like 'You have to go, girl' -- you know? -- 'Don't worry about what they're thinking.' And one of the things that is so ironic is that the pressure that you get is from your own people. You're 'abandoning' your own."

Although she's quick to note that "Something New" is not a message movie, she believes that it does touch on some still-volatile issues of identity.

"What I find is that, because we do live in a white world, you become -- it's weird -- black people become more conscious of themselves being black than a white person is of being white." That's because, for white people, she says, "there's like an ownership. 'This is my world. I see myself. From the time I'm little, I see myself reflected.' " If there is a moral to the movie, Lathan says, it's that we need to step outside of these little cages of our own making.

"It's almost as if you become your own imprisoner," Lathan says about our all-too-common willingness to define ourselves only as others see us. "Do you know what I mean? You start to see yourself -- and I don't think this is a good thing -- as 'I am a Black Woman.' " Buy into that too deeply, she says, and you may end up looking at the world through a very narrow window indeed.



Interracial dating story appeals to Lathan

By LAURA RANDALL
For the Daily News


BEVERLY HILLS - In her latest film, "Something New," Sanaa Lathan plays a Wharton graduate on the fast track to making partner at a big Los Angeles accounting firm. Along the way, she falls for the sensitive-yet-sexy gardener (Simon Baker) she hired to landscape her backyard.

The catch: She's black, he's white, and she tells him she doesn't "do white guys." What follows is a serio-comic tale of interracial dating as seen through the eyes of an educated black career woman. That's what attracted Lathan to the script by first-time screenwriter Kriss Turner.

"This is the first time you've really seen this issue dealt with from inside the relationship from a black woman's perspective," she said during an interview with the Daily News at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel. "It's usually the couple against the world, the couple against their families, and in this case it really was her own prejudices that came up and her having to deal with that."

The original title of "Something New," which opens today, was "42.4 Percent," in reference to a Detroit Free Press report that identified that figure as the percentage of black women who never marry.

Turner, a writer and producer for TV's "Everybody Loves Chris," pegged Lathan to play the ambitious Kenya McQueen right away. "There was no one else," Turner said. "She has such sophistication, she is a real woman, and she's a wonderful actress."

Lathan, 34, may not have the recognition level of Halle Berry, Angela Bassett or Alfre Woodard, who plays her mother in the film, but she holds her own among Hollywood's small cadre of black actresses who get their names above the movie title. After a series of TV guest appearances (she was Steve Urkel's tormenter on an episode of "Family Matters"), Lathan won praise for her role as a proud tomboy in 2000's "Love and Basketball" and went on to land roles opposite Wesley Snipes in HBO's "Disappearing Acts" and Denzel Washington in "Out of Time."

The daughter of showbiz parents who divorced when she was 6, Lathan divided her adolescence between her mom, actress Eleanor McCoy, in New York, and her dad, West Philly-born Stan Lathan, in Beverly Hills, before heading to Berkeley, Calif., and Yale's Graduate School of Drama. Her father is a veteran TV director whose credits include "Sanford and Son," "Hill Street Blues" and HBO's "Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry."

Lathan says her dad initially tried to talk her out of entering the business - "He knows that sometimes talent has nothing to do with success" - but eventually came around. "Now he has to know every move I make," she said. Last month, he hosted a screening of "Something New" in New York with Simmons.

For her next project, Lathan plans to reteam with her "Love and Basketball" director Gina Prince-Bythewood, on a film about a woman who is married to a man who is in prison.

"That's another reality that is pervasive in this country that we don't really get to see," she said. "That's a huge experience for a lot of women."

Lathan, who recently made a point of denying rumors that she had an affair with the married Washington, said she also identified with the "Something New" storyline because, like her character, she has dated outside her race and struggled with feelings of guilt.

"Several years ago I dated a white man seriously and... a lot of stuff came up for me that I didn't even realize was in me," she explained. "Like when it's time to go to a black event or you're walking down the street together and there are five brothers on the corner. That unconscious pressure... to not step out of the race and not abandon your brothers. Interestingly enough, a lot of what I got from the outside came from my own people."

While stopping short of calling it a chick flick, Lathan said she wants "Something New" to draw in women of all races.

"The interracial issue is really a metaphor for stepping outside your box," she said, "and letting go of all preconceived notions about who you should be with, or who you should be."



Rising star is driven but careful

'Something New' actress is selective in picking movie roles

By Chris Kaltenbach
Sun Movie Critic


First things first. Sanaa Lathan wants it known that she's nothing like Kenya McQueen, the obsessive-compulsive, self-doubting, canine-phobic, hopelessly analytical, play-it-safe career woman she brings to the screen in Something New, a love story about stepping over boundaries - especially those imposed by race - opening in theaters today.

"I'm kind of the opposite of her," Lathan says over the phone from Atlanta, in the midst of a nationwide tour promoting the film. "I'm a real nature girl, I have a dog I'm in love with. I'm more like a free spirit, kind of bohemian. ...

"Some people," she says with a beguiling laugh, "call me a hippie; they say, 'You're in the wrong time.'"

But don't make the mistake of thinking all that makes the 34-year-old native New Yorker a pushover. "The only thing we have in common," she says, "is probably the fact that we are both driven in our careers."

Driven, but not in the sense that she's willing to do anything to further it. In a film career dating back to 1998's Blade (where, at 27, she got to play the titular vampire killer's mother), Lathan has chosen her roles carefully. She's avoided being cast as the wisecracking girlfriend or victimized woman, roles typically offered to African-American actresses, in favor of roles with more depth and potential. (OK, she appeared in Alien vs. Predator, but nobody's perfect. At least the film was a hoot.)

While that means she doesn't show up onscreen as often as some of her peers - "There's a lot of faith and patience involved between projects," she explains - when Lathan does show up, it's in movies people are apt to remember.

Her early TV work includes appearances on the standard sitcoms, shows such as In the House, Family Matters and Moesha. Among her first regular gigs was the sitcom LateLine starring Al Franken as a hopelessly egotistical reporter for a TV news magazine.

Onscreen, she's shone in movies like Love and Basketball (2000), in which she and co-star Omar Epps pass through adolescence and into adulthood, never completely abandoning their childhood dreams of stardom in the NBA; Brown Sugar (2002), where she plays a magazine editor tentatively falling into a relationship with Taye Diggs' hip-hop record mogul; and Out of Time (2003), a police thriller where she got to play alongside Denzel Washington.

"I'm not interested in just being in movies," Lathan says. "I want to do things that are important to me, and that are offering something to the world."

In Something New, Lathan's character is so obsessed with making her mark in the world, and with pleasing everyone who could help her do that, that she rarely leaves time for what she wants. That starts to change when she goes on a blind date with Brian (Simon Baker), a carefree, easygoing landscaper whose personality is basically the opposite of hers. He's also white, and Kenya, foreseeing the disapproval she knows she'll be subjected to from her parents, friends and even co-workers, is not at all certain she wants to open that can of worms.

Lathan says she liked the idea that Something New is being told from the point of view of a black woman, a perspective she's never seen onscreen before. She also liked that the story was told in distinctly personal terms; most of the tension is between Kenya and Brian, not between Kenya and Brian and the rest of the world.

"Usually it's the couple against the world, or the couple against the family," she says. "In this case, it's really Kenya dealing with her own demons, her own pressures. This is her own internal struggle, falling in love with someone who's outside of her race."

Sanaa Hamri, a music-video veteran making her big-screen directorial debut with Something New, says Lathan's instincts, her desire to work outside the conventional Hollywood box, made her perfect for the film. "I loved her because she wouldn't take any type of project," Hamri says. "She was very selective about the work that she did.

"I did not want to [use] that stereotypical African-American imagery in Hollywood because I feel that it has not progressed with society and the community. If you take somebody in a small town in Middle America and ask them, 'What does an African-American do?' they'll say either a rapper or a ballplayer, a pimp, a whore. Those are not accurate images of what truly is, and what African-American people are in this country. These people [in the film] are professionals. That was very important to me."

Lathan understands that being picky isn't always the best career choice for an actor; unlike most stars, she can't always cite the next movie she has coming out. She's still in the planning stages of a project with Love & Basketball writer-director Gina Prince-Blythewood, centering on a woman who sets out on a voyage of self-discovery while her husband is in prison.

So despite all the acclaim, the popularity, the good roles behind her, Sanaa Lathan can't say what's up next. And that's OK with her.

"Of course I want more, I'd like to know what the [next] two films are down the line," she says. "I made a decision a long time ago that I wouldn't make any decisions out of fear, any decisions where I'm only in it for the money, or because I'm not working."



News for 2/1/2006


Sanaa Lathan tries ‘Something New’

Actress faces questions about interracial dating in new film, real life

The Associated Press


NEW YORK - Let Go, Let Flow. That's the theme of the romantic comedy "Something New," starring Sanaa Lathan as an affluent black woman who falls in love with her white landscaper. And in many ways that's the theme of Lathan's personal love life as well. The 34-year-old beauty, who is currently single, spoke to The Associated Press about interracial dating on screen and in real life.

AP: Why did you decide to take this role?

Lathan: It was a good script. I could read it in one sitting which is very telling. And I identify with this character and I know that this is a character we haven't really seen on screen before. We have not seen an interracial issue dealt with from a black woman and white man's perspective in this way. And, usually, it's a black man, white woman. I loved the fact that it wasn't about the couple being against the world or the couple against the family. I loved the fact that it was her dealing with her own prejudices that came up, her own guilt, her own shame and embarrassment about what her peers thought.

AP: Have you been involved in an interracial relationship?

Lathan: I've been in a couple with different races like Latino, white, Middle Eastern.

AP: Did you find any major differences between the cultures?

Lathan: Yeeesss, there is. There really is a difference. But you know what? Everybody is different. I can think of three black men I've dated and they couldn't be more different from each other.

AP: How does your family or friends react when you date someone who is different from you?

Lathan: People are going to always have their opinions whether you date a black man or not. I've had girlfriends, family members comment on black men that I've dated as well as white people. People want to see what they want to see. And if anybody doesn't fit that picture they're going to be like, 'Yeah, I didn't see you with him.' I remember after I dated this white man, nobody said anything but there was a couple of men in my family that joked after that. 'Oh yeah, we had a party when y'all broke up. Hee hee hee.' And, you know, they laughed, and it was like light and a joke. But, you know, that's real. That was real and they let me know. And, it's almost acceptable within our culture to be prejudiced toward whites because of our history. This country is loaded with racism ...

Like the guy I was dating. White, liberal, educated. I went to meet his family and I think that they probably didn't know they had a problem with it until he walked in with me. And they definitely had issues. Mom had issues with it. Could not, didn't want to see her son. And I don't think she had anything against me. But it was about her son bringing me home. And I felt that for the first time. I was like, 'Wow, that's deep.' It's really simple: I don't fit their picture. And then there was moments with him where like we would be in Harlem. There would be five brothers in the corner, and this is an awful feeling but you're holding his hand and you want to pull your hand away cause you don't want the judgment. And you're gonna get the judgment even if it's just in looks. And the black men are the worst when it comes to judging.

AP: Do you think interracial dating is on the rise for black women, particularly black professional women?

Lathan: I think that has to be, it has to happen, if we don't want to be alone. Because you know the inspiration for this movie was this Newsweek article that came out a couple of years ago that talks about 42.4 percent of black women in America aren't married. Black women are shooting up the corporate ladder way faster than our black male counterparts. And (black men) are either dating outside their race, in jail or dying. And so if you want to have a family, you want to be married, you have to look at other options.

AP: Do you think it's more acceptable for black men to date outside their race?

Lathan: I don't know if it's more acceptable or if black men are more comfortable. Black men certainly are more comfortable with it. I don't know that society, like white society loves it or black women. When you see a black man with a white woman there is a feeling that you have and I think the feeling is an instinctual feeling of you want her you don't want me. I don't look anything like her, so you don't like. You know what I mean? Something like that. It's a real instinctual primal thing. But then you think about it, you should love who you love.

AP: Let talk about that. In the movie, there's this whole thing about IBM...

Lathan: Yes, Ideal Black Man.

AP: And there is a list of qualifications, what type of job, how much money he makes, what kind of car he drives. How does this relate to your personal life?

Lathan: My characteristics aren't as specific. I'm more general. I'm more like, I have to be able to talk to him. You know, we have to have good communications. He has to be interested in the world. You know what I mean. Like interested in learning and adventurous and curious, 'cause that's what I am. He has to be passionate about something. And it would be nice if he had a job. It's not like he has to have an MBA.

AP: There was an article in Vibe which mentioned rumors about you and Denzel Washington. Some people read your quote and said you didn't deny the rumors.

Lathan: I did deny it.

AP: Are you officially on record saying you deny the rumors about your relationship with Denzel?

Lathan: I am officially on record denying the rumors.

AP: In portraying Kenya McQueen, is there anything new you discovered about interracial dating?

Lathan: Absolutely. I think I'm definitely more open. You know the thing is I wouldn't have said I was closed before, but like, it's the kind of thing that you don't even think of other options. I've been dating black men for really, for like, I don't know, 10 years. You know, I haven't really dated outside of that. Now I think I'm probably am more open to the idea.

AP: What are some things people can take away from this movie?

Lathan: I think it's very universal in that, first of all, it's a love story at the core. It's really about following your heart. It's about, you know, that life may bring you something that didn't fit what you thought. That could be anything from religion to class to even like a job. It doesn't necessarily have to be love but it's just about opening up and saying yes. Stepping outside of that comfort zone. Seeing what's there that might bring you your highest happiness.



News for 1/30/2006


Lathan: Follow heart to happiness

By Stephen Schaefer/ Movies


Just because Sanaa Lathan is, at 34, an established Hollywood leading lady and single doesn’t mean she’s playing someone like herself in “Something New,” opening Friday.

In this interracial romantic comedy, Lathan’s Kenya is, like the actress, an overachiever with enough savvy and college degrees to be in line for a law partnership. Kenya has the house, the car and the expense account. What she doesn’t have is the man of her dreams.

That’s when Simon Baker’s soulful white guy - a landscape architect who creates a lush garden in her back yard - enters the picture and fights for a place in her heart.

Screenwriter Kriss Turner said, “I was 39, still single, and while my career was going well, my love life was not. Then I see this Newsweek cover story that says 42.4 percent of black women have never been married. I think, ‘OK, I’m not such a loser.’ Also, when I’m around a bunch of black professional women, we’re all going, ‘Where are they? Are we going to go out of our race to find love?’ I realized: That’s the title of a movie! ‘42.4 Percent.’ ”

The title soon changed, but the leading lady didn’t. Lathan was the first and only choice.

During a one-on-one interview, Lathan acknowledged that in movies today, whether it’s Sarah Jessica Parker’s character in “The Family Stone” or hers in “Something New,” the uptight female executive is a cliche.

“There is truth to stereotypes, and who Kenya is mirrors a lot of women in society nowadays,” Lathan said. “We’re climbing up the corporate ladder, and we’re making the same amount of money as men. So it’s important to see what her conflict is. She’s so successful in her career, but she hasn’t had a date in two years.”

But for Lathan, “Something New” isn’t about how Kenya finds romance with someone white or the complications that can come with a family that disapproves of interracial dating.

“Going in, I think people expect that it’s about race, and then they experience the movie, which is really a love story,” she said. “It’s about how Kenya blossoms and learns to think and follow her heart.”

As for her own heart, Lathan doesn’t seem worried about her single status. Tony-nominated when she starred opposite Sean Combs in Broadway’s hit revival of “A Raisin in the Sun” and probably best known to international moviegoers for starring in “AVP: Alien vs. Predator,” she said, “I try not to listen to those statistics. If I listened, I wouldn’t become an actor. They say only 2 percent of actors make a living at it. Nowadays, I don’t worry about having babies. Our technology is so amazing. Isn’t there a 67-year-old woman having a baby in Eastern Europe? I try not to let that pressure get to me.”

Lathan allowed a smile. “I want to have it all,” she said. “I want it all.”



Sanaa tries 'Something New'

By Cindy Pearlman
Sun-Times Columnist


Sanaa Lathan will not blindly go into the dating world. She has been there, and it didn't turn out happily ever after.

"I did agree to a blind date a few weeks ago," says the screen beauty. "It was actually a blind drink, and I went with my cousin and other people.

"It was 30 minutes and then he turned into a stalker," she says, laughing. "No, he didn't show up at my house, but he called about 20 times too many. I made it clear and said, 'Do not call me.' He said, 'I thought you were playing hard to get.' "

Dating is on Lathan's mind as a career woman who falls for a landscape artist (Simon Baker) in her new romantic comedy called "Something New" opening Feb. 3.

The New York native whose name in Swahili means "work of art" grew up mixing athletics and the arts, then studied at the Yale School of Drama. Stage work led to a defunct NBC sitcom called "LateLine," then movies such as "Blade" (1998), "The Best Man" (1999), "The Wood" (1999), "Love & Basketball" (2000) and then the HBO film "Disappearing Acts" (2000).

One of the things I loved about "Something New" is there have been a lot of interracial love stories, usually between a black man and a white woman. In this case, it's a black woman who has fallen in love with this white man and is having a struggle. In her mind, she always wanted to be with a black man. It's a very fresh idea.

I've had girlfriends who have basically dated and had great relationships with white men. But then they go to a black event and they're nervous. There is a sense of "Wassup sister? Why are you going there? How could you?"

I do understand that it's about building up the black family and not abandoning each other. I can see both sides, but in the end it's about the two people in love.

I'm single. I don't like it. Dating should be an opportunity to figure out what you like and don't like. I understand that, but as you get older you know what you want and need more. There are a lot of things you just won't take.

My deal breaker? Well, I have a 1-year-old English bulldog. He's like my child. People don't realize that's a deal-breaker. If you don't like my dog, goodbye!

I didn't have the typical struggling-actor route. I went to drama school for three years then got out to do a quick stint in telemarketing. But I was also doing off-Broadway. Then I pretty much started working and was able to pay my rent. Then I hit pay dirt.

No, it wasn't a movie. I got a Secret deodorant commercial. It paid my rent for a year. But I didn't get free Secret, although I still use it to this day.

I've been lucky with my career. People see me as a strong woman on screen. People want me to play strong women, but I'd like to play a victim and stretch my acting muscles.

I had a nice time with the men in my movies. I've been lucky that way. Love scenes are funny though. To me, the guys like Wesley (Snipes) and Simon (Baker) aren't sex symbols. They're just regular guys.

When I'm kissing them and doing love scenes with them, I just remind myself that they're regular guys. You can't think, 'Oh my, I'm here with a big sex symbol.' You'll drive yourself crazy that way.

A lot of men can't handle a woman who is into her career. I guess a man equates his worth with his job and money because it's no longer who is the fastest man or the strongest. Maybe I'll find the guy.



News for 1/17/2006


Lathan Denies Fling With Denzel Washington


Sanaa Lathan denies she had an affair with Denzel Washington, her co-star in the 2003 thriller "Out of Time," in the February issue of Vibe.

"(The rumor) got started because the movie had a love scene with Denzel, and people took that and translated it to real life," the 34-year-old actress tells the magazine, now on newsstands.

"They said I was pregnant with Denzel's child, and people were calling my mother, saying I'm having his baby. It's frustrating. People are going to talk no matter what."

Washington, 51, has been married to his wife, Pauletta, for 22 years.

A call by The Associated Press to the actor's representative wasn't immediately returned Tuesday.

Lathan stars in the upcoming romantic comedy "Something New."

Washington, who won Oscars for his roles in "Glory" and "Training Day," stars in Spike Lee's new film, "Inside Man."



News for 12/13/2005


Rumors are of Essence for Sanaa

By Lloyd Grove


I hear that glam actress Sanaa Lathan - who'll be on the cover of Essence's March issue - was complaining the other day about the mag's allegedly "tabloid-like measures" in grilling her over unsubstantiated Internet rumors of an affair and love child with Denzel Washington.

At two L.A. parties in recent days, according to Lowdown spies at both events, Lathan was overheard slagging off the mag - whose writer Jeannine Amber had asked her the unwelcome questions about Washington, Lathan's co-star in the 2003 movie "Out of Time," after Lathan had already sat for a long interview and a two-day cover shoot.

"She said she was extremely disappointed by Essence. She would expect this behavior from a tabloid, not a magazine that is supposed to celebrate black women," said a source.

But yesterday - not surprisingly - everybody involved said there was never any problem.

"She's totally happy with the magazine, and has no issues or concerns with them at all," Lathan's PR rep told me. "In the interview, the rumors did come up, but they knew very well she wasn't pregnant, and the question came up in the context of how do such rumors affect her life."

An Essence spokeswoman wholeheartedly agreed with this interpretation.

"We're thrilled to have Sanaa Lathan grace our March cover, and in her first solo cover for Essence," the flack told me. "We've had a wonderful experience for her and her team."

The cover story is pegged to the February release of Lathan's interracial romantic comedy, "Something New."



News for 12/12/2004


Baker & Lathan in 42.4 Percent


Focus Features has cast Simon Baker (The Ring Two) and Sanaa Lathan (Alien vs. Predator) to star in "42.4 Percent," an interracial love story.

Sanaa Hamri is making her directorial debut and production is slated to begin in February, reports Variety.

Lathan plays an African-American professional who's well aware that 42.4% of her race never gets married. Determined to find love, she falls for a white landscaper.

The film was written by Kriss Turner and will be produced by Stephanie Allain of Homegrown Pictures.



News for 9/13/2004


The following article appeared in the August 30, 2004 issue of Jet Magazine





The following article appeared in the August 2004 issue of Upscale Magazine





News for 9/1/2004


Actress Lathan Deals With 'Alien' Divas


NEW YORK (AP) - Sanaa Lathan shared the stage with rap mogul Sean "P. Diddy" Combs in "A Raisin in the Sun" on Broadway, but the 32-year-old actress says the Hollywood monsters in "Alien vs. Predator" were far more high-maintenance than Combs ever was.

"Alien vs. Predator" is set in Antarctica, where scientists are scoping out an ancient pyramid discovered below the ice. The gang, which includes expedition leader Alexa Woods (Lathan), stumbles onto two extraterrestrial races fighting it out under the tundra.

"Both (the Alien and the Predator) were extreme divas," Lathan tells People magazine in its Sept. 6 issue. "They had their own crews and glam squads."

"Before every take they had to be re-slimed _ the Alien needed to have the perfect amount of goo and fluorescent blood," she said. "At all times, the crew had two buckets: one of watery slime and the other of thick slime. Several times when I had to scream, the goo got in my mouth. It was gross."

"Alien vs. Predator" was written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, director of "Resident Evil" and "Mortal Kombat."

Lathan's films also include "Brown Sugar" and "Love & Basketball."



Sanaa Lathan@Africana.com



News for 8/11/2004


Sanaa Lathan Interview



News for 6/9/2004


The following interview appeared in the May 31, 2004 issue of People Magazine





News for 5/12/2004


Jackman, Mays, Tartaglia, Westfeldt, Lathan, Morton, Jones Among Winners of Theatre World Awards

By Ernio Hernandez
Playbill.com


The Theatre World Awards, which honor performers for making their first major New York stage performance (Broadway or Off-Broadway debuts), were announced May 11. The winners will be celebrated at a ceremony to be held May 24.The 2003 Theatre World Awards winners are:

Shannon Cochran, Bug
Stephanie D'Abruzzo, Avenue Q
Mitchel David Federan, The Boy From Oz
Alexander Gemignani, Assassins
Hugh Jackman, The Boy From Oz
Isabel Keating, The Boy From Oz
Sanaa Lathan, A Raisin in the Sun
Jefferson Mays, I Am My Own Wife
Euan Morton, Taboo
Anika Noni Rose, Caroline, or Change
John Tartaglia, Avenue Q
Jennifer Westfeldt, Wonderful Town

Special Theatre World Award
Sarah Jones, bridge & tunnel

First presented in 1945, the Theatre World Awards are among the oldest theatrical awards. Traditionally, a committee of theatre writers choose six men and six women. On occasion, the awards bestow a Special Theatre World Award on "performers, casts or others who have made a particularly lasting impression on the New York theatre scene," as stated on the website. One has not been awarded since the 2000-01 season when Stones in His Pockets stars Sean Campion and Conleth Hill won.

This year's winners were chosen by a panel that included Playbill's own Harry Haun, Peter Filichia (News 12 New Jersey), Ben Hodges (Theatre World), Matthew Murray (Theatermania), Frank Scheck (Hollywood Reporter), Michael Sommers (The Star Ledger), Linda Winer (Newsday) and John Willis (Theatre World).

Previous Theatre World Award winners La Chanze, Viola Davis, Jarrod Emick, and Lonny Price are scheduled to present the awards at the invitation-only Theatre World Awards presentation at Studio 54, May 24.



News for 12/6/2003


Epic Film Set for Zimbabwe

Nyasha Bhosha


ZIMBABWE meets Hollywood in a movie set to be filmed in the Eastern Highlands early next year.

Brainstorm Entertainment Media, a motion picture production company based in Los Angeles and owned by young Zimbabweans, is working on the epic adventure story Nzinga starring Sanaa Lathan (Love and Basketball, Brown Sugar, Best Man).

"We have signed Lathan to star as Nzinga with her box-office gross being approximately US$30m," said Simbai Chizengeni, one of the producers.

"The movie will feature (film) stars from the US and South Africa, with Euzhan Palcy as the director. Palcy has already worked in Zimbabwe, having directed A Dry White Season (shot in Zimbabwe) and Sugar Cane Alley," he added.

Nzinga will be filmed in Zimbabwe and Angola with the production crew coming from South Africa, Angola and Zimbabwe.

The movie, set to be filmed early next year, is currently in its pre-production stage. Nzinga tells the story of Queen Nzinga of Angola and her resistance to slavery and European colonisation. Nzinga was a fearless warrior who managed to blur the distinction between male and female warriors.

According to script writer, Edward Chitate, the story of Nzinga begins when at the age of 15 she witnesses the massacre of an entire village by marauding Portuguese slave traders - an event that would forever be etched in her memory.

"We track Nzinga's life as we see her fall in love and overcome the treachery of her brother and other African chiefs to eventually claim the throne. Queen Nzinga's legend grows to mythical proportions as she manages to defeat the Portuguese and curb their slave raids and forays into the interior of Angola," said Chitate.

Chitate, who is also the producer of Nzinga and founder of Brainstorm Entertainment Media has written, directed and produced two feature films in Los Angels; Almost Too Late and Faux Pas. He has also directed and produced two music videos; Black Queen and Love in the Club.

His first production, Almost Too Late, is a romantic drama about a girl dealing with sickle cell illness while Faux Pas is a black murder mystery starring Monica Calhoun (Best Man).

Currently, Chitate says he is also working on a black TV drama series Howard Blues, which is told from the perspective of medical school students.



News for 11/9/2003


Sanaa Lathan Interview w/San Francisco Bay View



News for 10/27/2003


Sanaa Lathan vs. Alien vs. Predator

Source: 20th Century Fox


Twentieth Century Fox announced today that the studio has finalized casting for Alien vs. Predator, in which the iconic monsters from two of the scariest film franchises ever, battle each other for the first time on film.

Alien vs. Predator (also known as AvP) begins principal photography October 28, in Prague. Fox releases the film August, 2004.

The studio auditioned hundreds of actresses for the coveted lead role of explorer and adventurer Alexia "Lex" Kline, who finds herself caught between two alien races engaged in the ultimate battle. Sanaa Latham, currently starring with Denzel Washington in Out of Time, takes on the role, which will remind fans of another iconic action heroine: Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley of the "Alien" film franchise. Latham also starred in the recent Fox Searchlight hit Brown Sugar.

Raoul Bova, who appears opposite Diane Lane in Under the Tuscan Sun, portrays Sebastian Wells, an archaeologist pursuing a buried civilization in Antarctica, only to make an even more terrifying discovery. One of the most popular actors in contemporary Italian cinema, Bova currently is featured in a series of provocative GAP ads.

Lance Henriksen, who appeared in Aliens (as the android "Bishop") and Alien 3, portrays Charles Bishop Weyland, a billionaire industrialist who funds and leads the Antarctic project that unearths the warring Alien and Predator races.

Also taking on a key role is British actor Ewen Bremmer, who plays a wayward pilot in The Rundown.



News for 10/3/2003


Femme fatale


Sanaa Lathan turns Denzel on in 'Out of Time'


By JOE NEUMAIER
DAILY NEWS FEATURE WRITER


Her first name sounds like "Sinatra" without the "tra." But you can just skip that and call Sanaa Lathan the Next Hot Thing. In "Out of Time," opening tomorrow, she's responsible for getting Denzel Washington into his steamiest scenes since 1990's "Mo' Better Blues."

"The script terrified me when I first read it. It was really graphic," Lathan says, her brown eyes opening wide for emphasis.

"The whole thing scared me - the physical and emotional places I had to go to. I hadn't done a role with this many edges before."

The movie's steamy love scenes reminded Lathan of an issue she says she encountered in 2000 on "Love & Basketball" with Omar Epps.

"I don't know if Hollywood is comfortable with black actors doing love scenes," she says. Lathan won an NAACP Image Award for the role.

"The ratings board was going to give 'Love & Basketball' an R because of one very emotional love scene in which you didn't even see any nudity. They nonetheless said it was 'highly erotic,' " Latham says.

"At the time, there were several major films starring white actors that had [more graphic] sex that were rated PG-13. And you can only infer that it was because ours was between two people of color."

Ultimately, the scene was cut a bit to get a PG-13 rating.

"Out of Time," she says, "was originally written for white actors. I still could have played [her character] if there'd been a white lead actor instead of Denzel," though she doubts that would have happened.

Should race be such a big factor in casting? "I'd love to have that be a nonissue," she says.

Washington stars as Matt Whitlock, a Florida police chief having an affair with a sultry but secretive married woman, Anne (Lathan). After Matt steals money that Anne needs for a medical operation, she turns up dead, making the chief the prime suspect.

"I think the roles actors take reflect where they are in life," Lathan says. "Anne is powerful and doesn't apologize for it. She's the first full-blooded woman I've played."

"She's so beautiful, though she doesn't lead with that," says "Out of Time" director Carl Franklin. "Her sexuality is only one weapon in her arsenal. She has a kinetic intelligence. You can see her thinking onscreen."

Lathan comes from a show-business family. Her mother, Eleanor McCoy, is a New York stage actress ("The Wiz," "Timbuktu"), and her father, Stan Lathan, is a TV director and producer. They divorced when she was 5, and Lathan grew up mainly in Spanish Harlem with her mom.

A self-described "brainy kid" in public school, Lathan went to Beverly Hills High, Berkeley and the Yale School of Drama. After breaking in with OffBroadway and TV roles, she has appeared in a number of high-profile movies - first with boyfriend Omar Epps in "The Wood" and "Love & Basketball," then opposite Wesley Snipes in HBO's "Disappearing Acts," and Taye Diggs in last year's big-screen romance "Brown Sugar."

Lathan says Sanaa means "work of art" in Swahili.

But before people get to know her name, they have to know how to pronounce it.

"I'm used to people messing it up," she says. "But I'd rather be Sanaa than something plain any day."



Carl Franklin & Sanaa Lathan Interview
Celeb Of The Day: Sanaa Lathan



News for 6/1/2003


Mother & daughter interview from the May 2003 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine.