There’s nothing better than an odd couple/dynamic duo!
One such duo, Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton, took the time to sit down and talk to GlobalGrind about their new movie, Joyful Noise, an inspirational story of hope, love, faith and of course, amazing music.
It is an absolute must-see movie for the entire family.
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Dolly and Queen teamed up with Keke Palmer, who plays Queen Latifah’s daughter in the film, and Jeremy Jordan, who plays Keke’s love interest and support.
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The two opened up about mother/daughter relationships, marriage, the power of faith and how they themselves can relate to the characters they play in the film.
You play two wonderful characters who are mixing the genres of pop, rock, country, soul, R&B in Joyful Noise.
Dolly Parton: We love the fact that we got to do all that, didn’t we?
Queen Latifah: Yes we do.
Dolly Parton: And we think we did it well, we had such a wonderful group of people around us. And it was just a joyful time making this joyful noise, don’t you agree?
Queen Latifah: Absolutely.
You have a great line at the beginning of the movie about mothers and daughters. Queen, did playing a mom make you think about what your mom went through raising you and what kind of teenager you were?
Queen Latifah: It really does and I’m pretty clear about what kind of teenager I was.
Dolly Parton: Were you a wild one?
Were you a terror?
Queen Latifah: I kinda got into a lil’ bit. You don’t come this far without pushing a couple of barriers. My mother and I definitely got to a point where we had to have a real conversation and talk woman to woman, or daughter to mother, friend to friend – just off the record, clear the air and communicate. I didn’t want to drive my mama crazy, but at the same time, I had to do, I had to learn, I had to grow and she understood that. She knows me better than anyone else on the planet so I tried to think about that. You know your kids and they know you and you know you love each other. I think that was the relationship that my character and Keke’s characters had.
Dolly, you wrote an original piece for the film, “From Here to the Moon and Back.” You wrote it for your husband of 30 years. We also heard that you write a song a day.
Dolly Parton: I used to try to write a song a day. I’ve been so busy lately. I’ll always think of something to write, I’ll write a song title down, but I love to write, that’s my favorite thing that I do. I’ve been doing that all of my life since I was a little girl.
And what is this secret of literally 30 plus years of marriage?
Dolly Parton: We’re good friends first of all and I stay gone, that helps.
We get along real well actually. We’ve been married 45 years going on 46. We give each other space and he’s not in the business and he doesn’t want to be. I’m interested in his world, he’s interested in mine, but we have our own things that we do together.
Queen, you play a single mom protecting her daughter with religion and faith. How does your character Vi Rose hold it all together?
Queen Latifah: I think it’s important to raise your kids, start ‘em early. I got started early in the church, so did Dolly. Teaching them the values and morals, so when they get out there on their own, you know they have it. They just have to remember to use it, but they have it.
My character really can understand that. This woman is trying to hold it together, she’s trying to handle two teenage children, she’s a nurse. We all know what nurses go through and what kind of shifts they have to work sometimes.
Her son has Asperger’s syndrome and her husband is in the military away. So she’s trying to hold it together and this choir is part of her keeping everything in control, but she’s gotta let go sometimes. You can’t do it all and things have to change and people have to grow.
Sometimes things get out of control and you have to find a way. That’s when you have to use that faith. You have to believe it.
I learned so many lessons just filming this movie and learning from the different characters and their stories that I can apply to my own life. I love when I can do a movie that I can apply to my own life and I think people can do that when they see this film.
