Queen Latifah is righting the wrongs of a dark and unjust world in the newest, badass rendition of The Equalizer.
Taking the reigns from Denzel Washington, Latifah stars in the new CBS reboot about a single mom who no one suspects is the guardian angel of the downtrodden. Everybody needs a hero, and Latifah’s Robyn McCall has the perfect skills to stick it to those who run over those who can’t fight back.
Speaking with Entertainment Tonight, Latifah says that when she first took on this project in 2019, she had no idea how dark the real world was about to get. After a historic and tumultuous 2020 -- full of racial strife, social evils, and a deadly virus that’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen, The Equalizer is “right on time” and exactly what we all need.
“...I felt like this would be a great opportunity to take all the things I've learned throughout my career and my life and be able to exact some justice. Even if it's just on television. It's a powerful medium and people need to see some justice for a change."
True to form, Latifah is also making sure different groups of people are represented both on-screen and behind the camera.
"It's been a mission throughout my career from the point that I garnered any sort of decisive power to make sure that my crews look like the world that I grew up in, that my casts look like the world that I grew up in, if possible. That I was able to employ people who, when I look beyond that camera, that I did not just see white men," she said.
Latifah isn’t new to action projects, but the last one we all remember is the film Set It Off. So how did she prepare for 2021’s The Equalizer?
"I actually do have to train. I do have to do stunts and I give all the props to the stunt crew and the stunt folks... the fight coordinators, the special effects people, my motorcycle double, my car doubles. I definitely have to handle weaponry, have to fight," she said. "The brain is the biggest weapon I have to use on this show, but you will definitely see the action and that's really the training, the stunt coordination that we do here to make it as efficient as possible, you know.
Latifah also said she is comfortable with the role’s demands because her father, who was in law enforcement, taught her many of these things growing up.
After The Equalizer’s Sunday, Feb. 7 debut on CBS after Super Bowl LV, it airs on Sunday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
