When asked about the challenges of playing an HIV-positive wife and mother, as she does in HBO's "Life Support," Queen Latifah says, "The only challenge was trying to stay in character when you've got people driving past you on the street going, 'Queen!' 'Do it Latifah!' 'That's LATIFAH!' "

"Most people try to be respectful, but they're excited to see you, and they're hitting you with the name or some record that you did, so that was the greatest challenge," she says. "Playing this character wasn't."

To play Ana, a peer counselor at an AIDS facility in Brooklyn whose past drug addiction has put a strain on her family relationships, Latifah (nee Dana Owens) channeled the muse of the New York streets where the New Jersey girl hung out as a teenager.

"I grew up around these women and around these streets, so it was probably one of the more relatable backdrops that I've been able to sort of step into," says Latifah, coifed in blonde and auburn curls.

"I felt like I really could relate to the characters ... a family disrupted by drug addiction," she continues. "I could relate to Ana's sense of wanting to get out there and see what life had to offer, although we took dramatically different turns. And redemption as well, having the second chance of really trying to repair those relationships after you feel like, OK, I messed up, but I'm back on track, and I really want to get things back to where they were."