Queen Latifah insists on a “no death clause” when signing up for new projects to ensure her character doesn’t die onscreen.
The actress has carved out a stellar career in Hollywood since rising to fame as a rapper in the late 1980s.
But during a recent appearance on “The Drew Barrymore Show,” Latifah revealed that she has a “no death clause” added to her contracts to ensure she isn’t killed off in a film or TV show, as she often was in early performances.
“You know, what happened at the beginning of my career…my characters died in the movies, and apparently I died my aas off,” she joked. “I was like, ‘Wait a minute, if I keep dying in these movies, I can’t do a sequel.'”
After getting fed up with being viewed as expendable, she then advised her team, “Yo, we got to put a no-death clause in my contracts. Henceforth, we kind of threw it in there.”
She continued: “I was like, ‘No more dying. No more getting shot up by 300 bullets in this car.'”
However, Latifah noted that she isn’t as strict regarding showing her body onscreen and hasn’t followed other stars in pursuing “no nudity” clauses in contracts.
“I was like no, you can show my butt if you need to. Here’s my butt, and it’s live,” the Chicago star smiled.
Latifah, real name Dana Elaine Owens, has most recently been promoting her new Netflix movie, “End of the Road.”