Meet the stars of 'Secret Life of Bees'

The bees are buzzing, so is the Oscar talk, but most mellifluous are the four women who star in the all-star "The Secret Life of Bees," which opens today at local theaters and had its world premiere a few weeks ago at the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada.

They play Southern women, characters from the 2002 novel by Sue Monk Kidd set in South Carolina in 1964 soon after LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act. It was filmed in Wilmington, N.C., with a cast that includes the world's most acclaimed child actress, an Oscar-winning former "Dreamgirl," a rapper-turned-actress who calls herself "Queen" and a reigning pop star named Alicia Keys.

We talked to all of them last month - on the streets of Toronto, and around, and here's what they said - or at least the part we can print.

DAKOTA FANNING

There once was a little girl named Dakota who knitted socks for Tom Cruise and was wise way beyond her years. Born in small-town Georgia, she had a professional tennis player for a mom and a pro baseball player for a dad. Her first job, at age 5, was a TV commercial with Ray Charles and, with the movie "I Am Sam" (the 2001 film co-starring Sean Penn and Michelle Pfeiffer) she became the youngest actress (age 8) ever to be nominated for a Screen Actors' Guild Award.

She is no longer that little girl.

Dakota Fanning may actually grow up to be a babe, while still remaining one of the best actresses working in film. She once was the most intelligent but not precious of all child actresses - smarter than most adults but, remarkably, not acting "smarty." An amazing child. In "The Secret Life of Bees," at age 14, she plays Lily, the girl who runs away from her abusive father (Paul Bettany) and finds a hiding place with three eccentric sisters who run a honey business.

"It's the first time I've worked with a predominantly female cast," she said. "Also, the writer and director are women. It was a very nurturing and loving place to be. The ladies I work with are very funny. Of course, I knew nothing of the civil rights era. My grandmother told me what I needed to know, which was a lot. My grandmother was raised by black women, and her dad adopted an African American boy, so she grew up with him as well. She grew up in the South during the civil rights era."

"I suppose my 'little girl roles' are behind me. It's not that I'm trying to grow up too fast. It's just that I must play the age I am, or the casting people think that. Actually, I think I could play an old woman. I'd know how to play it, but no one will give me that job.' '

There was controversy recently when, at 12, she was cast in an independent film called "Hounddog," also set in the South. She played a girl who was raped. The film was first booked and then banned by the AMC movie chain, after protests. There were online petitions to have her mother arrested.

"It was a great part, and it in no way compromised me," she said. "It is very sad what has happened to that movie. People who haven't seen it think it is some kind of horrible, forbidden thing. It is not. I am an actress. I am quite separate from roles I play. This, though, is definitely what I want to do with the rest of my life."

She's a high school sophomore now. She was home-schooled earlier in her career but now likes going to public school. She'd like to go to college but doesn't "want it to interfere with any good roles. I'll get my college credits in between parts."

She is 14 going on 35.

QUEEN LATIFAH

Only a confident woman would name herself Queen Latifah, and Dana Owens, a Newark, N.J., native, is a confident woman.

In "Bees," she plays the matriarchal figure who knows the ways of bees and has turned them into a successful business. Latifah, on the other hand, knows the ways of show business, having been Oscar-nominated for playing prison warden Mama Morton in "Chicago" (2002).

"Dakota," she said, "is an amazing actress at any age. Totally open. Honest. But, still, she's like a young girl. The kid is hilarious. She's been acting longer than any of us. We had a grand time on the set."

She named herself Queen Latifah at age 19 when she made her first rap album, "All Hail the Queen," which was released in 1989. She won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance and has been nominated six other times. She made her film debut in 1991 with a small part in Spike Lee's "Jungle Feve r."

She's become the heroine of what she calls "the full-figured woman." "I've had no problem with my body for a long, long time now, although I set out to lose 5 percent of my body weight last year, and did. I eat, mostly, what I want. I drink. I live life to the fullest."

She is a spokeswoman for Cover Girl make-up for "women of color" which, according to her, is "the most neglected market in cosmetics."

She's glad to fill the void.

"As a kid, I knew I had to work harder than the white kids and the boys. So be it. Let's get on with it."

She laughed when I reminded her that the first time I met her was when she wore camouflage fatigue outfits and was surrounded by body guards. The next time, a year later, she was in a designer gown and was genteel.

"I'm more like I am now. I like jewels and pretty things. My early rapper years were an act. Now I still rap but I don't dress down. Hopefully, I can rap and still be wealthy. If not, then, maybe I won't rap."

ALICIA KEYS

Decked out all in red, pop singer Alicia Keys, 28, deflected the exclamations about her outfit. "This is nothing. Something off the rack. You should see what I'm going to wear tonight to the premiere."

In addition to the "Bees" premiere, she was in Toronto to film the music video of the title song for the next James Bond movie, "Quantum of Solace," coming out in November. She's working with Jack White of the White Stripes on the song.

"It's the first time, ever, that a duet has been the title song," she said. "I'm really thrilled to be a part of a Bond movie. That's like getting immortality. Does it qualify me to be a Bond girl? I've always thought James Bond was the coo lest."

In "Bees," she plays June, the beautiful, modern, tough sister at the honey factory.

"Actually, acting came to me before music. My mother (Terria Joseph) was an actress, and I grew up hanging around Off-Broadway theaters where she worked. I acted before I sang. I was on 'The Cosby Show.' But music was my essence. I always felt that if I could achieve the music, I could come back to the acting. That's worked out."

She has scenes with Norfolk native Nate Parker, who was a wrestling star locally before embarking on his successful film career.

She felt that filming "The Secret Life of Bees" in North Carolina was like "stepping back in history. It's a movie about the strength of family. June, my character, is a strong woman. She doesn't want to give up her life for the guy who keeps pursuing her. She lets him know."

What about in her own life? "Well, being a pop singer, being famous, doesn't help any in finding a good guy, but other women tell me they have the same problem, so I might as well be famous. I want a child and I'm not getting any younger but, we'll see. Most of the time, I think marriage would be a big mistake. Women always play the waiting game until they can't wait any longer, but I don't particularly want men to know that. Maybe don't print that."

JENNIFER HUDSON

Jennifer Hudson is so naturally self-effacing that you'd never know she is an Academy Award winner. She's still playing "Jennifer in Wonderland," traveling the route that has taken her from a Chicago church choir to a job singing on a Disney Cruise line to a runner-up on "American Idol" to the Oscar for playing Effie in "Dreamgirls."

"I have to pay people now just to put together outfits for me to wear on the red carpet at award events," she said, in wonder. "It's a bit much."

She says "The Secret Life of Bees" is her first movie role she tried "without an acting coach." She was shocked, though, by an assignment director Gina Prince-Bythewood gave her on location.

"I had never been in the South. I didn't know nothing about the South except all this research I was doing for the movie, which was set in 1964. Everything I read scared me. I was scared to go out in North Carolina. I thought I'd be attacked. I'd look at trees and think, 'Somebody was probably lynched on that tree.'

"Anyway, the director sent Dakota and me to a grocery store. She gave us $20 and a list of things to buy. We went in, and I noticed the man was very polite to Dakota but entirely ignored me. Then, he came up to me and told me to empty out my purse on the counter because he thought I had stolen something.

"I mean, 'What?' Then he told Dakota to get me out of there because she ought to know I couldn't come in there.

"I couldn't believe it. I would have hit him with the purse, but I'd been told ahead of time not to hit anybody, no matter what.

"The whole thing," she explained, "was a setup. The people in the store were hired actors. I was put in that situation to learn how to react. Dakota had done these kinds of acting exercises before, so she caught on pretty quick, but I actually thought it was for real. Actually, I stayed in North Carolina long enough to learn better."

Hudson's new CD, "Jennifer Hudson" is No. 4 on the Billboard albu ms chart.

"I might have trouble playing the underdog much longer," she mused. "People still are on my side because I was kicked off 'American Idol.' Then, Effie was kicked out of the Dreamgirls because she was, uh, 'full-figured.'

"Now I have an Oscar and an album, but still, I can't quite get around to thinking I'm a diva. People say that I'm a diva. No. Not yet. Not for a long time, but, maybe. Maybe someday."

Mal Vincent, (757) 446-2347, mal.vincent@pilotonline.com