By Thomas Chau in New York City

Whether she's going by Queen Latifah or her real name, Dana Owens, one thing's for sure: in addition to taking on different personas, she certainly can take on many different roles.

Take "The Cookout," for example. Latifah helped developed the story along with longtime friend Shakim Compere. She also served as the film's producer and even took on a role in the project.

Latifah plays a psycho security officer who is in charge of guarding a wealthy community of houses. But when the year's #1 NBA draft pick Todd Anderson (Storm P) decides to throw a family cookout, she finds that her job entails more than just keeping watch...

Q: You have a “story by” credit. How did that come about?

LATIFAH: One of my good buddies, who actually got me into this business - Ramsey Gbelawoe, he actually wrote the script. Shakim [Compere] came up with the concept ‘cause he had gone to a cookout. He had gone to a BBQ/cookout and the elements of this story sort of happened. His whole family came and some of them were buck wild and some of them trashed the place a little bit, but everybody else was cool. People who were used to nice stuff and didn’t tear up anything. It was like, O.K., there’s a story in that. But what’s the story? So we all kind of got together, the whole little crew, and we started flushing out an idea and making it into a complete concept. Once we got that done, we gave it to Ramsey and Ramsey wrote it.

Q: Why this kind of comedy?

LATIFAH: We wanted to make urban movies. You know, fairly inexpensive urban films but we didn’t want to tell the typical story that we could tell. Some real hood story, shoot ‘em up, bang bang, that we all see and we all know. We can tell those stories in our sleep, and they’ve been told, and they’ve been told well by some people. So we didn’t need to come along and tell the same story again. We wanted to make something that was more family oriented comedy. It’s an urban film and some people think urban means “black.” But urban is really ‘city’-fied for us. People from the city can identify with it. So it wasn’t just for black people. It’s for blacks, latinos, whites, asians, native americans. It’s for everyone.

Q: Did you always want to play the psycho security guard from the beginning?

LATIFAH: This little role was a fun little role. This character is off her rocker! I’m like, O.K., I can come in and play that nut and have fun. But this was a fun little way to get Queen Latifah in the movie and from a business perspective, will help. And the role was actually a fun character to play.

Q: When did it dawn on you that you were good in comedy?

LATIFAH: There was a lot of humor in my house growing up. Did I think I was funny as in comedian funny? No. I still don’t think I’m comedian funny. I’m not like a comedian. They’re naturally gifted. But I think I have a pretty good sense of humor and I realized I had pretty good comedic timing when I was doing “In Living Single.” People in the business made that observation. Little things over the years let me know that I could do this. I just know that I laugh and if something is funny, I’m laughing at it. I’m willing to take chances with stuff.

Q: You always seem to play strong characters which display how good an actress you are…

LATIFAH: In some of the future roles you’ll see me in, I won’t be quite as strong. I may be strong but the strength comes from different places. You can find strength in vulnerability. Some people who aren’t outspoken are very strong people. You’ll see that out of some of the future characters in the movies that are upcoming.

Q: What would be your advice to someone trying to break into the entertainment industry?

LATIFAH: You know, it’s a hustle. You have to know who you are and where you are at all times, and never lose track of who and where you are.

"The Cookout" opens in theaters September 3rd.