Miracles From Heaven- Interview with Queen Latifah and Kylie Rogers

“Kylie is the star – I’m just the wheel man”

When you see Kylie Rogers (Anna Beam) and Queen Latifah (Angela) enter the room, you can see the bond formed while filming Miracles From Heaven, I true story about The Beams, and their journey of faith, love, and finding a cure for their daughter.

Queen Latifah sat humbly giving all props to Kylie. They sat and Kylie, all smiles and giggling how exciting interviews were.

How did you form a bond/ was there time during rehearsals?

QL- We got to bond by talking about music, we both like Ciara. I thought this kid was deep and I like her. We got to pick braids together and we connected while we were working, it was about what she wanted to do. We had a nice junkie car to work in which was fun (laughing).

What were you hoping to bring to the character?

QL- Patricia (director Patricia Higgens) really made me excited about it she broke down who Angela was and who she needed to be, Patricia told me to bring the humor and good vibes, bring yourself to it. Angela gets to break it up and relieve the stress that this family is going through. I can totally relate to that. I needed to bring energy because they had so much deeper to go.

Do you feel like she reflected your personality in real life?

QL- I try to be positive and be a good vibe, I’m good for a one liner, when may friends go through things I try to throw a joke in there and take their mind off it for a minute. I’m pretty empathetic and intuitive, I know whether to give them space or squeeze them tight.

Did you really braid for the scene?

QL- Absolutely not! I know how to play play braid. Do the motion and make the face like you know what you’re doing. I brought my expert faking to it! Those braiders were so fast – where are they in real life! It was fun to see Kylie in the braids!

Kylie laughed as she talked about her hair when the braids came out.

What was it about her or the project that made you say you had to be a part of it?

I pray about every movie that I do and this was my way to give an honor to god and saying thank you for everything else I do so I’m giving this one to him. And what people need…hoping and being uplifted and knowing that you go through difficult times in life but you can still manage to persevere and keep the faith and things can turn around. I like miracles and I do believe in miracles, I think things just happen- people may say it’s a lucky break, but for me some things are… Wow that is a miracle- when you see some crazy things that happen and when you see a kid come out of a hole with just a couple scratches. That’s a miracle

I love the magic of that, Miracles are magical, you see something like magic happening right there in real life. Maybe it’s the little kid in me but there’s something special about that that makes me feel hopeful. Something greater happening, makes me excited about life.

Did you spend a lot of time with Anna?

KR- I spent a lot of time with Anna and Jen and I both studied Beams. They were all so nice and it’s cool to know that I’m portraying someone that this actually happened to and it’s so crazy that I got to meet the person this happened to

QL- Anna is super cool and has the funniest laugh and her smile and the way she talks is so sweet. It was great to see them together.

What were advantages to knowing Anna?

KR – The emotions and this was so big. That this happened to someone, it’s difficult to process it sometimes and there’s just so much emotion and I had to get emotional a lot.

What city would you make a good tour guide?

Newark, NJ if you dare but there’s good history there. I can also show NYC and LA.

What was it like to wear the belly?

It took a little bit to get used to because there were two. The cloth one and the prosthetic one was thick and rubbery and it was so hot “in Atlanta”. I was climbing the tree and I had to wear it and it was hard to get used to but it was kinda fun to have. I had like a pregnant belly (Lots of laughter)!