They say blondes have more fun and Queen Latifah is certainly proof of that. The versatile star had to swap her long dark tresses for a brassy platinum crop in her latest movie Hairspray, and says she couldn't get enough of her new look.

"Being blonde brought out a whole other side of me," she says excitedly. "It was a side I didn't even know I had. I've had my hair lightened but never been platinum like that before. It was cool - I felt like a superhero with all that hair. I felt powerful," she says with an infectious laugh.

In fact, the 37-year-old rapper turned actress was so eager to bring out her blonde side, she accepted her latest role without even reading the script.

"I'd worked with the director Adam Shankman and the producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron before and I just relied on their collective expertise," she explains. "I was very comfortable that they were going to deliver all the things they promised, and they did."

Hairspray is a remake of the 1988 John Waters big-screen cult classic about overweight teenager Tracy Turnblad, who dreams of dancing on the hit US TV programme The Corny Collins Show, but finds her big ambitions thwarted by jealous competitors.

In the latest outing Queen Latifah joins a host of stars, including John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer and Christopher Walken, to play Motormouth Maybelle - a feisty high-school teacher who joins forces with Tracy to fight racial inequality.

Though the part is a light-hearted, cartoonish portrayal, Queen Latifah says her performance was inspired by her own mother.

"I really felt the spirit of her coming through," she recalls. " She was a high school teacher who was very inspiring to her students and her children. She would always encourage and empower them and let them know that the world was theirs if they wanted it. I think Maybelle is the same type of woman. She sees her kids and their friends as a powerful force for the future and understands there is always more life to live, but you have to be willing and able to go and find it. That's what these kids in the movie do and they do it all through the music."

Though she's now one of Hollywood's most successful actresses, Latifah admits music will always be her first love - and getting the chance to belt out a few tunes in Hairspray was another incentive to take the part.

"Maybelle and I both love music and understand the impact it can have in people's lives," she enthuses. "Music can be the energy of change, but sometimes you've got to help move it along."

A multi-talented performer, New Jersey-born Latifah started out as a hugely successful singer and, last year, became the first hip-hop artist to be crowned with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She found equal success when she switched her attention to acting, earning an Oscar nomination as Mama Morton in Chicago, followed up with hit roles in movies such as Beauty Shop, Bringing Down The House and Ice Age 2 - not bad for someone who started out as a Burger King employee.

But what she lacked in early career opportunities the go-ahead star made up for with buckets of self belief.

"I've always believed in me," she says with a warm smile. "I never take a job I don't feel like I can't give 100% to."

In fact, the star was so sure she'd make it in showbusiness she crowned herself Queen Latifah, after ditching her birth name Dana Owens.

"When I started making music I didn't want to be the same as everyone else. I felt like I wanted to come out kicking ass and I felt like all women were queens," she explains.

"We didn't treat ourselves like that though. We made bad decisions with men or in life and thought we were not beautiful when we were because someone said you were too fat, too skinny, or your butt was too big. We were tearing away at our self-esteem. So I thought, 'If you think you are a queen you are going to make people treat you like that and you'll start feeling like that'."

The star also credits her late brother for putting her on the path to success. She was devastated when he was killed at the age of 24 in a motorbike crash, but says his death left her determined to live life to the full.

"I kind of opened up myself to the idea that there was a divine design to it," she says of the accident. "I believe God was with us the whole time and we got through it when we didn't think we would."

Latifah says she also gains comfort from knowing her brother would have been hugely proud of her success and, despite proving she's the queen of the acting and music scenes, the down-to-earth performer says she counts her good fortune every day.

"God has just blessed me beautifully and put good people in my life," she smiles. "When you work with your friends since high school and you have loyalty and you believe in each other and tell the truth, that's a blessing. My friends and I always had dreams and we saw them as goals, not just dreams. We just said, 'OK. How do we get to it? Let's go for it'. I've never really been afraid to do that."

Hairspray is scheduled for UK release next Friday, July 20.

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REAL NAME: Dana Elaine Owens

BIRTHDATE: March 18, 1970

SIGNIFICANT OTHER: Single

CAREER HIGH: Being the queen of the music and acting scene after bagging an Oscar nomination for Chicago and a Grammy award for her album

CAREER LOW: "Would you like fries with that, sir?" A stint serving in Burger King didn't quite befit the queen

FAMOUS FOR: Being America's first lady of hip-hop

WORDS OF WISDOM: "I refuse to be like everybody else. I'm different. I'm the Queen, you know?"