L.L. Cool J's "Last Holiday"

One of the early hip hop pioneers, L. L. Cool J (Sean Matthews) made a huge impression on music in 1984 as the first major Def Jam Records artist. L. L. has won Grammies and gone platinum at least ten times. Still in the game, he released "DEFinition" last summer. His film career goes way back to Toys and Halloween- H20 but you probably caught him most recently in S.W.A.T. or Mindhunters. He'll share the screen with Justin Timberlake in the drama thriller Edison.

At the movies now is L. L.'s romantic performance as Queen Latifah's main man in the romantic comedy Last Holiday. The rapper/actor goes against type as a shy, soft-spoken department store salesman who secretly wants Latifah's character to be his woman. When he learns that she may be dying and has taken off for Europe, he's hot on her trail. Rumors have it that Queen actually had a poster of L.L. on her wall way back in the day but she isn't talking about it. We know the two are friends.

Always friendly and upbeat, the star chatted with us recently in Beverly Hills where he was a coordinated fashion wonder in shades of brown right down to his New York baseball cap. We learned about his fears of self-sabotage, his joy at playing a "regular guy" and what's going on with his fashion line and music.

TeenHollywood: What was it about this role that you liked?

LL: I just thought it was a great role. I thought that it was something different for me. The benefits of it were giving people opportunities to see me do something that they probably wouldn't assume I'd be capable of or be the guy to do that type of role; an everyday guy, a plain guy.

TeenHollywood: What do you hope people walk away with after watching this film?

LL: Well, if they are going to walk away with a message, well I guess the message should be that you were born to enjoy life and to live life and have life. There are priorities in life, and relationships are important. What dinner invitations would you accept if you knew that you were going to die tomorrow? What decisions would you make? How would you live your life if you knew you didn't have much time left? I think what we found out was that she grew as a human being. She was willing to take risks. So, go after your dream and live your life. Be kind, be caring, but go after your dream. Don't just sit back and wait for it to happen.

TeenHollywood: Good message. Can you talk about working in New Orleans and your feelings about Katrina?

LL: It was great working in New Orleans. It was wonderful. There were beautiful tours. They treated us great. I had a great time. It was great food. It was great music. Only God has those answers and certain questions I'm not going to be able to answer.

TeenHollywood: What was shooting in Prague like?

LL: Prague was lonely and it was cold, but at the same time it was incredible. The museums and architecture were incredible. The food was great. Karlovi Vari, which was the ski resort, I was there alone. I was bouncing off the walls. I was going crazy. It was beautiful, but I was going nuts. It was really tough for me, but that's part of the journey.

TeenHollywood: This movie is about living past your fears. Can you relate to it in any way?

LL: Oh yeah. There have been times in my life where I sabotaged my own success out of fear of not wanting to rise too high; and I think that we all do that sometimes. A lot of times fear of success is bigger than fear of failure. Every time you are about to succeed, every time you are about to do something, every time you are about to take it to the next level, you do something silly or make a move just to insure that you don't achieve that success because your comfort is here in the middle somewhere. Moving past your fears is a very important thing, especially for those who really want to succeed.

TeenHollywood: To what do you credit your success as both a film actor and a rap artist while maintaining credibility in both?

LL: God has in hand in them. When I do my music, I don't have a character that I jump into, so in film, I can jump into any character and feel comfortable because I don't have a character that I have to stay true to.

TeenHollywood: This movie presents some great food! What kind of food would you want to get if you could sit down in any restaurant in the world?

LL: [laughs] Well, I guess if you handed me anything right now, I would add my grandmother to the mix and get some fried chicken, some macaroni and cheese, some yams and some greens, cornbread and just be done with it. That would be good for me. [Humm, I think he and Queen will be sitting at the same dinner table].

TeenHollywood: If you thought that you were going to die, what would you do in your last few days of living? What would you like to do before you "checked out"?

LL: I guess if that was going to happen, probably the only thing that I might do is give a little more money away.

TeenHollywood: Martin Luther King's birthday is coming up on the 16th. What can you point to in today's world that demonstrates his dream?

LL: This movie. This is a good example right here. This is black romance in a mainstream movie. This film isn't coming out in just 800 screens.

TeenHollywood: What's next for you? What do you want to conquer next?

LL: Well, after this film, I have a record coming out next in March. It'll be called Todd Smith. I'll add to it but I don't know what it is going to be. I have a lot of different artists on the record. I have 112 on the record. I have J-Lo, Mary J. Blige and Ginuwine, and Mary Mary, Tiara Marie and Pharrell Williams and Jermaine Dupri, and Freeway and Lyfe Jennings. I wanted to do something different. I wanted to do a more collaborative record with the writing, with the music, and with everything.

TeenHollywood: Will it be same music we're used to hearing from you?

LL: No, this is something new. I've changed A & Rs. It's a whole different style. Some of it is more traditional and some of it is a little more adventurous.

TeenHollywood: Was that a lot of work to get so much talent on your album?

LL: It wasn't easy. When I look at Quincy Jones and when I look at Dr. Dre and when I look at different people putting records together; sometimes it's fun to work with a lot of different people and do something that's a little bit more unique and makes it less about me and more about a project.

TeenHollywood: Can you talk about your clothing line and when it's coming up?

LL: We're on a schedule to come out in Fall '06. It's called Todd Smith. The one thing I didn't do was take my name and just slap it on t-shirts; although there will be t-shirts there. I brought in some designers from Dolce and Gabbana, and some from Marnis. There'll be two different price points. The Todd Smith is more high fashion and that's on the higher end, and that's more on a Bergdorf-Goodman, Neiman Marcus, Fred Segal price point. Then I have the other tier, which is the TS, more of Macy's price point. Things we all can afford.

TeenHollywood: Looking forward to that. What's going on with your production company?

LL: I have a film production company with Lions Gate Films and I have a 9 film producing deal. We're going to see what happens. My first script is almost finished right now. A guy named Charlie Bohl, who wrote Swimfan is in the process of writing it and that's almost done

TeenHollywood: With the hustle and bustle of your music and film career, how do you maintain your family life? You have four kids!

LL: It's just loving and making time for them. That's about priorities. If I have to go to the studio and my daughter is singing in school, the studio gets pushed back.

TeenHollywood: You have a couple of films hopefully coming out. Who do you play in both Edison and in Slow Burn?

LL: In Edison, a real dark character, depressed, dreary, mean and unfriendly. In Slow Burn, my character is a wise guy, smart aleck, kind of sneaky. But, I really don't know if they are ever going to come out. That's the tough part about doing independent films as opposed to studio movies. When you do independent movies, they may not come out. That's the risk you take to do that work. With an independent movie, somebody has x amount of dollars, let's make a movie and then find distribution. You don't know how long it's going to take to close that gap and that deal.

LL: I didn't pick up any cooking tips. I'm not going to even sit here and lie. I stay as far away from the kitchen as possible. Somebody just make it happen. I cook a little. Nothing to write home to mother about, but it was cool. I couldn't even eat the way I wanted to [on set] anyway because I was too busy trying to keep the extra 3 pounds off and all that. That's another reason why I was so lonely up there.

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.