Queen Latifah in Beauty Shop.

HOLLYWOOD -- Queen Latifah is feeling some pressure beyond that of her burgeoning film and music careers.

"I just turned 35 and I know my mother would like me to make her a grandmother. She needs to run around doing the grandma thing. I understand that.

"I feel genuine pressure over this baby thing," says Latifah, who celebrated her birthday on March 18.

"My younger sister has children. I look at them and know I want children of my own, sooner than later.

"I want to have my own child and I want to adopt.

"I think I can do the career thing and the mother thing. I look at Angelina Jolie and realize if she can do that, I can, too."

When pushed a little, she admits "there are some prospective fathers. Yes, I've given that some thought, too."

In honour of her latest birthday, Latifah insists she plans to party "for a full 35 days."

"This birthday made me realize I am a grown woman now. It's definitely a milestone for me, but a good one.

"I have so many people around me who are so full of life and so young at heart that they are an inspiration for me.

"They make me look forward to not just living life, but living it to its fullest."

Before her coronation as the queen of hip hop, Latifah was just Dana Owens, the New Jersey daughter and sister of policemen.

As a teenager, she was working in a Burger King, rapping and leading her school basketball team to championships.

"I was never too good to earn a paycheque.

"I always laugh when I hear people say they're too good for a job. What that usually means is they're too lazy to work. Happily, that's never been one of my faults. I love working -- especially when I love my work."

Latifah's latest love affair is with her comedy Beauty Shop, which opens Wednesday. She is not only the star, but one of the producers.

Shortly after the success of Barbershop in 2002, studio heads at MGM approached Latifah with the idea of creating a female version of this raucous ensemble comedy.

"It's why they put me in Barbershop 2, last year. They wanted to set me up for this spin-off. They said they wanted to be in business with The Queen."

Writers were brought in for Beauty Shop, but Latifah insists "all my people helped create this movie. It was a lot of brainstorming. Even my hairstylist wrote some of it.

"We had great writers who brought all the ideas together, but we brought the ideas to them.

"I love that I can honestly say it's my film from beginning to end."

One thing everyone, including Latifah, wanted was a love affair for her character Gina, a single mother struggling to raise her musically gifted daughter.

"I get my first kiss in Beauty Shop. It's my first real on-screen romance."

For her leading man, Latifah chose Djimon Hounsou, the Oscar-nominated actor from In America.

Ironically, Beauty Shop marks Hounsou's first film kiss.

"We were definitely both a little nervous about the kiss. I don't go around kissing men in public.

"I don't do my kissing in front of cameras," says Latifah.

Both the kiss and the romance are tame by today's standards, but Latifah says that's exactly how she envisioned it.

"I like Gina. She's like my mama. She's like my hairdresser. They are people who know how to love, but there was no need to portray it as lust. This was more about a lady being courted properly, which I think a lot of women still wish would happen."

More challenging than working out her first screen romance and kiss was playing the role of producer.

"I had to get the script together, cast the film, get it shot on budget, on time and then sell it. This whole marketing machine is very complicated and exhausting."

As adamant as Latifah was about building a romance into the film, she was equally adamant Gina would not sing.

Ever since she was nominated for her role in the musical Chicago, studios and directors have pleaded with her to sing in her films.

"I don't want the singing ever to be a gimmick. I don't want to have to think up reasons to have one of my characters sing. That would be misusing my gift.

"I'll have a great reason to sing on film again if I can get my Bessie Smith bio-pic done.

"It's proved more difficult than I thought to get a good screenplay,"

Though her comedy Bringing Down the House with Steve Martin was a box-office hit, Latifah says there will be no sequel.

"The powers at Disney just couldn't see themselves writing the cheques. Steve and I were too expensive for them."

Latifah is also working on her action movie Bad Girls, which would team her with Jada Pinkett Smith in a female version of the buddy cop movie Bad Boys.

"Jada really wants to do the movie because we both know it's a great concept, but this one is proving difficult to get off the ground, too, even if it is closer than some of the other things I'm working on through my production company."

Latifah has just completed Last Holiday, a gentle drama in which she plays a woman who goes on a whirlwind vacation when she learns she has a terminal illness.

Latifah says she chooses her films carefully because she has become a role model.

"When I was growing up, I had Will Smith as a role model. I had Ice Cube as a role model.

"These were rappers who were able to build themselves important film careers, but they were also me.

"I didn't have a Queen Latifah to look at and see that it was possible, so I don't want to abuse this privilege I have. If I'm going to be a role model, it had better be a good one."

Though she has just played a hairstylist, Latifah insists she could never be one in real life.

"Hairstylists are like bartenders. People tell them their problems. I could never listen to people's problems day in and day out. My own problems are enough for me."

Though Latifah has had breast reduction and has lost considerable weight, she insists it was for health reasons and not fashion.

"I'm a full-figured woman. This is the body I was given. This is what I work with.

"I'm proud of it, as well I should be. There are 60 million of us full-figured women in America. We're the majority, not the skinny ones. We have every right to be on camera.

"Hell, we have more right than they do to be in the spotlight."