A Conversation with Queen Latifah

Welcome to StarTalk, your place in the universe where science and pop culture collide. StarTalk begins right now. Welcome to StarTalk Radio, I'm Neil deGrasse Tyson, your personal astrophysicist. I hail from New York City where I serve as director of the Hayden Planetarium, which is part of the American Museum of Natural History on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. You know, every now and then, I conduct an interview with a guest that is so rich in content and personality and humor and the geekiness just oozes that we use the entire interview for the entire show. I think we've done this no more than two or three times in the six years we've been recording StarTalk. And I have to tell you, it happened again. This episode features just such an interview with a woman we all know as Queen Latifah. This woman, she's got enough personality to fill three people, as far as I can tell. She's definitely the queen. The queen, no doubt about it. And she's had success in many different ways in her professional life. She's a rapper, a songwriter, singer, producer, model, actress, talk show host. I can go on and on. And it's not as though she was just experimenting to see if she was good at it and then went on to something else. She's actively doing all of this at all times. What struck me in particular about my interview with her was just how genuine and passionate she is about science. She is deeply curious about life, the universe and everything. And I don't think many people know that about her. And of course, that's what we use StarTalk, that's StarTalk at its best, finding that hidden geek underbelly in people that you didn't even know existed within them. And so it's clear that Queen Latifah has got some geek underbelly going on with her. So the first part of our conversation, we kind of celebrate that geekiness and we talk about the interconnectedness of science and art and what kind of science fiction film she dreams of making. Who knew? Who knew? And here's a hint. Whatever that film is she wants to make, it's got to involve nunchucks. I think she wants to kick some sci-fi ass. So let's go to that conversation right now. My mother is an art teacher. So, you know, art and fascination with nature and things like that was normal in my household. Music was big in my household. Instruments and how they worked and radio. And my brother was, my brother loved science. So he wanted a chemistry set immediately. Did he burn a hole in the living room carpet? He was all about tearing things apart, taking things. It wasn't a safe radio in my house. My brother would instantly, you know... Back in the time when you could take things apart. You could take it apart. Nothing gets taken apart today. Which is not good. I know. I have to agree. This was something that was really big. We missed something there. We definitely missed a step. I mean, I think we did great in terms of moving things forward and fashioning new technology, but there's something about being tactile and touching things and knowing what they feel like, sound like, smell like. And, you know, I also grew up in Maryland and Virginia, which is where my grandparents are from. So my grandfather had, you know, for us coming down to Maryland in the summers or Christmas time, it was a big old basement with a lot of tools and wood. And that's what we did. We went downstairs and we built things and we made things and we measured and cut. This is before Netflix. Definitely before Netflix and Nickelodeon. You know, no cable in the house. Just a couple channels that you had to work out with an antenna. So, you know, aluminum foil antennas. I mean, you know, it was kind of the practical ways that science sort of invaded your life because you had to use it in some sort of way. But that meant you didn't fear it. There are people who saw it as, well, that's science and I'm not science, so therefore I will shun it or walk around it or avoid it. And so, what you're saying, not to put words in your mouth, but... Help me out here, bro. Help us with the house. Okay. That a person as an adult can embrace science, if only it didn't leave a bad taste in your mouth. Right. Growing up. If it was even just neutral, that's a good thing. At least start at neutral. And now, understand, I mean, I come from a Christian family, so of course we could get into creationist versus Darwinist, all that kind of stuff. That wasn't even really a big topic of discussion. By the way, I think I've done a little homework on this. In the traditional black churches, however religious they were, it did not include running to the school board to have them change the curriculum in the biology class. That was not going on in the black churches. No, not at all. Right, it was more about community and this sort of thing. Which was fine, which was a good place for it to be. I think a kid has to be fascinated about, kids I think are fascinated about things. And when they really are fascinated, you want to feed that. So the family I came from was one that fed whatever spark they saw in us kids. So my mom and my dad were as curious about us as kids as we were about the world. And so when they saw a spark, they kind of fed that thing and tried to nurture it rather than guide us in one direction or the other. Which happens all too often because then you end up doing something that wasn't even in your own soul of curiosity. It's what your parents wanted for you. Which is no fun. Life's just no fun like that. Now, you are hugely talented. I mean, looking at your resume, there was nothing you haven't done, I don't think. If there's something you haven't done, I don't even know if you know you haven't done. So what's left? Talk show host, producer, hip hop star, movie star, Oscar nominated, performer, model. Those intros get long. I'm standing on the Saturday stage to be introduced sometimes, and I'm like, Jesus, I'm getting tired hearing about all the stuff I did. Do you find yourself having to pick what you do next? I do have to pick what I do next, because time is the one thing that I'm just not given a lot of. Well, I'm glad you noticed that, because that's for damn sure correct. Yeah, I'm not able to be eight me's. If I could, I would, because I'd get a lot more done, obviously, but I can't. Yeah, I mean, quality of life is important to me these days. It's really about, am I enjoying what I do? Am I happy? Does it push me in some sort of way? I have to be pushed, because I need a challenge. I get bored very easily. If I'm not doing something interesting, then I'm like, okay, well, it's boring. So it just doesn't feed me very much. So yeah, I do have to do a sci-fi movie. That's definitely on my bucket list. It is so on my bucket list, man. A sci-fi movie. I had to. You were in the Sphere. I was in Sphere, but I need to be number one on the call sheet, not like number 17 where I'm kind of just like, I need to actually do something. I was getting killed, and plus I got killed in Sphere. I got killed. You were not alone in getting killed in Sphere. I was getting too good at getting killed. I had to put a no kill clause in my contract. You didn't do that? I didn't. I was like, okay, I got killed and set it off. No sequel there. I was like, I died too good. I get that. I'm good at this. Okay, so I told my agent, listen, no more dying in these movies, because there'll never be a sequel. So let's wrap that up now. That's where the comeback on the money comes on the sequel. Yeah, shut that down. Let's shut it down. There's a lot more. I mean, I guess we went many decades without black folk being portrayed in the future. Mm-hmm. We just were not. That means somebody's thinking about a future where they round them up and not put them up. So, but science fiction films have a huge following, loyal followings, and so you're overdue. I'm way overdue. I mean, I've been. Let the record show. Yeah, I mean, in my household, there was Star Trek and you watched Trek, and we were Trekkies, and we laid in front of the TV, and my brother could perfectly imitate Kirk and Spock, and you know, we still wouldn't know words. They'd have a drink. It's called Chania, and we're like, Chania, what a word. You know, you could make up things that didn't sound typical. You know, you could create things, and they didn't have to be what you read in a book. You could imagine something, and that was. It's the whole imagination of it all. I mean, we haven't seen it necessarily. So who says it does or doesn't exist? So you can just make it up, you know, which is kind of cool, especially if you ground it in something that's sort of real. So plus, since you didn't dislike science, it meant you were open to science-y things that might arise in your life. So one of my good friends of recent years is Bill Nye. And I go through the archives. There you go! There you go! How you gonna be from the Bronx and let Bill Nye the Science Guy have a rap name and you ain't get your rap name on? You can call me MC Squared. I mean, that is probably kind of cool. Give me that. I give you that. So how do you land on Bill Nye the Science Guy? How did that happen? Frankly, it's the same way I found you. I mean, I enjoy someone who can, who is way more advanced and knowledgeable than I, but translates that to, you know, someone like myself who can understand it and get just as excited about it as they are. And it's that passion, you know. It's the passion you have. It's the passion he has. And taking something simple and explaining it, you know, something that you see in every day life. So you were celebrating that fact. I love that. I mean, biology was one of my favorite classes as a freshman. Yeah, but how many... You were already a successful hip-hop star, okay? How does... Oh, now let me show up on Bill Nye the Science Guy. Well, that doesn't stop. I mean, I know a few people around here who are kind of geeks, you know, and proud. We're proud to be... But are they... We got to let them out of the closet? I think Will Smith is a pretty big geek. I mean, he's a guy... He got into MIT. I mean, for all intents and purposes, had he not been the huge number one movie star that he is, he probably would have been an amazing scientist or developer of some sort. So this is like a fork in the road that was... We're not just talented at these gifts of music and acting. It all comes from a fascination, a curiosity, and some of us actually do hit the books. I kind of, you know, went left a little bit at some point, and the clubs got a little more fascinating to me, but... I'm so heartened to see your accommodation and sensitivity to just science-y things, because science is everywhere. It's in our lives. And I'm hurt almost when I hear someone say, I was never good at science, and it's not me. I'm an artist, not a scientist, or I'm a this, not a, not a that. And, by the way, where's my smartphone? I have to call... You know, you can't artificially divorce what you think is science from the science that's actually touching your life. Well, it's touching our lives constantly. I mean, and thank God. I mean, what would we do? I mean, there's a lot of things, a lot of us that would even be here. Right, right. Had someone not, like, done some sort of investigation into something, you know? Be dead or otherwise. Yeah, right. So, do you have any secret geek underbelly? Well, I don't know. I'm fascinated about a lot of things. But you like the science fiction genre. Otherwise, why are you trying to get a gig with one? No, I love the science fiction genre. That goes without saying. But I'll say it, I love sci-fi and I want to be in a big, giant sci-fi movie or something that's really cool and small, as long as it's good. And how about superheroes? You do a superhero thing? All that. I love superheroes. I still believe I have a karate kung fu some sort of picture in me. There's no way I grew up on that much Bruce Lee and Star Trek to not be able to combine the two as in a joke and apply my life as just a whole marathon on. You just want to staple together stuff that happened in your life and create a movie role for it. Why not? I'm already on it. So you're into martial arts. What kind of martial arts do you do? I love them all. I definitely love karate kung fu. I love mixed martial arts. I love judo. Do you actually do it or just think about it? Some of it I can do. My father was a SWAT officer and he knew karate, so he taught us a lot of that stuff as a kid. You can kick some ass. I might be able to kick, well, depending on what condition the knee is in. The knee and the rheumatism in the knee. I have some nunchucks at home. Nunchucks? After Bruce Lee did his nunchuck, we all had to buy nunchucks. It was a must. We all had nunchucks. We had Chinese stars and throwing things. We still walk around in Chinese karate shoes. They're just very comfortable and practical. That's kind of my thing. I have some nunchucks that I use for stress relief. I'll just stand there when I need to think about something, I'll stand there. I'm just flipping my nunchucks and it's okay. You just... I work through it. You tell me when you just want to take your mind off of things, you will just play with nunchucks. I will. I'm going to grab some nunchucks and just... And then I'll feel good for it. Like your sound effects there. Get myself going. Since this is radio, that's the indication of how fast you're smirking them around. So I remember, I'm old enough to remember, pre Bruce Lee, I mean Bruce Lee was around, but not yet a big movie star, there was this film Billy Jack. Wow, the legend of Billy Jack. Billy Jack. And so he was a half-breed, half-injured, half-right, and he was sticking up for the local tribes that are getting abused by the thugs, right? But he was in the Green Berets, right? They were messing with my favorite line. There's some redneck sheriff walks up to him, bad-mouths him, and he says, and Billy Jack says, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to take this foot. He points to his right foot, and I'm going to put it on that side of your face. Wait, wait, okay. That's badass enough. But it continues, and he says, and you know something else? There ain't a damn thing you can do about it. And then in slow motion, up comes the foot against his face, his cheek, and there it is. There was nothing he could have done about it. And so I saw that, and I said, I want to be... You feel me? That's what will never go away. I got to go dig out my nunchucks now. I think my brother took them. You should. Just get the padded ones like the ones I have, because I'm not that skillful with them, so if you make a mistake, you don't bruise yourself. No, but that's how you know to not make a mistake after that. Exactly. And you get good quick, I guess, so you're going to put them down on one or the other. There's only two ways we're going about this. Really good or stop? Or stop, for your own safety. Okay, so a sci-fi, kung-fu, action superhero drama. That sounds like fun to me. I don't know what the problem is here. It's obvious. This is a no-brainer. They just introduced Wonder Woman. I know, I'm excited about that. That was a moving moment when she just sort of... Yeah, she's got to have the invisible plane. But this is what I grew up on. So I'm really excited that... So it's in reach. It's like a whole new generation that they're really just going so hard. With these effects that they have nowadays, it's just so... Yeah, there's no limit. Right, it used to be, can they make the mechanical model do the thing? Reality, and I'm really interested in seeing where that's going to go, because I just shot a promotion for this American Heart Association thing, and one of the guys, his company directed The Cove. But they're also developing virtual reality. The documentary that was so influential. Exactly, about the dolphins and everything. But they developed this VR, and it was like, he's like, give me your tradis on, so I put these glasses on, and I'm literally under the ocean, and I'm watching sharks swim by, and fish, and it's just, you're turning your head in every direction, you're moving, you're looking up, you're looking down. It's a little disorienting initially, but once you kind of give into it a bit, you're sort of in an entirely different world. And it's very real to your brain, which is kind of cool to me. That's the whole point of it, right? You have to be physically real, just real as the matrix is real. Because some of it you're going to want to probably take those glasses off at some point, okay, and come up out of that world. That's another kind of matrix to live in. It is, it is. Coming up, Queen Latifah and I discussed hip hop as a kind of a social movement, kind of a force of change in society. And also, perhaps you might remember a recent dust-up that I had with another hip hop artist regarding what shape the earth has. Yeah, well, we went there. And we'll hear all about that and more when StarTalk Radio returns. Welcome back to StarTalk Radio. I'm your host, Neil deGrasse Tyson. In this week's episode, we break format from our normal sort of structure of the show and we're featuring my interview with Queen Latifah, but without any interruptions at all, just straight through. And that's the entirety of this episode. And in this segment, we reveal that how she got her start. And of course, it's as a rapper and a hip hop artist. And of course, she's a damn good one. And you know, she's been nominated for seven Grammys, seven Grammys and five of them for her rap albums. So she's out there getting the job done. But more than that, her lyrics serve as a kind of a potent source of inspiration for women. And back in the day, female rappers were, you just, there weren't any. I mean, there might've been one or two, and she was one of those two. So she had an especially visible and influential platform from which to be heard. And I wondered how that platform might be constructed in modern times to stimulate women to enter the STEM careers, science, technology, engineering and math. And also, I was curious, you know, when the arts embrace science and the sciences embrace the arts, then people are no longer sort of bounded or contained or boxed in by or labeled by saying they are this or that. And maybe you can be a scientist and be an artist or be one and embrace the other. And you really only bounded by your curiosity. So let's rejoin my interview with Queen Latifah. As we explore the role of performance art, as a vehicle to effect change. Some of your earlier hip hop work, and I don't know your more recent work, forgive me, but your earlier work, a lot of it was in the service of empowerment of women. And have you ever considered a dimension of that to encourage women in the STEM fields? Because performance has influence, right? The power of an artist is never neutral. So when it's done with a mission, it can be quite potent. I would actually love to do that. And right now, the STEM, science, technology, engineering and math, we're trying to sort of move women, at least not have them fear it, as a minimum. And so have you ever thought of leaning that way in any of your output? I would love to. And maybe that's a new idea that you've given me to really focus on. Because whenever it's sort of come past me or anyone has been involved with it that wanted me to do something, say some sort of promo or just send a shout out to the kids, I've always done it, but I haven't really driven anything towards it, but I know how important it is because it's really sad how people are discouraged from doing the things that they're capable of doing. And at the end of the day, it holds all of us back. Plus, there's social forces. Is the girl as attractive to boys if she's smarter than the boy? We gotta overcome all this. We do have to overcome this, but how did the boys overcome it? The boys who were once supposedly unattractive are now the most attractive. Like geek chic. But this is something that parents should be educating kids on. Listen, there's a whole myriad of things that kids have to get through. Puberty alone is a challenge. And everything's the end of the world, but if you can get them through that to the other side of it, life begins to take over, and things begin to appear, and it gets exciting again. Well, it's the full expression of freedom. That's right. I was one of those girls, but I wasn't dissuaded from it. Right, this is an important fact here. And that's the difference. Anything that empowers... Yes, and it was fun. It was kind of cool. Yeah, it's cool. I think a female scientist, someone discovering, someone in the belly of the lab... See, that's what an acting thing is. You're not supposed to be a scientist, but an actor. Did we script that? That's all that James T. Kirk coming through me. I'm an actor, Jim. I'm not a doctor, I'm an actor. Damn it, we've got to get these girls in science and that. Anyway, but no, I would definitely support it. So if you come up with some ideas for me to... Not that I'm a dear generator there, but... Write a rhyme and bust something out. That's a good idea. I think I'll go back to the lab and figure out how I can integrate some stem support in there. So I got a little pulled into the hip hop scene a few months ago where the rap star BOB started going off that Earth was flat. And I don't know if you know about this. So I don't care what people think. That's what I'm saying. So I don't care, except there must have been some overlap in the Venn diagram of his Twitter followers and my Twitter followers. Because my Twitter line started lighting up saying, please save BOB from himself. Could you correct him? Could you? They're pleading to me. These were his fans that also followed me. And I still said, no, I can't. I don't have time for this. And then I looked at his Twitter stream and he said, I use physics and math to show that Earth is flat. Now, those are fighting words, right? Then I said, no, I got to rise up to this. And so I showed that he was wrong. But then I said, but it's okay for you to think the world is flat. Just don't try to influence anyone else. Well, he wasn't serious, right? It's just some creative license kind of thing, right? I don't know. No way he was serious. Come on. You've flown around a bad boy. Then he sang a diss track. You haven't made it. You're a rap. So I'm not a rapper. So I had to call my nephew, Steven Tyson Jr. who is himself a rapper. He's got his own little fledgling career. And I said, what am I? What do I do now? And he said, I hope you write a diss track. Let him write you some raps. And so, no, I didn't rhyme it. He did it. And so he wrote a diss track. So then I'll end up on Sway. Oh, my God. Pulling me into all of this. I'm on Sway, on SiriusXM. You can't have it both ways. Now, you can't separate science from the creative. We just discussed this. The creative is connected now. So it's all full circle. It's true. It's full circle. I'm just saying, it was... And you're from the boogie down. I was pulled in briefly. And I quickly said, okay, that's enough for now. So you had an Oscar nomination for Chicago. I saw that film and it was like, you were born to play that role. I feel like I was. Oh my gosh. It was like, I cannot imagine anyone else in this role. That's how I knew. That was like, wow. I haven't had to fight for a role that hard since... You fought for that role? I fought. I took three auditions to get that role. Who would you beat out? I think I beat out a lot of people. A lot of people of note who would have been great in that role. But I had to fight. Well, I know it's properly cast when someone else is unthinkable in the role. And you have to really... I think I've sealed Matron Momma Morton in people's minds, and I hope that they don't ever see anybody else other than me playing it in that way. But yeah, that was a... I had to audition for Rob Marshall, the director, in New York. And it's tricky because when that whole thing came up, it was just after 9-11, Broadway was shut down. And people just started performing again, and I had to go see the play because I hadn't seen the play. So I went to see the play and I made it through intermission. And I just was so kind of nervous because it was literally less than two weeks after 9-11. I was nervous, so I was like, okay, I got it, I'm out. You got the jits, you tap out. I'm okay, I'm going to take a break on this. And that was that. Yeah, there's still the jitters. Yeah, it was a very tough time in New York, such a sensitive time in New York for all of us. But yeah, so I auditioned once, I had to wait for a callback, I got the callback, then I had to sing, go up there and sing, then I got that. That's right, everybody sang in that movie. Yeah, and then I had to fly up to Toronto. Zeta-Jones sang, everybody sang? I had to audition with her. I had to read and sing with her. After that, they gave me the role. Okay. I was like, come on, man. Didn't Richard Gere sing his own? Everybody sang. Everybody sang, everybody did their own thing. He was a great director to really get that out of everybody and make him feel so comfortable. You know, people who hadn't really done that. I didn't see your film, Bessie, but I know Bessie. You know Bessie? Well, how old is you? No, no. You got to be pushing the 130. Getting the rheumatism. Yeah, your hip is killing you right now. It's going to rain in a couple of hours. Some New Yorkers don't have that old people on the front porch mentality. I'm just a fan of the blues, and some people's stories were under told historically, so I'm glad you found that medium and that story to tell. Yeah, we needed to tell that story. She was something else. She changed a lot. Congratulations on that. Thank you. Look at that face. To tell you something stupidly geeky, so I read that you sang in, was it, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, which is right in the middle of Newark. You did a version of Oh Happy Day. Of that song from the Edwin Hawkins singers. Okay. So that was one of my favorite gospel songs when I was a kid, and one time I was very young, and my mother had to go out, and for some reason she didn't take me but was a little worried about leaving me at home. So she put me on the, I must have been four or something, I don't know if I, put me on the couch, played Oh Happy Day in repeat mode, which you could do on the record player in the day. And, because she knew I liked the song, so I wouldn't leave as long as the song was playing. Wow. And I decided to count how many times they said Oh Happy Day in that song. Are you serious? And to this day I have that number. Which is? It's 59 times. It's not more than that. You might think it was more than that. But, oh happy day when Jesus walked, you know, and then the chorus comes in and then there's that oh happy day. Yes, yes. And this song just, it keeps ascending. You are in heaven when that song is done. Right. So, wherever you were, you end up in heaven and so it's 59 times. That's why you are who you are. Because who sits there at four years old and counts? I might have been five, but it was, I was, my feet didn't leave the couch. Right, right. Couldn't hit the ground on the couch. And I'm glad you could count to almost 60. Thank you. Good job. Actually, I wonder maybe I didn't know how to count to 60 and it was a 59 plus. Right. Right? Double check. I love that. So, I have to tell you that story. It's a good idea though. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. You have to, you can't go there and not give it up. It's very good. Okay, so, a photon walks into a bar. You got me at that already. That's a first. So, a photon checks into a hotel. And the bellhop comes and says, hello, do you have any luggage? He says, no, I'm traveling light. No, I'm traveling light. A photon is traveling light. That's good. That's good. And I saw that album. I said, no, I got that. I'm there. I don't know what's in the album, but I got the joke. Look, the best part of it is your laughter before the joke. I knew you were going to mess the joke, but I said, you're laughing too hard. This is how my mother starts to joke. I love that. I want to hear some more. You want to hear a couple more? Yeah, you guys want to hear a couple more. What religion are you raised in? Christian. I mean, what denomination of Christian? Baptist. Baptist. Catholic and Baptist. Catholic and Baptist. I'm all confused. So do you remember the year, a couple of years, a year and a half ago, over in Switzerland they discovered what was called the Higgs boson, which was this particle long sought. And this particle has a field around it where if you had another particle and you go through that field, the Higgs boson grants that particle mass. It's a badass particle to do this. You have the power to give mass to other particles that come through. So it won a Nobel Prize. It was a very important particle. In fact, there's a book published called The God Particle in anticipation of the discovery of that particle. So that's the setup. Now this is a joke where I know who invented the joke. How often do you know who invents a joke? Like hardly ever, it's lost in the ether, right? I know who invented this joke. His name is Brian Mallow. And he's got a Twitter handle called ScienceComedian. So we got people who try to make you laugh. So this is his joke. You ready? A Higgs boson walks into a church. And the priest says, I'm sorry, sorry, we don't allow Higgs bosons in church. And the Higgs boson says, oh, but without me, you can't have masks. You've been missing out on some geek jokes your whole life. And we get an education and some humor, and I can't wait to hear one where I'm like, nah, not so much on that one. So we got good people. We got people thinking this stuff up. That's a good one. I'm about to do some Higgs boson research. I'm all excited about that, to be able to give math. Yeah, think about it. Look at all the jokes, you know, sex and relationships and New York versus LA the tired subjects that everyone composes jokes on. Think of the limitless cosmos. Oh, man. Literally the limitless cosmos. The limitless and ever-expanding, yes, cosmos. When StarTalk returns, you will not have to hear any more of my corny, geeky jokes. But if you want to tweet your own at StarTalk Radio, we'd love to see what you've got. When StarTalk returns, you will not have to hear any more of my corny, geeky jokes. But if you want to tweet your own at StarTalk Radio, we'd love to see what you've got up your sleeve. Coming up, Queen Latifah and I talk about the new film Ice Age 5, Collision Course. In it, she plays a wooly mammoth named Ellie. And I have my own cameo in it. Shh! It's my animated movie debut. I play Neil deBuck Weasel. Stay tuned, you'll get more in a moment. Welcome back to StarTalk Radio, I'm Neil deGrasse Tyson. Tonight, we, you know, every now and again, we have an episode, it's not even every now and again, it's every couple of years, maybe, an episode is so full and so rich in content that we just run my interview, just as it happened. And that's what you're getting tonight with my conversation with Queen Latifah. And you're just gonna hear the whole thing, basically. And in this next part of the conversation, we talk about her latest movie, Ice Age 5, Collision Course. You heard me right, Ice Age 5. There's almost as many of these things as the Fast and Furious series. It caught me by surprise, too. If you're not alone, if you're saying five, there've been five of these. She plays the wooly mammoth named Ellie. And I even have my own cameo in the film. Shh. I play Neil deBuck Weasel, which I'm not roaming with the rest of the mammals. I exist in the head of Buck the Weasel, helping him make important decisions. Well, let's check it out. So, you're a mammoth. I am. Ellie. You got the word out, huh? Yes, I am Ellie, the wooly mammoth. Who once thought she was a possum. She's clear about that at this point. So this is like the most successful animated series ever or something? Huge, yes. That's crazy huge. Worldwide. Yeah, it's huge. Now, isn't that a mystery to even the producers themselves? You know, I'm sure they're happy about it. No one's gonna argue that it wasn't a fun subject, but I'm betting they didn't think this was gonna be a worldwide phenomenon. And you all have almost as many episodes as the Fast and Furious series. And that's saying something. This is our fifth one. That's crazy. I mean, I've been a hero in my household to my nieces and nephews rather. They didn't call me, Dane is my real name. They called me Aunt Ellie for months. Auntie Ellie. Auntie Ellie. Oh, Auntie Ellie is on the phone. I'm like. You know I'm not a wooly mammoth. They don't exist anymore. I'm still just Auntie Dane. So did that, does that sensitize you to any, this is the obvious cliche question they always ask actors. So are you now sensitized to climate or extinct animals or the fate of the earth? I think I've always been sensitized to that. I'm a Pisces. You know, where's that in you, Cosmos man? You know, but so yeah, I think I am because not so much because of Ice Age, which I think is going to be huge and funny and exciting all over again. And I love doing it every time, but just because I travel the world. I like, I love going different places on this planet. And when you get to see some of the beauty and the harshness of as well, you just kind of want it to be, I mean, I want the damn planet to live. In fact, the harshness empowers you to appreciate the beauty all the more. It really does. It makes, you know, you realize it. I mean, we're here, we're all here together. We need to share this one planet. So what just disturbs me the most, I guess, is the fact that we even have the power to, that much power, to be able to harm our own planet, you know, that we could actually be capable, physically capable of doing something like that. They're debating what to call the new geologic era, where the Earth is now influenced by the conduct of one of its species, the human beings. Listen, I think the Earth is gonna win eventually. It always does. Everybody's saying, oh, let's save Earth. No, Earth don't need, you don't need. No, Earth is gonna be fine. What's not gonna be fine is us. Don't you get this? I've done, listen, we get wiped out every time. You know, you better realize. The fossil record shows it, yes. We lose this fight every time, the Earth, and then, you know, nature is always gonna take over. So it'll have its way, but so. So did they tell you? Told me what? They told me. I have a cameo in Ice Age. You do? I do know about that. Wait, aren't you in, aren't you in? I'm not gonna tell. Aren't you in, I know where you are, too. I know exactly where you are. I'm just a little thing, it's just a little thing. I got the word on it. Aren't you in, you're in the, hmm. I'm in the thought process. You're in a good place, though. Yeah, it's a good place. It's a good place. You're in a great place. Because once I get to be, I wouldn't agree if it was just completely, if it, rather, I don't mind people having fun with science in a movie, provided they have fun in a, I don't know, if in the right moments, they don't take themselves too seriously, and you're just having fun, then everybody has fun, and then I'm all for it. And if an artist taps me on the shoulder and says, can you bring some of your science expertise to my art project? And if an artist is reaching for me, I gotta come and call. Of course you do. I do. Especially if you could pop some reality in it. Something that could is really possible. Just a little bit. You know, God bless them, every time they have to figure out, they have to figure out some way, some plausible way to create a distinction level of bit. Every moment they gotta figure out. Everybody's going down, like you know what I mean? So how did it happen this? It has to be, it could be playfully plausible. And a squirrel did it. A squirrel, whatever. Prehistoric sort of squirrel. A squirrely thing. A scrat, the rat, squirrel, whatever it is. Right, and he's the hero, he's like, he's everybody's favorite character. Every movie is like, nobody can blow him. Everybody's got to stuff scrat, right. And he doesn't even speak a word. I'm like, damn, that's a good gig. Thank you, I like to think I love scrat enough to imitate him well. So it's funny, because I don't do, it's not what I do, so I'm an interloper. It was just fun when I did my lines, and then they said, okay, now this is the part where we just need you to make noises for when you're doing things. So I need you to grunt, I need you to, in case you're climbing something. It's trippy, right? Yeah, it was a whole just sort of the sound effects. How was that experience for you? It was surreal. I enjoyed it, because then it was learning how the sausage gets made that any VO person knows. You can literally pass out trying to do that stuff. I mean, some of the voiceover studios, some of the studios have this sort of, almost a ballet bar, it's like a bar that's horizontal and vertical kind of shaped, and you can lean on it to run, so that you make the right cut, without making too much noise with your clothes, but getting the breath out to sound like you are running and chasing, because you can, I mean, people have passed out doing these effects. You know, trying to make the sound of running, or, breathing so hard that they're like... I've heard some funny stories through the years about people who like knock themselves out from like... There's one other VO I was asked. Okay, in this scene, you're falling into a black hole, so give me the anguish and pain that that is. And you said... What was that like? Let's hear it. Well, you get extruded through the fabric of space as you get ripped head to toe. So it's quite a... That's some good extrusion right there. Yeah, you have to feel like you're being stressed out. That was really good. I'm getting better. I like it. It's in your faces and your voices. Okay. I really feel like you got extruded just then. I'll miss you. Acting. I'll miss you, bud. See you next life. Oh, Queen Latifah had a burning question for me. You know, in my experience, interviewing artists and celebrities and folks who you may know for other reasons on StarTalk, it's often that I'm the first astrophysicist they've ever met, or at least the first one they had a chance to sit down with. And being the curious folks they tend to be, artists are not only curious about how to find new ways to portray the world, they're curious about the world itself. Some people may be surprised to learn that. And I'm delighted to have found that out here on StarTalk. And so usually when given the chance, they'll just pelt me with questions about the universe. When I ask them if they have any questions, and sure enough, I asked it of Queen Latifah, and she charmed me with hers. Let's see what it was. Okay, I got too many questions, so I'll just ask you, I want to know just one thing then. So you have an asteroid in your desk. Is that true? I do, in my desk, yeah. It's in my drawer. In your office. In my lower left drawer. An asteroid in your lower left drawer. Yeah, actually a meteorite, yeah. It was once an asteroid, but yeah. Right, I'm sorry, not an asteroid. But a meteorite. So what is it like to actually touch something that was in outer space for the first time? I mean, to have studied this, but to actually physically have something in your hands that was there and that's now here. That is a beautiful question. And let me give you a slightly long answer. I'll take it. At the Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, Smithsonian Air and Space, they have the original Apollo 11 capsule that went to the moon. Occasionally, you have tourists coming through and they say, oh, so this is the capsule that went to the moon and came back. And they say, oh, is it a replica? No, it's the actual capsule. And when you tell them that, then they take higher interest. And we live in a time where you can make an exact replica if you wanted to every detail, but the knowledge that it's real matters. I could have perfect knowledge of what an asteroid is and how it enters Earth's atmosphere, and you find it, and I can know it intellectually, but until you hold it in your hand, it is never as real as it can possibly be. And so this asteroid, which is this piece of an asteroid, this relic from the early solar system, it's four and a half billion years old, sitting in my desk drawer. Every time I pull it out, and you feel how heavy it is, how dense, how uncommonly dense it is, and it's craggy, and magnets stick to it, and you realize that it contains iron, forged in stars from long ago, that manufactured iron that is also in the hemoglobin of your blood. So the iron of this asteroid, of this meteorite, and the iron in your blood have a common origin. So there's a cosmic connectivity that has no equal as I hold that meteorite in my hand. Oh, and by the way, I collect old science books written in the day of when the discoveries were made. So they go back several centuries. My wife is always telling me, oh, why don't you just get it online? Why are you paying for this? You can read the, Google, scan the book, find the page, and I say, no, I can hold the book that's been held by generations of people before me. There's margin notes of people trying to work through the equations when no one before had ever seen these equations. In that way, I commune through time with those who have struggled mightily to understand our place in the universe. You owe me an interview. Thank you so much. All right, we gotta wrap up this episode of StarTalk and I hope you had as much fun listening to this conversation as I did having it. And no, you can't not be enchanted by Queen Latifah. I am an even bigger fan of hers now than I was before because she's warm and smart and talented and kind and giving. All the things that I think most people aspire to be. People aspire to be the bits and pieces that she is, and yet she has all those bits and pieces in one person. And so I tip my hat. No, I bow to the Queen, to Queen Latifah. Ladies and gentlemen, you've been listening to StarTalk Radio and I've been your host, Neil deGrasse Tyson. And as always, I bid you to keep looking up.