Great things come when you least expect them, and Sanaa Lathanis no exception. She’s the formidable talent within more recentprolific African American entertainments such as “The Best Man,””Love & Basketball” and “Brown Sugar.”

Her latest, “Out of Time,” has her going toe-to-toe and thensome with Academy Award-winner Denzel Washington. In a modestdining room in San Francisco’s Ritz Carlton Hotel, I sat with ahandful of other college journalists to shoot the breeze with her.Here’s what she had to say:

Sanaa Lathan: I brought you guys some donuts!

(everyone “oooh”‘s)

SL: The only way you get one is if you go, I know youprobably saw the movie already, but you have to go buy aticket.

Noeh Nazareno: OK!

SL: You promise? There’s no way of me knowing, like,”Yeah, he didn’t buy a ticket!”

NN: I know this is something you’ve been asked byeverybody. But being the big Denzel fan I am, how was it to workwith him?

SL: I’m not gonna answer that. (laughs)

NN: (laughs)

SL: No, I’m joking. It was great! He lived up to what Iimagined in terms of, you know, I’ve always been a fan, I’ve alwaysadmired him, he’s like a real actor’s actor. And just watching himon the set is like, you know, like watching Michael Jordan in hisheyday on the court. He knows his stuff, he makes it seem easy andeffortless, he’s a perfectionist, never stops working. And youcan’t help but learn by just being in the scene with him.

NN: Is he as sexy and handsome as he looks on screen asin person?

SL: (laughs) You know, I’m not that kind of person thatlooks at somebody I don’t know and is like, “Ooh, I want him!” Iusually have to meet the person, and yeah, he’s very handsome.

NN: I know this is gonna come across as really odd, but,if God had made me an African American guy, I’d wanna be him.

SL: That’s not a bad choice!

NN: I’d noticed in watching that there were hints ofHitchcock, not as blatant as “What Lies Beneath,” and you, I felt,came across as like Kim Novak in “Vertigo.” There’s some thingsthat felt “North by Northwest”-like, especially Denzel felt likeCary Grant at the end. Was it ever along any of those styles orsomething else that there was a feeling of, or that you guys hadtalked about?

SL: We didn’t talk about that while we were shooting it,we just approached it the way that it was written. It was writtenin this particular style. After we did the movie, I watched “DoubleIndemnity” and “Body Heat,” just kinda by coincidence, and Irealized it definitely had some noir-ish kind of undertones. But Idon’t think it’s any one thing. It was many different genres, whenyou put it into a box.

NN: As a person also in the performing arts, I’m alwayscurious whenever I see certain people onscreen with talent thatexudes from it, like this performance, and yours was great. I’m notkissing up or anything, if you can believe that.

SL: Thank you.

NN: But, uh, anyway, I’m…

SL: You can have your donut for free.

NN: (reaches out for donut)

(everybody laughs)

SL: (laughs) You don’t have to get a ticket! Anyway, goahead. (laughs)

NN: I want to get a ticket! I want to see it again!

SL: Oh good!

NN: Anyway, I’m curious, do you sing, do you karaoke?

SL: Yeah, I sing, in the shower!

NN: What do you like to sing, in the shower orwherever?

SL: “To the window, to the balls. To the sweat right downmy balls, all the females crawl! Gon-kee-kee-kee, naw, sorry!(laughs)

(everybody laughs)

SL: That’s like the latest. When I was in one city, I waslistening to that song on the radio and I couldn’t get it out of myhead. Like, that’s just the power of music. I’m like, singing aboutsweat running down my balls. Um, I don’t know, I think, you know,I’m just like, yeah, anybody that sings.

A female in Sanaa’s entourage: What were we singing?

SL: Outkast.

NN: On the set of “Out of Time” or any of the otherprojects you were on, were there any practical jokes or humorousstories or something really memorable you can say happened toyou.

SL: Hmm (short pause). No. (laughs)

NN: (laughs)

SL: No, I’m sorry. No, I mean, it was just really hot,and there were always rain showers. But you know what, the firstday of shooting, and hopefully this will bode well for the successof the film. But the first day of shooting, they actually cut thisscene, they cut this out of the movie, but it was when we shot thescene where I’d just come from the hospital and was really upsetand me and Denzel have this scene out by the car and at the end, itstarts pouring down rain and they did it with a rainmaker machineand we hug. And, I watched it on the monitor and there was a hugerainbow in the sky. And they caught in on film. Like, I mean, huge!I mean, it was amazing, and they put it in the film, and then Iguess they had to cut the scene down. So, nobody gets to see it,but that was kinda cool.

NN: Being that you brought in the Krispy Kreme donuts,what’s your favorite Krispy Kreme donut?

SL: I don’t know, I’ve only had the plain ones. Are theremore?

NN: Well, every kind of possible donut, they actuallywill glaze it over. Like, the custard-filled ones are to diefor!

SL: Are you serious?

NN: The powdered ones will kill ya.

SL: Wait, so there’s powdered ones that you heat uptoo?

NN: Well, you could.

SL: Is he gonna be the only one who will eat (adonut)?

(laughs around)