EXCLUSIVE: Queen Latifah Talks Working With Lee Daniels on 'Star': 'He's the Reason I Am Back on TV'

ET caught up with the leads of Lee Daniels' new series, Star, which shows the dark underbelly of the music industry.

"We've been talking about these parts through the years," Queen Latifah tells ET's Nischelle Turner, revealing the original inspiration of the show. "Finally [Daniels] formulated it into what is Star."

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The new drama follows Star Davis (Jude Demorest), a young woman who grew up in foster care and decides to track down her sister, Simone (Brittany O'Grady), and her Instagram best friend, Alexandra (Ryan Destiny), and travel to Atlanta in pursuit of music superstardom. Queen Latifah plays Carlotta, the group's surrogate mother, while Benjamin Bratt plays talent agent Jahil.

The series marks Queen Latifah's return to Fox following the success of her '90s sitcom, Living Single, and she admits her comeback to TV was all because of the show's creator.

"The reason I am back on television is because of Lee Daniels," Latifah says. "It's because of my belief in his vision."

READ: Lee Daniels Admits 'Empire' Suffered From 'Growing Pains' in Season Two

Daniels shared his vision with ET.

"I want to just tell the truth and try to affect people," he says. "And tell stories about people that are flawed, because we're all flawed, and that's what people relate to is the flaws in these characters."

This seems to be especially true for Bratt.

"That's the aspect of this part that drew me to it," he says. "You don't know if he's a good guy or a bad guy."

And while Latifah and Bratt are seasoned Hollywood veterans, the rest of the stars are fairly new to the scene. Demorest had to go through 11 auditions to prove she had the singing, dancing and acting chops to pull off the role.

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"When he finally called me, I just cried," Demorest says. "I couldn't control it."

Star premieres Jan. 4 on Fox at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Fox.

EXCLUSIVE: Queen Latifah Reveals Why She Returned to TV With 'Star'

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