'Queens' actress talks about new ABC series, how role reflects her own life

CHICAGO -- Naturi Naughton is one of the "Queens" on the new ABC series about a former girl group hoping for an encore career.

She plays "Jill Da Thrill" and Hosea Sanders talked to the one-time hip hop artist about how her role reflects her own life.

Sanders: "What's been the reaction to this character's revelations?"

Naughton: "I think the reaction has been like, 'Yes we love Jill. She's exciting, she's the thrill of the group,' and I think people really are connecting to her journey of finding herself.

Twenty years later, she is buttoned up, church lady dresses, she's got her cross; she's very much the version of herself she was taught to be, who she was told to be.

Jill also has issues with substance abuse and when you see that journey, about how she dabbled in drugs, in a lot of ways to numb herself. That's what she's trying to do when she talks to the young artists, Don't let this industry change who you are because you will never find your way back.

I gravitate towards characters that are daring, a little risque and a little challenging."

Sanders: "You lived some of that superstar musical group life?"

Naughton: "Sure did, and it was crazy. Queens definitely has some parallels. It almost made me really tap into some of the things that I went through, the way I was treated in the girl group that I was in, and also just surviving that and being able to reinvent myself years later. It took me time to pick myself up again, and that's actually what a lot of these women in Queens are dealing with."