Alicia Keys' Breakdown Almost Derailed Her from Starring in The Secret Life of Bees

The beautiful and talented pianist and R&B singer Alicia Keys almost didn't get the part in The Secret Life of Bees, a film co-produced by Will Smith and backed by Fox Searchlight.

Ms. Keys told Reuters news in an interview that, "I knew I needed time away, so I went to Egypt for a month -- on my own, which gave it a whole different perspective."  What derailed the driven star? A recent death of a close relative from cancer, and a taxing public career.

Set to open in October 2008, Ms. Keys will star alongside Oscar ® winner and Sex and the the City co-star Jennifer Hudson, and the mega-mogul Queen Latifah. According to Ms. Keys, "I've come more into my own, and really, with experience comes confidence and a little bit more of awareness of how I would like to do it, having learned from the past."

The Secret Life of Bees is set in historic South Caroline during 1964, and follows a 14-year old girl's life and hardships in the Jim Crow south, only to be transformed by the powerful and independent Boatwright sisters, played by Latifah (Chicago, Set it Off), Keys, and Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda, Dirty Pretty Things).

Ms. Keys is no stranger to big screen, making her debut in Smokin' Aces, as a top-notch assassin sent to destroy Buddy Israel, played by Jeremy Piven (Entourage). Don't cry for Ms. Keys! She is busy, busy, busy, producing and starring in a remake of the deliciously seductively Bell, Book, Candle, about a contemporary witch who falls in love with a mortal. (Yes, the original film starring Kim Novak and Jimmy Stewart inspired the television series “Bewitched”!) Bell, Book, Candle is still in production.

With her album selling 742,000 copies in its first week, Alicia Keys shows no signs of slowing up, only re-assessing. According to her interview with Reuters North American News Service, "I'm definitely a workaholic in some ways, although less than I was before."