Gloria Reuben

Gloria Reuben: (On the impact of her character on ER for HIV/AIDS awareness) The ball has been dropped even though the numbers specifically in the African American and Latino communities are going through the roof. It's a pandemic that really has fallen off the radar for the most part in terms of the general media. So it's wonderful to be able to use the avenue, the role of Jeannie Boulet to keep the message in people's minds and just kind of remind them a little bit that this hasn't gone away and it's actually impacting more people now than it was a few years ago. What an incredible thing to carry along with it this story of Jeannie Boulet from a few years ago, because anybody and everybody who would be involved with HIV/AIDS would know about this storyline. It's kind of that blessing of being able to have a familiar face that is connected to an issue and then being able to talk about that issue and people may want to listen a little bit more.

Gloria Reuben:(About the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in African-American communities) It's such a huge, complex issue. Societal and cultural influences are such that, it perpetuates the stigma. If we look at, for the most part, the hip-hop culture, when it's all about having sex and women are just there to have sex with -- having sex with as many people as possible, sex all the time, no protection, blah, blah, blah. If we look at economics, if you're not educated and you don't have a job, you're going to end up in jail. It's about the homophobia, it's just unbelievable. The stigma around homophobia in the Black and Latino communities is unbelievable -- you gotta put on a front and have sex on the 'down-low.' The shame and stigma around it perpetuates the shame and stigma around HIV/AIDS. What ends up happening is clearly the double life that goes on.

Gloria Reuben:(On how she got involved in "Life Support") 'm an executive producer on Padre Nuestro (a critically-acclaimed independent film) which won the grand prize at Sundance Film Festival this year. We were editing the film at PostWorks, which is the best production house in New York City. So we're editing this movie and directly across the hall from us, Nelson George was casting Life Support. He and I saw each other in the hallway quite often. We walked into the building at the same time, rode up on the elevator together and he filled me in on the story, which is based on his sister, and Queen Latifah was playing the role. I was like, 'Look, I gotta be in this movie. Man. It's way too important. It's what I do. It's no accident that we're literally across the hall from each other.'