With the remake of Steel Magnolias premiering this weekend (October 7th), it's been a tough task for the new actresses Queen Latifah, Alfre Woodard, Jill Scott and Phylicia Rashad to fill the boots of Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine, Dolly Parton and Olympia Dukakis. What made the original such a success, was the clear off-screen bond between the four actresses that translated in front of the camera for the 1989 film, but the current crop insist they're feeling just as close to one another.

"It's been a love fest," said Scott to The Press Association, adding that they'd have taken any role offered so as to get a chance to appear in a film that's original held a special place in her heart. "We connected immediately, so we didn't really have to fake being girls in the beauty shop," Latifah said. "We just bonded right away." Woodard meanwhile argued that the film was a true representation of what humanity is - that we all need community. "We are communal beings at the core," she said.

"As we've moved away from an agrarian culture to a metropolitan one, the only place you gather for community in that way is either at church or at a spot like a hair salon or barber shop. But at the church, you can't get real because you're trying to get right. You can actually be more of your loving self in the salon. You actually get more healing in the salon than in the church."