Carey sings praises of film, role

The movie is really good, but it can be difficult to watch at times.

It kind of depends on what you've seen in your lifetime and what you've been through. I think everybody has a different take on it, depending on your ethnicity and your background. It's very unique in that way. I've sat through the movie with people who are wealthy and Caucasian, and they're just horrified at certain things that me and some of my other friends and even Lee (Daniels, the director) - mainly Lee - know are funny, because we've seen that person. Meaning mainly No'Nique's character (as Precious' uncaring mother). Her character is so severe. But she's amazing.

You have an incredibly tense scene with Mo'Nique, in which your characters face off. What was that like to film?

It was very intense to film. We did a lot of different takes on that moment. For me, (it was about) sticking in the layers of who I am internally and really trying to be this woman and what she goes through - every day another person wanting a check, and you never know what's real and what's not. And I think she finally realized that what Precious has been through was just incredibly intense and way deeper than she thought. For me, the difficult thing was in not breaking down, because that character has to be strong. But she's human. I am human, as well. There were moments when I silently broke down and then turned away from camera, wiped a tear and moved on. I didn't want her character to see me as anything but a strong woman that she is not going to get past. "This is what I do, and you have repulsed me to the point of almost speechlessness."

It seems silly to ask this, because you'd never ask it of a man...

How do I know what question you're going for? (laughs)

Well, you certainly look a lot different in the film than we're used to seeing you.

Well, thank the Lord. (laughs) It is part of my job. It's a completely different head space. Look, it was really about losing any part of that part of myself and what I do, and really becoming this woman. I know you're asking about the physicality and the visual of the way they made me look, and I trust Lee implicitly. I knew he's not like, "Oh, let's humiliate Mariah Carey and ruin the rest of the film." That wouldn't have made sense.

When he said, "We're going to have to really, really make you over in a way you're not going to be happy about," I dealt with the red around the eyes and the nose and the little mustache. It wasn't pretty, but it wasn't supposed to be. This woman was a hard worker. She deals with things every day that most people never have to deal with. At a certain point, you get exhausted and you get jaded. I just wanted to really feel what she felt like, coming into that bleak office every day.

Do you consider yourself an actress who sings or a singer who acts?

All my life people have been trying to put me in a box.

But you've gotten awfully famous for doing one thing.

I hear you, but to be put in a box, (for instance) "Is she Black or is she White?" Well guess what, my father's Black, my mother's White. To most of the world that means I'm Black. But everybody looks at me, because I'm so light-skinned, they don't know what to think. They think I'm Spanish or this or that. And it's really difficult, because who wants to be put in a box, especially an indefinable box, like, "What are you?"

Well, would you like to do more drama? Or something different?

I would love to do comedy, actually. Everybody who knows me always asks me, "Why aren't you doing a comedy?" But it took me a long time, and this is another thing I think Lee was very brave in, taking the risk to work with me with all that's been said about me in every way. He was very brave to work with me. But he understood who I was, in terms of my sense of humor, and in terms that life hasn't always been easy for me. And I think most people don't know that.

(The Arizona Republic)