MY DESERT: MARIAH CAREY SAYS "IT WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR"

There's a scene in the urban drama, "Precious," where the title character asks her seen-it-all welfare case worker, "What color are you?"

The plain, light-skinned Miss Weiss replies without breaking her monotone, "What color do you think I am?"

That weary case worker bears little resemblance to the Mariah Carey we know as Billboard's top charting-topping female vocalist of all time. Her black hair is flat with unbecoming bangs. Her makeup is meant to make her look dowdy, with a hint of a mustache.

Carey has done dozens of interviews about her onscreen transformation, which has helped her earn positive reviews and a nod as the Breakthrough Artist of the Year at the Palm Springs International Film Festival's Jan. 5 Awards Gala.

"A lot of people told me they didn't recognize me in the film," she says by telephone from her New York home. "No, it's not glamorous. I don't care, but people seem to be fixated on that."

Instinctively, Carey says she probably wouldn't respond to a question about her skin color as Miss Weiss does in "Precious."

Maybe when she was growing up, she says, but not now.

"It's interesting," she says, "because I grew up in an interracial family - biracial, whatever you want to call it - black father, white mother -- an extended kind of family."


Carey, who turns 40 in March, was born in Long Island to an Irish-American opera singer and an African-American whose father changed his name from Nunez upon migrating from Venezuela. Carey experienced discrimination after her parents divorced because of her racial ambiguity.

Upon reflection about that question, she says, "Perhaps I would say that now. It depends on what mood (I'm in)."

Actually, that question posed by Precious, an obese black teenager who had been twice impregnated by her HIV-positive father, wasn't in the original script. Director Lee Daniels told lead actress Gabourey Sidibe in an off-camera whisper to ask Carey "What color are you?" Carey had to respond with an ad lib.

"We were doing a lot of improv, ad libbing," Carey says. "I guess I was in a place within that scene where I was responding from a guttural place, maybe more of a teenage place. Not that anyone would have known that. That's just where I was at internally."

There was a time in 20th century where young pop singers such as Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley had to cross over to film to sustain their careers with "grown-up" audiences. That requirement pretty much ended in the 1970s when vocalists such as Elton John and Bruce Springsteen took greater control of their careers and opted not to become film actors. But by the 1990s, hip-hop artists from Will Smith to Ice T were leading a new migration to Hollywood that opened the doors for women such as Queen Latifah and Beyonce, too.

Carey says she's wanted to act as long as she's wanted to sing. But she was unable to break into film acting until 2001's disastrous "Glitter."

She got her singing break in 1988 when she became Brenda Starrs' backup singer. In a legendary show biz story, Starr handed Carey's demo tape to producer Tommy Mottola and Mottola was so enamored by Carey's voice, he produced her records and married her in 1993.

Carey won't talk about Mottola today, but, at a time when Smith, Ice Cube and other artists were beginning to break into film, Carey says she was prohibited from doing so.

"There was a person who told me I wasn't allowed to pursue it," she says. "This was a person involved in my career."

She and Mottola, who is 20 years older than Carey, separated in 1997. She claims that's when she found artistic freedom as a recording artist. Much of her songwriting today features themes of empowerment and emancipation.

She's proud of the soundtrack she created for "Glitter," but her real acting breakthrough came when she began working with acting coach Karen "G" Giordano in "Precious" and Daniels' 2008 indie film, "Tennessee."

"She really helped me in terms of just opening up and being me -- whoever that me is at the moment," Carey says. "We've had breakthroughs in terms of working on a part, working on a scene, working on something and then a light bulb goes on. But I would also have to credit Lee Daniels for believing in me.

"Initially, I wanted to do independent roles and I wanted to really do more edgy or out-there kind of characters and people would say to me, 'Your reading was wonderful, but you're going to take people out of the movie.' That's what I heard time and time again.

"Meeting Lee Daniels, having him give me chances and believe that I could pull off playing Miss Weiss -- not just with a physical transformation (was a breakthrough). He believed in me that I could go there internally."

Carey got good reviews for "Tennessee," but the film had such a small audience, it's taken an aggressive promotion of "Precious" by executive producers Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry, plus Carey to convince skeptics that Carey can act.

"The bar is always higher for me for some reason," she says. "I really say that humbly, but I believe it. People have been nice to me about certain indie projects and I appreciate that. But for me to get some reviews that turn people's heads, it's got to be in a movie that's just undeniable."

There have been many breakthroughs in Carey's career, but a big one in her life was her recent marriage to TeenNick chairman Nick Cannon. She called this "an amazing time in my life" and Cannon, who is 10 years younger than her, is a big reason for that.

"I'm really being in love for the first time," she says. "It's something very unique because I've had some difficult times with that situation earlier on, so that's fantastic. I never thought I'd get married again. We had our first Thanksgiving this year and I cooked! I did have some helpers, but I did cook. I made my first turkey!"

She says they're thinking about having children.

"I just have to get through these next couple two months or something," she says. "Then I'll really think about it."

So is Mariah turning out to be a regular family gal?

"I didn't think I was," she says. "Sometimes it's like my extended family -- my friends who have been with me and gone through difficult times with me -- and then sometimes it's just the regular family stuff. This year was kind of a combination of both. I really enjoyed myself."