Mariah Carey finds freedom being ‘imperfect’

NEW YORK Lee Daniels had so much faith in Mariah Carey's acting that when the director's first choice to play a dowdy, no-nonsense social worker -- Oscar-winner Helen Mirren -- backed out, he asked Carey to step in.

But Daniels was aware that in hiring Mariah Carey, the actress, he was also likely to get Mariah Carey, the diva -- a high-maintenance sideshow that would include an entourage of makeup artists, assistants and other hangers-on, running counter to the energy he wanted the superstar to exude in his searing drama "Precious."

So, as he gave her the role, he also issued a warning: Leave the diva act at home.

"If you come with a strip of makeup on," he recalled telling her, "I will have a backup [actress]."

By putting her faith in Daniels, Carey -- who famously flopped in her movie debut, "Glitter," in 2001 may have finally proved to critics that her talent extends beyond her voice. She's garnered high praise for her turn in the film, which is being released nationwide Nov. 6.

But more important for Carey, the role helped her shed some of the insecurities that not only hindered her in acting but also in real life.

"That was such a freeing experience for me," Carey said in a recent interview. "By making me look so bad, he brought out the ability to never be self-conscious."

After years of striving to reach an ideal -- from her personal life to her music career -- Carey, 39, is embracing life's imperfections, an attitude summed up by the title of her latest album, "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel."

But Carey points to something else that shows her new outlook: She's dropped of one of her most infamous diva demands, that she only be photographed on her right side.

"I really had specific things that someone told me when I was 19 starting in the business, and I listened to them. . . . I don't care anymore," she said, laughing.

"Sometimes I like that side -- and Nick likes that side better anyway," she added.

Nick is her husband of almost a year and a half, the actor and producer Nick Cannon. The pair married after dating a little more than a month: It was a union few took seriously at first.

That's in part because of the 12-year age gap between them (Cannon is 27) but also because they seemed to come from two different worlds. Cannon was seen as a teen star thanks to his Nickelodeon vehicles.

"I didn't know what to make of the marriage," said Daniels, a friend of Carey's. But he now proclaims their bond to be genuine.