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 quickly asked Carey to step in.

But Daniels was well 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, publicists 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.

By putting her faith in Daniels, Carey — who famously flopped in her movie debut “Glitter” in 2001 — may have finally proven to critics that formidable talent extends to more than just her voice. She’s garnered high praise for her turn in the film, which is being released nationwide on Nov. 6.

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

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.”

Grammy-winning producer Tricky, responsible for hits like Rihanna’s “Umbrella,” was one of the main writers and producers of the “Memoirs of an Imperfect,” along with The-Dream. Tricky says Carey is “is kind of letting people know, I’m not this perfect angel.

But Carey herself points to a something else that shows her new outlook — the fact that she’s dropped of one of her most infamous diva demands, that she only be photographed on her right side.

Nick, of course, is her husband of almost a year and a half — the actor and producer Nick Cannon . The pair married after dating a little over 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; Carey is a Grammy-winning superstar and one of the industry’s most profitable artists.

Sitting on a couch while wearing snakeskin Gucci stilettos and sporting curly locks reminiscent of her “Vision of Love” days, Carey talks about how Cannon has changed her life, as he naps in the bed behind her.

Carey took her union to Cannon so seriously that she lowered her profile right after they got married, even though she had just started to promote “EMC2,” the follow-up to her multiplatinum, Grammy-winning triumph “The Emancipation of Mimi.”

While “EMC2″ had the hit “Touch My Body,” it seemed to fade after she wed.

Carey says today, “everything is different, I’m in a different place in my life. I really enjoyed being in the studio and coming home and playing songs for Nick and talking about them.

Cannon may have had input on the album, but he’s nowhere on the credits. While they have no musical project in the works, there’s been rampant speculation that there might be another Carey-Cannon production in the making — a baby.

On those rumors, Carey says coyly: “Well, we enjoy practicing.”

But after a good laugh, she says now would “not be the right time” because of the pair’s busy lives.

As far as working on something else together, like a movie, Carey doesn’t rule it out.

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