Mariah Carey Returns To The Big Screen

R&B superstar Mariah Carey has caught the acting bug once again, scoring a part in the upcoming indie film Tennessee.

In the flick, which recently premiered at New York's Tribeca Film Festival, the multi-platinum singer plays a waitress named Krystal who meets two brothers on a journey to find their estranged father. The role marks the first major part for Carey since her poorly received 2001 movie Glitter.

"Mariah said, 'This is going to be refreshing for me; this is actually something that I want,' even knowing that it was a gritty, hard shoot," director Aaron Woodley told Reuters. "Some people even told me that they forgot it was Mariah Carey when they were watching the film."

Carey is hoping that her portrayal in the movie will redeem her status as an actress after the failure of Glitter.

"The whole Glitter experience was very, very hard to go through, but I learned from it," Carey said in a statement. Yet after seeing Carey in WiseGirls, a comedy/drama that premiered at the Sundance film festival in 2002, Tennessee producer Lee Daniels decided to give her the platform to reestablish herself.

"She's not a diva and she came to work -- and work hard she did," said Daniels.

In related Mariah news, as previously reported Carey's latest disc, E=MC2, debuted on top of the Billboard 200 last week. In addition to having the highest first week sales of 2008, the vocalist also broke a personal first-week sales record.