By Thomas Chau in New York City

Emmy Rossum, then 16 years old, beat out the likes of Katie Holmes and Anne Hathaway for the lead role of Christine in the Joel Schuamcher's "Phantom of the Opera." The film, adapted from the Broadway musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, co-stars Gerard Butler, Patrick Wilson, and Minnie Driver. "The Day After Tomorrow" beauty talks about taking on the coveted role in her first year of stardom.

Q: Are you really just 17?

EMMY: I just turned 18.

Q: What was the hardest part about doing this film?

EMMY: I think, for me, it was really my first time carrying a movie of this size. They normally don’t give big Hollywood musicals with a $90 million dollar budget to non-famous 16 year olds. I think it was really great for them to cast me. But I think the hardest part was really dealing with the characters’ emotional complexity, which is the way I saw her: a girl who’s very fragile, very lonely, very vulnerable, easily manipulated. That’s something that grows in strength during the course of the story. She really kind of becomes a woman. And that, for her, to hold feelings and a very dark sexuality. Going through all the things she goes through emotionally.

Q: What did you do to prepare for this role?

EMMY: What didn’t I do is the question! I immediately started doing the obvious, taking ballet classes for two months. I started singing a lot more. When I got this part, I was doing movies straight for five years and hadn’t been singing at all. And what singing I had been doing was country music in “Songkisser.” So I really had to gear back up. The first thing, I just kind of went through the script and analyzed it in terms of everything that she’s feeling and see if I had any experiences in my life that were similar to the ones she goes through, and if I didn’t, then I went in and created them because I’m just the kind of actor who can’t work without past memories. It’s just not real for me otherwise. I went to Paris and I spent time at the Garnier where the movie takes place and I stood in all the places that she stands, like the circular room where Degas painted the ballerinas and I stood on the roof where she stands in “All I Ask of You.” I went on the lake and I just got memories that were certainly potent for me that I could assimilate into my own memories and then pull up when I was on set. I went to the museum and look at Degas painting the ballerinas and tried to stand like they stood. I did a lot of different things.

Q: Did you see the stage play?

EMMY: No. Never have. That was a decision I made with Andrew Lloyd Weber, first time I met him. I said, “I have a confession to make: I’ve never seen the play.” He was pleased actually ‘cause I came to it fresh and I wasn’t colored by any theatrical interpretation of her.

Q: Did all the training early on in the opera help you later in your career, ‘cause I gather the demands and requirements are pretty high?

EMMY: I went there and I was seven years old. I auditioned and they said “Welcome to the Opera.” And they laid down the rules. You are to be on time, you are to be prepared. You have to perform like an adult. We don’t treat you like professionals so you should act that way. And it’s a privilege to be here. And that’s how I’ve treated every experience I’ve ever been on set. I’ve tried to be as prepared as I can be and then when I’m on set, just kind of let it rip. And Joel, I got along with really well [with] because we both worked that way.

Q: Sometimes you’d be in a couple of operas or on stage almost every day and night?

EMMY: Yeah. On stage, most nights.

Q: Did they incorporate school into their program at all?

EMMY: Hahaha, no. I was attending Spence, which was a private school here in New York. I went there until 7th grade when they gave me an ultimatum, because I was missing about 40 days a year of school for rehearsals. They asked me if I thought Placido Domingo would be willing to rehearse after school hours. Of course, I’d had to ask him but I wasn’t for sure if the man would go for that. After that, they said “Choose.” And it wasn’t a choice for me. Since then, I’ve never ever done anything in a conventional way but I did my high school through tutors and the Internet through Stanford University and now I take classes at Columbia University.

Q: What have you been studying?

EMMY: I’m trying to amass the core curriculum, surely but slowly. I just finished art history and now I’m taking French. I’m intending to do English and Philosophy.

Q: What are the themes and ideas in this story that you find most personal and can identify with the most?

EMMY: Compassion, I think, and love, which are the two most important things about it. And also art and being passionate about art. Love and art are the two important things to me in my life and I think those are the two most important things to her. She’s very much like a girl who’s like a lot of other young girls - looking for love, looking for protection, looking for mentoring, looking for a father figure. Very fragile, lonely, been abandoned and easily manipulated and I think really becomes a woman.

Q: Doing “Phantom of the Opera” was obviously more “at home” for you but how was doing something much different like “The Day After Tomorrow”?

EMMY: Totally different but I somehow ended up in the water in two movies in a row! The boys were like (whiny voice), “I don’t want to get in!” But it was really difficult because this was the first time the movie was sitting on my shoulders. I shot for 88 days. Patrick shot 70 and Gerry shot 33.

Q: Hundreds of people auditioned for this role. Did you feel you were ahead or did you worry about more famous actresses possibly getting the role?

EMMY: He had been seeing people for six months at the point that I walked in. I walked in at the very tail end. I was the last person he ever saw. I had been working for six months on “The Day After Tomorrow” in Montreal and he sent me the script. I derived an interpretation of her and I walked into his house on a Wednesday. We talked. He said, “Can you screen test on Saturday in New York?” And it happened so much faster than anything I ever thought was going to happen. I walked into the screen test and it was like a studio. It was like a set. There was hair and make-up and fifty people in the crew, and a costume and grand piano and lit candles and velvet red drapings, with Joel Schumacher with a sweeping camera yelling “action!” It was very, very surreal to me and I remember thinking, I’ll never get this. I didn’t feel ahead because of my opera training. I felt like I had the classical training but I hadn’t been singing for five years. I knew that I was the youngest girl up for it and I was the least famous. They just normally don’t give movies like this to not-famous 16-year-olds. And after that, they sent that footage to Andrew Lloyd Webber, who said I had not been eliminated. And I was like, “Ah! This is a miracle, I have not been eliminated.”

Q: What did you do in the test?

EMMY: It was “Think of Me.” After the screen test, before I saw Andrew, I went in for another meeting with Joel and Gerry. Gerry already had the part, in which we excessively discussed the feelings of the characters and in which I kind of felt things personally. I went through the feelings in front of him that she goes through while talking about them, because there’s no real dialogue to actually audition on. So I had to convince him that I had the emotional well that I could easily tap into, that I wasn’t afraid to do that in an audition room at the Mercer Hotel, or on set. After that, I went in to sing for Andrew in his living room, no less. I walked in and he through up his hands and said, “Shall we?” I kind of thought, “Oh, O.K. I guess he just wants me to sing then.” I walked into his apartment and just went “wow.” It was on the 49th or the 50th floors of Trump Tower, or something like that. It was just windows on the wall and I could see the park and was just like, “Wow.” I opened my mouth and sang the two biggest numbers from the show and then he stood up and said, “Oh, that was good. I’m Andrew Lloyd Webber. Nice to meet you.” And I thought, “Oh, that’s great. I’m Emmy.” We talked a little bit about the character and I told him I had never seen the show and he very much supported that. I walked out and he said, “Thank you very much.” Oh great, kiss of death. Then I heard I got it.

Q: How hard are Webber scores or are they trickier than they look?

EMMY: They’re trickier than they look, I think, definitely. Especially the range of the role, from lower to a middle C to a high E. It’s really tricky. It’s tough and I think the toughest bit is to put the same amount of feeling to vocals that you would have to dialogue. Color it and texture it the same kind of way because I treated the vocals as if it was dialogue.

Q: Are there any singers that inspire you to sing?

EMMY: Yeah but in so many different realms of music. And I’m actually thinking about recording my own CD. I look for people who inspire me that way. I want to do something that’s going to be popular because if I’m going to put my heart and soul into everything, I want people to hear it. But I really want to use the range that I have just naturally and that’s something I think Whitney Houston does really well. Celine Dion, younger. Evanescence, Sarah McLaughlan(sp?), R Kelly. Whoever, just go for talent and passion and people who have really have something to say.

Q: Did you have a favorite costume?

EMMY: Well after eight months of wearing a corset, I don’t think I liked any of them! But you know what I really liked about the costumes? How much they were an outward expression of what she was feeling inside. The first time she goes into the Phantom’s lair, she’s wearing a very innocent white but she’s wearing stockings and a garter belt so it’s very sheer. It’s sexy and then when she falls in love, she’s wearing red and crashed velvet. When she goes to say good-bye to her father’s memory, she’s wearing black and they’re very evocative of things she’s feeling inside. It’s really cool to me.

Q: How did you react when you heard you got the part?

EMMY: Well at first, I thought it was a practical joke from my agent. I was in my dining room having breakfast. My phone rang and I kind of knew it was going to be the call. I just had a feeling. I picked up the phone and they said, “So, you got ‘Phantom of the Opera.’” And I thought, “Ugh, don’t even! Don’t even pull my leg, so much of my heart and soul is in this. If I don’t have it, I’ll be so upset.” And they had to convince me for about five minutes before I actually believed it. I think it was a shock at first because it happened so quickly. It was two weeks from the time I heard about the audition to the time that I got the part. My mom was sitting at the breakfast table and she was reading The New York Times and I said, “Mom, I got ‘Phantom of the Opera’” and she said, “That’s nice, honey.” It’s funny because my parents don’t get this world at all and it’s kind of nice because they’re really supportive and don’t put pressure on me to take a job or not take a job. That’s really cool.

Q: Has it sunk in yet that you’re the star of two major Hollywood productions in one year and where do you want to see your career go from here?

EMMY: I think it sunk in when I first got to the sets they were building, and I saw the enormity of the production and they were gilding everything in gold leafs. I said, “Oh my God, I’m in this movie. I’m carrying this $90 million dollar movie!” And then I just worked really hard and got excited. But I honestly want to keep working with the best people I can and I’m 18. I want to keep learning and be on set with people like Miranda Richardson and some of the greatest actors. I got to work with Gena Rowlands when I was little. Being around those people is just great experience for me.

Q: What do you have coming up next? Anymore musicals?

EMMY: You know, I would kind of shy away from it right now because I feel like I got lucky and one of the best characters for a girl my age in a musical. I love the intimacy of film where there’s actually dialogue. I love the reality of it and expressing true feeling and exploring different types of people. I learn more about myself and more about the kind of person I want to be.

"Phantom of the Opera" opens in limited release the 22nd; everywhere the 24th.