Christina Aguilera in "Burlesque."

LOS ANGELES -- As peers like Britney and Mariah crashed and burned in their movie debuts, Christina Aguilera admits the pile of scripts on her desk was getting bigger.

"The right script hadn't come along and I wouldn't rush into anything just to say I did it," Aguilera says of her first starring role, opposite Cher in Steven Antin's musical Burlesque.

Some scripts she turned down actually became decent movies, she admits, but "It's nothing I regret.

"I had to be intrigued within the first few sentences or I wasn't interested. So a lot of what I was sent I can't even remember."

One thing she did know was that her first movie was not going to be a musical. "If I was going to act, I was going to act."

But then came the pitch for Burlesque, a subject she adores (she says she has a collection of vintage photo books and has been to neo-burlesque clubs), and an opportunity to write and record most of the music in her first starring vehicle (and cover the songs of personal heroes like Etta James).

"This one came with everything, it was a loaded package," she says.

"I worked my butt off, working 17, 18 hour days, having to wear so many different hats, from writing the music, to singing the music, recording the music. Diving headfirst into the acting, which is a whole new animal, rehearsals, a whole lot on my plate.

"They had to keep taking in my clothes. It was just exhausting. But I learned I'm a good multi-tasker, I got it all done, being a mom on top of it all."

Personal questions were off the table as part of the conditions of the interview, this in the wake of her divorce from husband Jordan Bratman, with whom she has a two-year-old son, Max. But Aguilera alluded to "this introspective time in my life," and to the relationship advice she received from her co-star Cher.

Working with the elder diva was one thing the odd script for Burlesque had going for it. Another were the parallels she saw between her own life and that of her character Ali, a smalltown waitress who chucks it all one day to bus to L.A. in search of stardom.

There she discovers a weird underground universe of burlesque performers, lip-synchers and singers, run by a proprietress/vocalist named Tess (Cher).

"For me it was interesting finding out what makes Ali tick, what makes her want to get out of town. For that, I could find similarities." Asked if the Pittsburgh-born Aguilera had a similar passion to leave Steeltown, she answers, "Yes. I just always knew.

"It was a new experience writing songs that are not about me, but about someone else -- like a kind of out-of-body experience. But it wasn't strange as far as the emotion. Ali has her troubled past and issues with trusting people, and the need to feel love, having walls and guards up about it -- I have those same issues. So it was easy for me to sort of step into that role of feeling vulnerable yet fearless."

Of Cher, she says, "She is pretty much the coolest woman you'll ever meet. She doesn't blow smoke up your ass, which makes it even more endearing to me that she was so supportive."

She also learned about getting "pushed" into performance. Offscreen, before a scene where Ali argues with Tess about letting other people sing, she was totally pushing my buttons, like 'Whaddya want, bitch?' She really got me warmed up to screaming at her in that scene, and it was something I learned.

"All of this couldn't come at a better time," she says. "It really opens up the next chapter of my life. I'm turning 30, I have new goals to set, and I'm really excited about everything.

"I look forward to putting down on paper, through vocals and song, the new person that I've become."

And who is that new person?

"You're just going to have to wait for the album," she says with a laugh.

jim.slotek@sunmedia.ca