Avril Lavigne will be in New Mexico at the end of the week to begin shooting a small role for her first foray into the acting world, a crime drama called "The Flock," starring Richard Gere and Claire Danes.

"I want to do this for a bit of a change," says Lavigne, now 21. "I want to start off small, see how I like it and make sure I'm comfortable."

She hasn't got an acting coach. "I'm just reading the script and acting out how I think it should be," she says.

In the independent film, Gere plays a federal agent investigating a paroled sex offender's connection to a missing girl. Lavigne will appear in scenes with the award-winning actor, who interestingly is also an accomplished pianist and composer.

"(Richard) plays a cop who is going to go interview this guy who is my boyfriend and he's asking me some questions about him," says the Napanee, ON native of her part.

The pretty blonde is also getting a makeover for the character. "I have a chipped tooth and glasses and all that stuff, so I had to get a mold of my mouth so they could fit a (fake) chipped tooth," she laughs.

Lavigne will still be recognizable in "The Flock," however, there's another role in which she won't -- unless you listen carefully.

Prior to the upcoming shoot, the multi-platinum-selling singer eased into the film world with a voiceover in the animated feature "Over The Hedge," due out May 19. In this Dreamworks adventure about some forest creatures, Lavigne plays Heather, a possum.

"William Shatner plays my dad in it and Bruce Willis and Gary Shandling are in it, so it's a cool cast," she says. "These animals are hibernating and they wake up and there's a hedge and we dare to cross it. We get over it and see the real world and it's really scary for us (laughs).

"My part's pretty small so it was easy enough, but it was my first ever film," she says. "It was easier because it was just voiceover so I didn't have to be on camera and it was fun. It's my voice and I'm just supposed to be young and my dad (Willis, as Ozzie, the senior possum) embarrasses me a lot."

Lavigne has already seen the finished product and says it was "cool" and "weird" to hear her voice coming out of the cartoon critter.

And she has started working on a film by director Richard Linklater ("School Of Rock," "Before Sunrise," "Dazed & Confused"), the details of which she can't yet discuss, and will also begin work on her third album. "I have songs. I'm probably going to go record some before Christmas, but next year is when I'm really going to start it."

Meanwhile, she has recorded a faithful rendition of John Lennon's "Imagine" for an Amnesty International campaign. "I just did a mellow version with piano," Lavigne says. "I just asked Chantal (Kreviazuk) to come play piano because I needed someone to play piano it and she's really good and I had Butch (Walker) produce it." More Lowdown stories