In the new film Precious directed by Lee Daniels, the talented Mariah Carey takes on the role of a makeup-free Harlem social worker named “Ms. Weiss.” The filmmaker’s vision was to add a level of realness to the movie by not using makeup on much of his cast, which included Mariah Carey (pictured above). She is almost unrecognizable, but it adds to the realness of the film as Carey explains below:

“They totally changed me,” Carey said. “I didn’t want to look in the mirror. It was beyond dressing down because Lee Daniels loved to torture me. He really wanted me to not just look plain, he wanted me to look homely. That was his goal. He wanted a mustache and an under-the-eye thing and the bad hair. Now I see why he wanted it because people didn’t recognize me and he didn’t want me to take people out of the movie because they were seeing Mariah Carey.”

Precious is getting Oscar buzz and is currently in theaters.