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For all the hype and star power surrounding "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" -- including a shocking performance from comedienne Mo'Nique, supporting roles for Mariah Carey and Lenny Kravitz, and the formidable backing of producers Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey -- it wouldn't have worked without a totally unknown young actress named Gabourey "Gabby" Sidibe.

The film opens in Pittsburgh on Friday.

Sidibe would like to point out that she's really nothing like Precious, the obese, abused 16-year-old Harlem teen whose struggles with poverty, illiteracy and her horrible parents dominate the film. But she could relate to the character.

"She's very different from me," Sidibe says. "I think a large part of the difference is that I am an adult. She kind of exhibits a lot of who I was at 16 -- the whole wanting to be invisible thing. She's very different from who I am."

Sidibe is 26 and college-educated, but this is her first professional acting job. Several hundred actresses were looked at for the part of Precious.

"I went to an open casting call," says the talkative Brooklyn native. "I auditioned on Monday, was called back on Tuesday, and offered the role on Wednesday."

Sidibe had read the book, "Push," and was well aware of the grim nature of the story -- in which rape, incest and child abuse play a part.

"Lee Daniels, the director, was very brave for bringing light to it. So many people walk around feeling alone, (thinking) that it only happens to them."

For her first-ever film, Sidibe couldn't help but be a little nervous.

"I had to be there every single day on set," she says. "It was very strenuous and difficult for me, because I never acted before, I never carried a film. I was very paranoid about being sick. A lot of the time I was sick, and pretended not to be so they wouldn't shut down production."

The other major performance of note in "Precious" is Mo'Nique's transformation into perhaps the most terrifying mother on film since "Mommy Dearest."

"Actually, she's a doll, and amazing to work with," Sidibe says. "In between scenes, we'd crack jokes and laugh, dance, sing. She can turn it off and on. It was amazing to watch her. Never scary."

The atmosphere on set was a lot lighter than the finished product, she says.

"I think because of the subject matter, we had a lot of fun on the set," Sidibe says. "We had to love each other so much more, because when the director said 'action,' it was usually a really heavy scene."

The scenes that weren't heavy, however, were her favorite. Especially the fantasy sequences, where Precious escapes her torments by imagining herself on the red carpet, or in a BET music video -- "the only times I got to put on makeup, do my hair, wear pretty dresses," she says. "I got to be a girl. Most of the time, I had dirt in my hair and blood on my face."

Sidibe admits that she'd like to make a career out of acting now.

"Hopefully, I get to do a lot more acting -- I love being in front of the camera," she says. "I think it's interesting to bring a character that's just black words on a white page in a script, to bring life to it."

She would like to try something a little different next time.

"I'd like to do comedy," she says.

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