Singers playing singers in movie has always been a risky proposition. From Elvis and Prince to Glitter, Crossroads and A Walk To Remember, storylines often suffer to set up musical moments. Then, some people just nail it, like Bette Midler, Barbra Streisand and even Eminem.

Pop sensation Hilary Duff plays an aspiring singer in Raise Your Voice who must overcome a personal tragedy to find the joy of music again. The film portrays the physical difficulties she goes through as well as the emotional ones, in an examination that Duff said is similar to her own process.

“It’s a little more difficult in this movie because I was singing arias and stuff I never have to sing for the type of music that I sing,” Duff said. “But there’s definitely times that I get that frustrated when I can’t sing something that I want to or I can’t hit a certain note that day. There’s definitely a process where I’m writing and I’m like, ‘This is stupid. Why did I write this? Let’s start from the beginning.’ And I’ll end up throwing something away that I really did like, just because it didn’t sound that great that day. There’s definitely some challenging parts.”

The film also provided some of Duff’s most difficult acting challenges, as it is her first drama. “People have been asking me today what the most challenging part of the movie was, and it wasn’t the crying scenes. I think that’s much easier than trying to make people laugh. Crying on command is not that difficult. But the parts that were harder for me were after the tragedy happens to Terri in her life, it’s kind of just like a closed-off, numb feeling. She doesn’t feel any emotion, no happiness, no sadness. She’s kind of like nothing. That was the hardest thing for me.”

Fortunately for Duff, there were some familiar aspects of the story. “Going to the school and feeling like the outsider, I kind of learned how to do that a lot with Lizzie McGuire because she was the dork that didn’t really fit in. And everybody kind of made Terri feel very unwelcome at the school at first.”

Playing the inspirational teacher who pushes her to realize her full talents is John Corbett. Best known for his leading man roles, Corbett never saw himself as the cool teacher. “I’m not really around kids that much so I don’t really think of myself like that,” Corbett said. “I play the guitar so I could probably teach a kid or two to play the guitar and have some success with that.”

Still, Corbett believes adults need to be as tough as his character is sometimes to keep kids in check. “Lids will f*cking run all over you. You have to be a strong teacher, you know? They have to get their whacks, man. Their emotional whacks, at least. I’m still for whacks on the ass too, man, they have to bring that back. That’s what’s wrong with society today: kids don’t get whacked at school. I was a pretty disruptive student in class in school. I had a hard time paying attention. I had what they call the ADD now. Back then I was just a hyper kid. I couldn’t concentrate and I was an F student. Ds and Fs all the time. I remember I had a Spanish class when I was a sophomore, and a week into it the teacher said, ‘Listen. If you just sit in the back, you can do whatever you want. Just don’t disrupt the class and I’ll pass you with a C. You don’t have to take a test, you don’t have to do anything. Just f*cking be quiet please.’ So it was the last class of the day and I’d just go in there and draw. I held up my end. I’d be quiet. It was the perfect class, because it was Spanish, to just make puns all day long on words that sounded funny, you know?”

The family dynamic is a constant theme in the film, playing in the background of the music school plot. Terri has to sneak away to school because her father does not want her to go. With her aunt and mother covering for her, Terri has to deal with pursuing her dream while lying to her father. At least on the level of closeness with her female relatives, Duff could relate.

“My relationship with my mom is so amazing,” she said. “We never got to have that stage that people go through, like when you’re 13 and you think you’re too cool for your parents. When you’re embarrassed by them and stuff. We never went through that because I was constantly working and she constantly had to be there. We just because best friends. I tell her everything. She’s really my role model and my inspiration. She’s such a good person and such a strong person. A lot of people give her flack for being strong and being smart, but I think I envy that in her.”

Rita Wilson plays her mother in the film, and was able to give some guidance to the young starlet as well. “She’s amazing. Most of my scenes with her were more dramatic and literally she would take a breath and it would all come and show on her face. I would look at her and it would just make me start crying because she’s so talented and so beautiful, and such an inspiring person. [She’s] just really honest and really real, and I love that.”

Corbett worked with Wilson as a producer on My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but in this film they only had a brief scene and no dialogue together. “I didn’t know she was in the movie until two days before I went to shoot,” he said. “I was really looking forward to it. I wish I would have had some scenes with her. I didn’t have anything to do with her in the movie. I think at the end I’m kind of standing by her when all the kids are jamming. But, I’d love to actually be in a movie with her because she’s good. And when she cries with Hilary, in that first scene when she’s folding up the brother’s clothes, and Hilary comes upstairs and they both have a little meltdown. That was strong. I started weeping in the theater.”

With two movies a year, hit singles and new albums, Duff does not anticipate slowing down in the near future. “It seems kind of normal now,” she said. “I think that there’s really no way to prepare yourself, to say, ‘Oh, I’ve got all this going on.’ You just do it. It’s like I want to be able to do all of these things, and I have to be really prepared to do it. It doesn’t really bother me, every day thinking that I’m going to have to switch modes to singing or acting or traveling, or this, that and the other. You just kind of do it. It’s just kind of natural. The energy is addicting almost. Even though it’s really hard work, I don’t think you could do it unless you loved it. I love it, but it definitely keeps me going. A new place every night, doing this, doing that, it’s crazy.”

Corbett sees a long career in Duff’s future. “I think she can do music as long as she wants. She can act as long as she wants. She’s 16 so, you know, in 10 years she’s still only going to be 26. If she really, really enjoys acting and likes it, I think she’s got the chops to become a woman who is a good actress. I was impressed with her when we were working together. You know, all my scenes were kind of light so I wasn’t there for any of her heavy stuff. When I saw the movie, I was really blown away by how intense she was, especially in her emotional scenes where she had to really get worked up.”

Raise Your Voice Opens Oct 8th