Britney has long since succumbed to self-parody with her faintly creepy ‘Down South’ routine, while Christina Aguilera has taken to wearing nothing but shoelaces and fright wigs in order to flag her ailing career, but their one time rival for US chart domination Mandy Moore is sticking to her guns and avoiding the knicker-flashing route to fame. Okay, this may not have done the 17-year-old songstress any favours in the increasingly girlie-pic driven world of pop, but it has opened other doors.

For one thing, she’s muscling out Jennifer Love Hewitt as the main Neutrogena girl and can frequently be seen as the presenter of MTV’s Total Request Live.

As Movie House caught up with the remarkably pretty Mandy, she had also just bagged a viewer voted MTV Movie Breakthrough Award for her first leading role in the movie A Walk To Remember, a majorly mushy teenage melodrama with Mandy as a religious and dedicated virgin who wins the affection of her high school’s resident bad-boy through her sincerity.

TARA BRADY: Having only done small roles in movies like The Princess Diaries, was making the transition from supporting act to leading role in a movie a daunting experience for you?

MANDY MOORE: Yes definitely, or at least I think it was initially. I was definitely freaked out about people’s first impressions. Especially, among the cast and the crew. I was worried what kind of preconceived notions they might have about other sections of the entertainment industry, if you know what I mean?

TB: Were you worried they were expecting J-Lo then?

MM: Exactly. I was always passionate about the story and the workload certainly didn’t worry me but I was scared about that. But once I got to the set and everyone was working together, and pitching in together, it was fine.

TB: Given that you had to go brunette for the movie, can you now reveal if blondes have more fun?

MM: No way! I’m having so much more fun as a brunette. There is just no way I’m ever going back. I feel sexier. I feel so much better about myself. It is stupid, I know. I mean it’s only hair colour, but people do take you more seriously when you’re a brunette. It’s true! People don’t trust blondes. It’s so weird.

TB: Were you at all worried about the potentially devastating impact that a film role as a super-virginal Christian girl might have on your career?

MM: No. You know, I felt like I had a lot to learn from her. She’s a really spirited and spiritual person who everyone wants to be a little bit more like. How people judge her in high-school doesn’t ever change the way she feels about herself. I loved having that message – that being yourself is good enough. And I don’t think the movie is too preachy.

TB: And as a devout Catholic, did you identify with your character’s deeply held Christian beliefs?

MM: I am definitely spiritual and I do have a strong sense of faith, but I didn’t completely identify with the way her entire life revolves around it. But playing her did bring me a little bit closer to that.

TB: This does put you on a very different career path than that taken by one time contemporaries Britney and Christina, doesn’t it?

MM: Well, let’s just say that there has never been any pressure on me to dress up or play a character, and if there ever was I would fight so hard. I mean, I do magazine shoots, but I’m not comfortable wearing stuff, or not wearing stuff to get attention. It’s essentially the easier road to take, and if it works for them fine, but I don’t want to look back and feel embarrassed about work I’ve done, so it’s not for me.

TB: And finally, as the only teenage girl to have toured with both N’Sync and The Backstreet Boys, can you settle the question which has plagued mankind for ages – which boy-band is better?

MM: Gosh, it’s kind of a tie, but I got to know The Backstreet Boys a little bit better, so I would have to go with them. Although, still to this day, everytime I see the N’Sync boys, they always come up to me and talk. So, mmmm. They’re all great guys. Honestly!