'Mirror Mirror' offers a fresh Snow White

LOS ANGELES

It's a comedy-laced retelling of the classic tale "Snow White," and Lily Collins plays the fairest of them all.

Julia Roberts is the manipulative queen who does not want any competition in the beauty category. The opportunity to work with the Oscar winner offered many "pinch me" moments for the young actress.

"We would be in a scene together, and she's being incredibly mean to me, and I'm Snow in the scene, but inside, Lily is going 'Wow,' you know? I'm having a moment of 'Is this really happening?'" Collins said.

After 20 years in the spotlight, Roberts has learned to appreciate those special moments.

"You have to enjoy where you are and how you got there and who's around you," Roberts said.

The film has a not-so-subtle message that encourages young women to embrace their power.

"Snow White does end up fighting for what she believes in mentally and physically, and is not that damsel in distress the entire movie. She really grows into her own and becomes a young woman," Collins said.

Not that the evil Queen does anything to help her. Roberts relished the chance to go over the top with this witty comedic role.

"It was just such good fun," she said. "We did play with it before we started shooting. We worked a lot on just kind of making it bigger and meaner and funnier as best we could, and then we would make things up as we went along."

Roberts' Queen is a woman who's large and in charge, and she's not afraid to play the mean card. But she's not worried about how her three young kids might react to seeing mom as an evil Queen.

"They've never seen me in a movie before, but that's all in due course, I think," she said.

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