Church 'turned down role over weight demand'

Teenage star Charlotte Church turned down a role in big budget movie Phantom Of The Opera – because the makers wanted her to lose weight.

The 17-year-old chart star said she was told to slim down even to audition for a role, despite her global fame.

In an interview for style magazine The Face, which is out tomorrow, she said she was constantly being told she did not get roles because of her size.

“I won’t fit into their ideals because I think it’s really wrong.

“I think if I’d just fitted in with everything that everybody told me to I would’ve been in rehab age 12.”

Church has been styled as a vamp for the magazine and is the cover star.

She has already made one film, I’ll Be There, which she says is “cute”.

But she pointed out that she had refused the Phantom film, which is to star Antonio Banderas, and is based on the Lloyd Webber musical.

“They’re saying even if I wanna audition, I’ve gotta lose a few pounds.

“So I said, ‘Bugger off then’. I get it all the time, calls from the management in LA saying, ‘We’re not getting adverts and major film parts cos you’re too big’.”

Church – who won last year’s Rear Of The Year title when she was 16, said: “Yeah, my arse is a bit big but I’m happy with myself. As long as I can sing it doesn’t matter about the fame, it’s disposable.

“I won’t conform to the crap.”

The multi-million-selling singer also spoke about how her mother Maria no longer had a guiding role in her career.

“You know what mothers and daughters are like – she was ‘I think you should do this, I think you should do that’, and I’d be ‘Aw mum. Muuum.’ I wanted to try and be independent.

“I just wanted to try it on my own.”

Speaking about her boyfriend Steve Johnson, Church said: “He’s really, really good to me and we never argue.”

She told how she was offered cocaine at the age of 14 at an aftershow party after playing New York’s Carnegie Hall, which she refused, running off to her mum and stepdad.

“Stuff like E, I’d be too scared. That I’d get a dodgy one and I’d die. And I don’t wanna die.

Church recently learned that she will soon have access to the money she has earned which has been held in trust throughout her career.

She had been informed that it would be held until she was 21 but she has now been told by lawyers that she can dismantle the trust at 18.

“I probably will, because there’s no tax benefits in a trust. But I won’t be extravagant,” she told The Face.