LeAnn Rimes lost 'wholesome child' image to portray 'women selling sex' in 'Coyote Ugly' video

foxnews.com:

LeAnn Rimes signed her first record contract when she was 13 years old and won two Grammys the following year for her first album, "Blue." Rimes was riding high on a wave of success, and was only 17 when she appeared in the 2000 film "Coyote Ugly." She told The Guardian she was constantly working in the studio and had performed in "500 shows in three and a half years." Her cameo in the female-driven flick, which included her hit "Can't Fight the Moonlight," marked a major turning point for Rimes as she admitted she had never even "danced on top" of a bar and had to do "a lot of pretending to play the part of a woman with confidence." "The video for this song became a kind of introduction to my sexuality, something I could own myself," Rimes said. "The film was multilayered, but it was centered on women selling sex, whereas for most of my career my identity had been the opposite — it was about everyone around me preserving me as this wholesome child.  "'Coyote Ugly' was my step out of that innocence." Rimes recalled, "On the day of the shoot, the costume department handed me these chicken fillets to wear, and I said, ‘What am I supposed to do with these?’ They had to explain: ‘You’re meant to put them in your shirt, they make your boobs bigger.’  "It was a bit of a shock at first, but it became an introduction to a different side of myself that I wanted to explore." The "How Do I Live" singer said it "used to be hard" for her to look back on past photos without cringing.

Rimes danced on top of a bar alongside "Coyote Ugly" star Piper Perabo in the music video.  "I was coming into my own in the media spotlight, which is very awkward in many ways," she said. "But now I see someone who was a survivor and a true fighter.