Hits or miss

As children playing Battleship, when one tended to believe anything would make for a Hollywood movie, none of us ever proposed the plastic naval board game.

So the fact a film based upon it is in cinemas is unexpected. That pop diva Rihanna has a role in it is also unexpected. It is fitting, then, that sitting down with Rihanna delivers unexpected answers.

Born in Barbados and raised as Robyn Rihanna Fenty, the 24-year-old is one of pop music's biggest sellers (25 million albums and counting) and her mononymous name is known as much for her music as her controversial life in the spotlight. To promote Battleship - which tells the tale of Earth being defended against alien invaders by a handful of navy ships - she sits perfectly poised, in a room surrounded by assistants and managers, yet baulks at the suggestion of an entourage.

''I don't have an entourage,'' she insists. ''I travel with my best friend and everybody else here has a job. Like on tour, I do my own hair and make-up. I don't really have a crew.''

By comparison, life on a Hollywood film set was a surprise, in terms of pampering and blending in among stars such as Liam Neeson. ''Everything about it was different,'' Rihanna says. ''I really enjoyed for once not being the centre of attention.''

As Petty Officer Cora Raikes, Rihanna gets a great deal of screen time, a development that shocked no one more than she. ''It was a small role and I picked it for that very reason, because it was something that I could hold … and we ended up shooting and shooting, and I got more lines and more lines.''

Securing a role in the film, with a budget of $US200 million ($194 million), meant winning over director Peter Berg. Berg's nature - ''he's crazy'' - was established in their first meeting for what turned out to be a bizarre audition.

''I didn't know what I was meeting about and I had no idea it was a movie,'' Rihanna says. ''Then, at the end of the meeting, he had me shout a ton of curse words at the top of my lungs, and he was just like: 'OK, now I really think you're the person for this role.'''

The pop singer has been touted as the possible lead in a Whitney Houston biopic. The role would be tempting, as Rihanna counts Houston as one of the ''people I'm really inspired by''.

Until then, she is reluctant to take any role that requires singing, ''because I don't want people to see me as Rihanna in any of my films''.

BATTLESHIP

GENRE Popcorn blockbuster.
CRITICAL BUZZ The two-person board game about letters and numbers translates into an intergalactic battle for Earth set around Hawaii, which works as long as you leave your brain at the door.
STARS Rihanna, Liam Neeson and Taylor Kitsch.
DIRECTOR Peter Berg.
RATED M
RELEASED Now screening.