Last month, I spent a half-hour chatting with Paula Patton, the up-and-coming actress who gives the best performance of her young career as Ms. Rain, a compassionate teacher at an alternative school in 1980′s Harlem, in Lee Daniels’ provocative new film “Precious” (Lions Gate, 11/6, trailer). Until recently, Patton was best known as Denzel Washington‘s love interest in “Deja Vu” (2006) and/or the wife of popular R&B singer Robin Thicke, but this film — which some believe could lead to best supporting actress Oscar nominations for her and her more famous co-stars Mo’Nique and Mariah Carey — has made it clear that she is a force to be reckoned with in her own right.

I was disappointed that geography forced us to conduct the interview by phone, as I would have loved to get a first-hand look at one of the best smiles in Hollywood, but the content of our conversation was almost as captivating and I encourage you to check out audio highlights by clicking the links below…

• How her difficult childhood led her to acting “It wasn’t the best childhood, in some respects, and I would escape by creating my own fantasy worlds. I would put on these plays in my parents’ backyard, and I would act out all the parts, and for me it was a way to get away from being who I really was… I am pretty private about it… Basically, you know, a lot of children go through parents that are not getting along well, and there’s a lot of yelling and fighting in the house, and sort of a not clear knowledge of what your life is gonna be like, you know, from one day to the next.”

• How the part of Ms. Rain in “Precious” came to her “[Thicke and Daniels] were at a party together, sitting across from one another, and they just started getting talking, and [Lee] discovered that [Robin] was my husband, and [Lee] said, ‘Oh, my God, I’ve been trying to get her a script! I’m doing this movie and I really want her to be in it.’ And so he gave Robin ‘Shadowboxer’ and a script, and my husband read it and was like, ‘You have to do this! Read it — you have to do it!’ And I did, and I loved it.”

• Why she felt apprehensive about taking on the part in “Precious” “I have to tell you, honestly Scott, I was really nervous. I didn’t really want to play the role. I didn’t know how to play the role. And I was unsure of that element. I knew the movie was gonna be amazing; I just couldn’t wrap my head around how to play it. So I gave it to my mom, who was a school teacher for 35 years in the Los Angeles public school system, and she read it, and she loved it, and I was like, ‘Oh, maybe I should do this — I think I have to do this for mom.’ And then I met with Lee Daniels, and that sold me immediately.”

• Patton’s model for her character “I said, ‘Okay, I’ll do it, but you need to help me find a real Ms. Rain because I’m having trouble wrapping my head around this without thinking of other roles of teachers like this, and I want to do something different.’ And so he found me this woman for me named Janet Jones, who’s a teacher in New York City at an alternative school similar to the one that you see in the film… and she let me shadow her for weeks and ask her lots of questions. And then I felt like I had the tools I needed to go to set and feel confident enough to play the role.”

• Mariah couldn’t wear makeup, Mo’Nique had to grow armpit hair, and you…? “[My character is] not someone who has time for makeup, so no, she’s not wearing makeup… but she wants to look professional for the girls because she’s trying to be an example of how they should go out in the world… I remembered my mom would never wear jeans to work — she always wanted to dress professionally to go teach kids — and it left a lasting impression with me.”

• Why Ms. Rain is a lesbian “I think that this whole movie is about shaking up people’s point of view — that nobody is what they seem, that everybody’s got a story. And that’s what I love about the film, is that you’re with Ms. Rain for quite a while before you discover that she is a lesbian, so you can’t judge her on her sexual preference. So often we do judge people that way — we judge people for being overweight, for being various different colors, and so on and so on — and this film forces you to deal with all of those stereotypes within all of us… you’ll never look at a girl like Precious again and think you know her story or judge her.”

• How similar/different is Gabby to/from Precious? “She’s so different from the character! I mean, she surprised me, I have to tell you… it was probably not until a week into filming that I realized how not Precious Gabby was… she completely transformed herself! She changed the way she walked, she talked — she has a much higher-pitched voice! She has this bright-light energy. She’s super-smart. And I remember we were in the makeup room and… she was like, “Have you been watching ‘The Hills’? Can you believe what’s happening on ‘The Hills’ right now?’ And I was like, ‘Who are you?!’”

• On potential Academy controversy “The movie continues to surprise me — it really surprised me in the way it’s played in different places, and I’ll just give you an example and can only hope that it applies to the Academy… I’ll never forget that screening in Provo, Utah, where we saw it with a primarily white audience… and I was shocked because we got a standing ovation, nobody left, and there were all these people there that connected to the story… I remember this 60-year-old white man standing up and saying that that was his story, and that just blew me away… Somehow this movie crosses racial boundaries, sexual boundaries, gender boundaries… If people watch it, I don’t think that they’ll not continue to watch it… If people choose to not watch it, then I don’t know what to say for that, that’s unfortunate.”

• What she hopes audiences will walk away from the film thinking/doing differently “I hope this movie — for everybody — breeds compassion and less judgment in the world. I really do believe that when you walk away from this film, you can’t not have your heart be more open to care about others more. So, in that way, I think it is a great piece of art that does change people. And that doesn’t happen that often.”

Photo: Paula Patton, right, with Gabby Sidibe in “Precious.” Credit: Lions Gate.