Emmy Rossum On 'Beautiful Creatures' Bad Girl

After Emmy Rossum and the "Beautiful Creatures" buzz machine dished up a couple sneak peeks at her distinctive looks from the set, there's no question that the character of Ridley makes for a stunning style chameleon—but just 'cause the witch looks good, that doesn't mean she can't be seriously bad, as Emmy was quick to explain when we chatted with her on set.

"Ridley is a bad girl with a really small, tiny heart of gold underneath," said the actress, who makes no
bones about the delights of playing the seductive caster who tries to corrupt the film's impressionable young hero: "She is deliciously evil."

And despite a deer-in-headlights moment during her audition ("I remember, I made it all the way up until the last two lines and I completely blanked," she admitted), Emmy says that she's settled quite comfortably into her role as Ridley...and into the barely there costumes her character likes best.

"This number is the most comfortable to wear because it's kind of like a little lacy nothing," she said, pointing out that the heat down in Louisiana, where the movie is shooting, makes more modest attire a sweaty proposition. But hot or not, it's the perfect location to channel the right visual vibe for this cinematic adaptation of the beloved literary source material, which Emmy describes as faithful but flexible in its interpretation.

"It definitely has the undercurrents and the themes and a lot of characters of the books, and the main focus of the story is obviously very similar to the books," she explained. "I think that...the visual is definitely Southern gothic like it is in the book, but there's something that's very sophisticated, especially with Philippe Rousselot, our [director of photography], who has done so many incredible films."

And with only a few teensy peeks so far at what's happening on set, it remains to be seen what "sophisticated" means (although Emmy's short, fiery hairdo might offer a hint at what sort of sexiness is in store)—but you can bet we'll be watching closely for the next bit of info to slip.