PARK CITY, Utah — During the 2007 and 2008 Sundance Film Festivals, Nick Cannon was known as an indie-film actor by day, hard-partying superstar by night. This year, however, the newly married Cannon found both elements of his personality evolving.
"I'm the Sundance Kid!" laughed Cannon, who was spotted all over town during the weekend with wife Mariah Carey. "But yes, this is quite different. It's so amazing, because past years have been nothing but a party. My mentality was different; we ain't gonna go into [what was going on], but you know how Sundance can be."
This year, Cannon has welcomed his recording-legend wife to the annual snow-soaked paradise — and Sundance has done the same. Her inner-city drama, "Push," has garnered some of the fest's best reviews, while Cannon's blood-soaked thriller, "The Killing Room," has kept pace with its own positive buzz.
"To be able to share this with your wife — she has a film up here, and I have a film — you couldn't imagine or even hope for something this great," Cannon marveled.
As the power couple's loyal fans know, they capped off their wild weekend by heading to Washington, D.C. to perform at Barack Obama's inaugural celebrations. But even before they caught their plane, Cannon was flying high over Carey's "Push" performance.
"Aw man, that movie is incredible. My wife did an amazing job," he said of the flick, in which Carey plays a decidedly un-glammed, non-"Glitter"-y social worker. "And I just feel so good for her, because it's one of those things where somebody has been so great in another field, has accomplished so much [in the music industry], people are reluctant to accept them in another industry. And she's just blazing it. She's just as impactful in this as she is in anything."
Cannon insisted Carey's performance was so impactful that it even beat his own presentation as a distraught, teary-eyed homeless man in "Killing Room."
"She blew me out the water," he conceded. "All day!
"That's the thing: When you see 'Push,' not only do you forget that's Mariah Carey, you might not even recognize it's Mariah Carey," he insisted. "It's one of those performances. She don't talk the same, she don't look the same — she just went in and did her thing."
When asked if Carey would be similarly diplomatic and choose his role over hers, Cannon said no way. "Well ... she sees my film tonight. So, we'll be debating that on our way to the inauguration," he said hours before the "Killing" premiere. "But this is so not her type of flick. She doesn't like horror films and blood and all that stuff. ... There's gonna be a lot of closing of the eyes in this one. But she's a true movie buff, so she'll appreciate it."
And as these two movie buffs have been making the rounds together as the King and Queen of Sundance 2009, one question keeps coming up: "People always say, 'Are you gonna work together?' " he said. "I don't know. It would have to be something fun, like a cameo. I don't know if we would literally do a [whole film] together, but we both love comedy. So you might see us as characters somewhere and go, 'Was that? Nah.' Or something like that."
Sure, Nick Cannon's 2009 Sundance experience has been decidedly different than it has been over the last two years. But Nick and Mariah's love for a good party was well documented in their single days, and married life doesn't have to change that — although it sometimes makes for an earlier end to the evening.
"We've been hitting a few [big events]. I had a party last night — I was DJing over at Harry O's, that's the spot out here," Cannon explained. "We've been doing our thing, but then heading to the crib early, waking up and working.
The MTV Movies team is braving the Utah temperatures, celebrity-packed screenings and swag-filled parties at this year's Sundance Film Festival to bring you news and sneak peeks of the big screen's next big things. Head over to the MTV Movies blog for reviews, interviews, clips and more.
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