Chris Vognar

My Blueberry Nights has been widely proclaimed as the acting debut of one Norah Jones, Grammy-laden graduate of Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.

AP

Norah Jones says she "had a blast" starring in My Blueberry Nights but prefers her day job of making music.

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Except that's not quite true.

"All the drama students at Booker T. Washington got to do a play when they were seniors," she says by phone from New York. "So I did a senior-directed play after school, because I thought it would be fun. It was a comedy, Victory on Mrs. Dandywine's Island. I played an old crazy British lady with white hair."

Good times. But chances are slim that director Wong Kar Wai was in the house at Booker T. that night. The Hong Kong art film maestro hadn't made a film in English until Blueberry, a lush if airy love story that also stars Jude Law, Natalie Portman and Rachel Weisz. When he called Ms. Jones in the middle of her last tour, the singer didn't even know who he was.

Then her tour ended, and she returned home to find a box set of Mr. Wong's films. She fell in love with In the Mood for Love, and she agreed to have coffee with him in New York. "I still didn't know what he wanted," she says.

Determined filmmaker: "Do you want to act?"

Uncertain singer: "I don't know if I can act. I don't know if I'd be good at it. I'm a musician."

Determined filmmaker, peering through his trademark dark sunglasses: "I think you'll be fine."

So why did the famously seat-of-the-pants director seek out the untried chanteuse? And what did he see through those dark glasses?

"When I first met Norah, I was immediately impressed by her confidence and spontaneity," Mr. Wong says by e-mail. "I wanted to capture her natural charm and spirit in My Blueberry Nights. I advised her not to take acting lessons simply because I didn't think she needed them."

The Wong experience is quite a way to get your movie feet wet. He presents a script much later in the game than most filmmakers, and he loves to change course while shooting. His images are strikingly framed and lit, but his methods could be best described as unorthodox.

Unless, of course, you have nothing to compare them with.

"It was kind of an interesting way to work, but I knew no other way because I had never done a movie," Ms. Jones says. "I enjoyed working that way. It was more like making music. We didn't rehearse anything until we got on set. We just did it."

She survived her maiden voyage, and she's proud of the finished product. Which doesn't mean she's looking for a second career.

"I had a blast, don't get me wrong," she says. "But I like my day job. I like getting up at noon. I don't like getting up at 6 in the morning and doing hair and makeup for an hour. It's a different kind of job."

For a different kind of director.