Star stands out from peers

As 21-year-old starlets go, Brittany Snow appears to have it all.

She’s in “Hairspray,” one of the top five movies in the country.

She’s starring opposite Oscar nominee Laurence Fishburne in the gritty thriller “Black Water Transit,” now filming in New Orleans.

She has a handful of other movies set for release next year, including one with Matthew Broderick.

This girl, she’s got a career.

But it’s not necessarily what she has that distinguishes her from her peers in Hollywood.

It’s what she doesn’t.

She doesn’t have a rap sheet or an unflattering mug shot popping up in newspapers and newscasts.

She has had no public meltdowns or dates with rehab.

In short, she’s no Lindsay.

Or Paris.

Or that other Britney.

Snow credits her family and strong network of friends for keeping her grounded in what can be a pressure-packed industry.

But she also realizes that she’s been dealt a rare hand.

“I know I’m very, very lucky to be in this business and be working, and to take that for granted and have the ego that it’s always going to last and that you can always show up to work late and keep people waiting – it’s just not a way that I want to live my life,” she says.

“In this kind of business, it can go away at any second, and so I’m trying to do the best work that I can because I’m very grateful.

“Also, (hard partying) just doesn’t appeal to me as much as I’m sure it appeals to other people, and that’s just a lucky thing, I guess.”

In Hollywood, that kind of squeaky-cleanness could lead to too many good-girl roles and the dreaded t-word: typecasting.

After her run as young Meg Pryor on the ‘60s-set NBC series “American Dreams” (in which her character had her sights set on being a dancer on “American Bandstand”) and her turn as Amber Von Tussle in the feature film “Hairspray” (in which her character is a dancer on an “American Bandstand”-type show), she seems to be making something of an effort to stretch herself professionally.

In “Black Water Transit,” she plays a world-weary prostitute who finds herself in the middle of an arms deal involving two men she loves, played by Laurence Fishburne and Karl Urban (“The Bourne Supremacy”).

“It was a very long and drawn-out auditioning process to get this role, because I had to break down a lot of barriers of what people have always thought of me as being,” Snow says. “I was really, really intrigued by the character.

“Teen comedies are very fun, and I think everybody needs to do comedies, but every once in a while you need a great script that you can just dig into and just go for it.”

Judging by her recent projects, Snow is all about going for it – and shattering expectations in the process.

Between the time “Black Water Transit” wraps and is released, another film of Snow’s will be in theaters, a dark comedy titled “Finding Amanda” and starring Matthew Broderick. Her role in that film: prostitute.

After that comes “Prom Night,” which is not, Snow stresses, a remake of the 1980 Jamie Lee Curtis slasher flick. She likens the thriller to the 1998 Reese Witherspoon nail-biter “Fear.”

She wrapped on “Prom Night” two weeks before coming to New Orleans, so Snow admits a bit of physical and emotional fatigue – a vacation to somewhere tropical is in the offing – though she said she wouldn’t trade the collective experience she gained on her recent films, particularly on “Black Water Transit,” for anything.

“I’m little by little showing myself that I can handle a movie like this and handle a role like this,” she says.

“You’re so nervous that you’re going to have to do this crazy scene – there’s no script and I have to be crazy and dancing and singing and playing with my shadow and coming up with things on the top of my head and running up on top of cars and, basically, anything you can imagine.

“And then, after the scene, you can’t describe the feeling. You’re like, ‘Wow, where did all that come from?’

“I’m so thrilled I get to do this every day.”