Actress Emmy Rossum sure must be thankful for the phrase, "It's only a movie."

First off, she didn't fare well as Sean Penn's daughter in "Mystic River," but she did survive the ice age in the doomsday thriller "The Day After Tomorrow."

Then in "The Phantom of the Opera," as the breathtaking ingénue Christine Daae, Rossum managed to escape the crumbling ruins of a majestic Paris opera house as a massive chandelier crashed down on the audience and the place went up in flames.

And now, she's stepped aboard director Wolfgang Petersen's "Poseidon," a disaster thriller inspired by the 1972 film classic "The Poseidon Adventure"-- where a 150-high rogue wave turns a monolithic luxury cruise liner upside down .

So, is it just me, or am I detecting a destructive pattern with Rossum's career here?

"Nothing was intentional at all," Rossum told me, laughing, in a recent @ The Movies interview.

She did clarify, however, that her perilous movie choices have come in different flavors.

"Even though they are both disaster movies, 'The Day After Tomorrow' was more about the consciousness of the issue of global warming, and 'Poseidon' is much more of a suspense-action-thriller that's very gritty and moves very fast," Rossum said.

And, she added, the fact that she's facing doom again in her most recent films is purely coincidental. What matters is how she responds to the material when she reads a script.

"Wolfgang sent me the script right after the (2004 South Asian) tsunami had happened -- it was on the news all of the time and there was something that really touched me," Rossum said. "The movie talks about all of the petty arguments that you have with your family every day don't really matter. The only thing that matters is that you're with the people that you love and that you have courage."

Set aboard the ocean liner on New Year's Eve, "Poseidon" stars Rossum as Jennifer Ramsey, a young woman who, despite her fiercely independent ways, can't quite muster the courage to tell her overprotective single father, Robert (Kurt Russell), that she and her boyfriend, Christian (Mike Vogel), have become engaged.

But that becomes trivial when the ship capsizes, and Jennifer and Robert are separated -- and fight to find a way not only to reunite with each other, but stay alive.

Also starring Josh Lucas, Richard Dreyfuss, Jacinda Barrett and Mia Maestro, "Poseidon" opens in theaters and on IMAX screens Friday.

It's only appropriate that Petersen direct "Poseidon" -- after all, he's logged a tremendous amount of water-movie time bringing such oceanic thrillers as "Das Boot" and "A Perfect Storm" to life.

The great thing about Petersen, Rossum said, is that despite the spectacular visuals he's created at sea (and in the air, for that matter, with films like "Air Force One"), he never loses sight that characters are at the heart of the stories.

To Rossum's benefit in "Poseidon," it meant that she got to play a strong female character instead of a damsel in distress.

"In most Hollywood movies, they make the girls wimper in the corner," Rossum said. "In this film, my character's pretty proactive and courageous given the situation she's in. And, dealing with a father who's over-protective, she's pretty feisty and independent and wants to have her freedom.

"But at the same time, she has a big allegiance to her father," Rossum added. "They've grown up together, but he still sees her as a little girl -- and she's grown up and fallen in love and thinks she wants to get married. That's a tumultuous time in anyone's life, but given the situation they're in, it's an even more difficult time."

While Rossum's character demanded that she be tough mentally, Petersen expected her and her cast mates to be up to the physical challenges, too -- chief among them, the harrowing underwater scenes.

"What's great about the movie is that it's really a visceral experience watching it, because the actors really went through everything," Rossum enthused. "We did 90 percent of our own stunts. We were sometimes 20 feet underwater in enclosed spaces, free-diving, and pretty much blind because we had no goggles."

Rossum, fortunately, got through the shoot with few bumps and bruises. But some of her co-stars weren't so lucky.

"Kurt Russell got pneumonia, Josh Lucas broke 10 ligaments in his right hand, Mia Maestro was in the hospital with a concussion -- it was really an intense shoot," Rossum said. "One of the things that Wolfgang really strives for is reality, and we definitely achieved that. The reason the movie is so scary is because you can see the actors doing their own things, and you really feel like you're with them on this rollercoaster."

As for a follow-up to hypnotic turn in "Phantom" (she's performed in 20 different operas in five languages since age 7), Rossum told me that she has no immediate plans to do another movie musical. Fans will be happy to know, though, that she's recording her first solo album -- and there's a twist: She's singing pop music instead of classical.

"But don't worry, it's not Britney Spears bubble gum," Rossum said with a laugh. "It has much more of a Sara McLachlan, David Gray and Annie Lennox kind of feel," Rossum described. "It's more vocal-driven pop -- it's not going to sound mechanical like a lot of pop does now."

Rossum said she's co-writing the songs on the album with pop stalwart Glen Ballard, and it's due out at the beginning of next year.

And as she continues to expand her creative wings, don't expect Rossum to crash and burn on the fast lane with other performers her age. I likened her aura to that of classic movie star -- and she's glad people see it that way.

"I think I have that image because I don't really lead my life in the media spotlight. I think that's something that's more old Hollywood," Rossum said. "I don't really live in the tabloids and I don't party with that young Hollywood crowd, so maybe that's what gives me that aura. But it's not intentional. It's natural, because that lifestyle isn't something that interests me."