Texas girl's first love has always been singing

And Jennifer Love Hewitt, who spent her first decade in Killeen, has never looked back.

It's a very busy time for the Texas-born actress-singer. Hewitt appeared on NBC's "Today Show" earlier this week — only five minutes before this telephone conversation.

Her new action-comedy movie "The Tuxedo," opening today, gives Hewitt a chance to kung fu it up with action-comic master Jackie Chan.

"It was really fun," she says about "The Tuxedo." "We had a great time. He's such an amazing man and such a great teacher. He trained me personally for everything that I did in the movie."

The 23-year-old rising star becomes most animated when she talks about the other reason she was on national TV, though. Hewitt flew from Los Angeles late the night before and got up at 4 a.m. to sing "BareNaked," the title tune from her fourth album, to the television coffee, chat and news audience.

"I was terrified," she admits. "I haven't done a lot of live television. 'The Today Show' is a pretty big one to do. It was just very early and 'BareNaked' is kind of a difficult song to sing that early in the morning."

That didn't keep the transplanted Texan from taking on the major challenge, however.

"It's funny. I'm not a brave person in my own life, I don't think. But in my career I seem to be very brave. There seems to be no stopping me when I set my mind on something. A lot of times they're things that could potentially make me look very, very stupid," she says.

That could include her co-starring role with Chan in "The Tuxedo." Hewitt keeps up with the cinematic martial arts master quite well in the fighting scenes, although her first venture into leg-kicking action-comedy came with a price.

"I actually broke my ankle, or cracked it. It was in a cast for two weeks. I hurt both my knees, pulled my hamstring, broke my middle finger, hit my head and got hit in the face with a nightstick," she says.

Music fans unfamiliar with Hewitt might tend to dismiss the co-star of the con comedy "Heartbreakers" and the teen horror flick "I Know What You Did Last Summer" (and its sequel) as just another actress cashing in on a name through music.

After all, the J. Lo(ve Hewitt) moniker even fits. But as a little girl in Central Texas, she never dreamed of being in movies, much less of becoming a movie star.

"I wanted to be a singer," she says. "I never wanted to be famous. I never wanted to be a celebrity, never wanted to be any of that stuff. I just always wanted to sing songs. I wanted to get up on stage and make people smile and sing music and have a good time. That's just always what I wanted to do."

Hewitt, who must have been one precocious young lady, moved to California with her mother so she could pursue a musical career. It's a musical career that began with belting out show tunes at Texas livestock shows. The acting, including an acclaimed portrayal as late actress Audrey Hepburn in the made-for-TV movie "The Audrey Hepburn Story," just kind of happened.

"The fact that all of this other stuff has come with it is sort of icing on the cake. It's been very strange to get used to. I always just wanted to sing. The acting thing; I really don't know how it happened or how I ended up even starting into that. Singing was always the thing."

When Hewitt speaks of upcoming movie projects, like an untitled romantic-drama she hopes to begin next month in London, she appears to be talking about work. Her music, however, is fodder for her dreams.

"I have one big dream in the music industry. That's to be a 14-year-old girl or guy's first concert. The reason I want to be their first concert is that's the thing you talk about forever. I hope there's a song on my record that will touch somebody and that they'll be able to relate to and not feel alone."

"BareNaked," which debuted Tuesday in record stores, has already fulfilled one major goal for Hewitt. It landed her on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. That's a major thrill for any musician.

"It's pretty cool, right? I'm so excited."

She's also so — how can we put this? — scantily clad. The cover features Hewitt in a man's shirt, her panties and ... well, nothing else.

Hewitt, no stranger to taking career chances, says she knew going in that Rolling Stone was planning to "push the envelope."

"I think Rolling Stone had an opportunity with this photo shoot to do something with me in photos that no one has ever really done before. That is to show a much more adult side of things, much more comfortable in my own skin and my own sexuality kind of thing."

She could have never done this kind of thing before, the actress says, because she just wasn't old enough.

"I think in the past year or so, especially making this record, I've kind of come into my own sexuality and I'm beginning to figure out a little bit who I'm going to be as a person. Who I am in this photo is not necessarily who I'm going to be as a person. But I think it's a side of me."

Hewitt has made it a habit over the years of having Polaroid shots made of all her photo shoots to eliminate the possibility of surprise later. She even took instant photos home to prepare her mother and brother for what loomed in the future when it came to the Rolling Stone cover.

"I wanted to say, 'Look, this is what's going to come out on the stands. I'm proud of this. It's very sexy but it doesn't go overboard.'"

A trip to the grocery store, however, is all it took to convince Hewitt of the difference between a small Polaroid photo and the blown up version on a magazine cover. Especially that magazine cover.

"Rolling Stone has to be the only magazine that's like twice the size of normal magazines. When I first saw it, I was like, 'Oh, oh God, oh my God.'"