Christina Aguilera used memories from her own childhood to prepare for her first major acting role in the movie “Burlesque.”

Aguilera witnessed her father abuse her mom (Irish American Stacey Kearns) growing up and was able to process these emotions to help her portray the role of Ali in the Steve Antin-directed movie, which also stars Kristen Bell, Stanley Tucci and Cher.

"The girls I play, Ali, has a rough past - her mother dies when she's very young and she's been in foster homes. I could relate to that pain, growing up in an abusive household. That gave me great motivation to provoke my tears for those scenes where I had to really pour it on. I felt it deeply, to go through a lot of those things that brought up a lot of painful memories,” Aguilera told OK! Magazine.

Aguilera only had good things to say about the legendary Cher.

"Cher's embraced me with open arms, it's meant the world. She's been very much like a mentor to me, but we get together and it's like we're old girlfriends, we'll talk and talk. I really adore her."