Christina DeRosa is not a literalist. When she left New York, she hoped to return one day as a theatrical star. Earning a four-year scholarship to the Boston Conservatory, the beautifully ambitious Sicilian figured it was only a matter of time before she became a smash hit on Broadway.

Well, one day, as a student at the Boston Conservatory, DeRosa was in Upstate New York for a performance. Fully aware of its everyday use in theater, she probably did not think too much of anyone telling her to break a leg. While she knew no one meant it literally, she jokingly told Buzzine otherwise.

“That’s where I took the expression ‘break a leg’ too seriously,” DeRosa said in an exclusive interview, telling Buzzine about her horrific experience during a stage performance early in her academic career. “After my first year of college, I was performing in Upstate New York and literally fell and broke my leg. I was told I could never dance again or go back to my four-year scholarship at Boston Conservatory.”

Heartbroken and in a wheelchair for a few months, DeRosa returned to the DC area (where she lived during her high school years) for about a year to complete her general education requirements and rebound from her injury. In that time, DeRosa told Buzzine she was really humbled by her injury. While limited to a wheelchair, she began watching classic movies and followed the careers of stunning Italian actresses such as Gina Lollobrigida, Sophia Loren and Ana Magnani.

It was at this point she had an epiphany. The reason the phrase “break a leg” is used so regularly in theater is because wishing someone “good luck” is actually considered bad luck. It is a bit of reverse psychology. Telling someone to “break a leg” is actually a good thing. For DeRosa, her actually breaking a leg was not bad luck at all; instead, she discovered a new path to stardom she otherwise would have never considered during her days at the Boston Conservatory. It was in that wheelchair where she found the inspiration to move out to Los Angeles, transfer to UCLA and pursue an acting career…except this time, she would be in front of the camera, just like the beautifully strong Italian ladies before her.

“It’s funny how life turns out,” DeRosa humbly told Buzzine in an exclusive interview in West Hollywood. “When I was at the Boston Conservatory, I thought I would graduate in four years, go to New York and become a Broadway star. I had no idea that my life had this whole other journey.”

While she is still holding out for a career in theater, the enlightened DeRosa has indeed found a new path to her ultimate dream. A professional singer (“Give me a note and I’ll sing it, give me a song and I’ll belt it out,” she says), DeRosa has set her personal standards quite high. The young starlet aspires to grace the camera with a presence similar to Loren or Magnani. In fact, she envisions herself working on musicals similar to Loren’s current project, Nine, a play about love during midlife crisis, and stars A-listers Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz and Daniel Day-Lewis.

As DeRosa herself worked on musicals at an early age (her first-ever musical was with Natalie Portman when they both were young children), she said she would love to do a remake of Westside Story or a remake of Guys and Dolls.

“I always wanted to be on Broadway,” DeRosa said with a gleam in her eye. “I still want to be on Broadway, but I want to do it the way Christina Applegate did it –- after she became more of a name in film and television.”

Yet her career path is not without a few stumbling blocks or bumps in the road. One problem she has encountered is in the roles which she has been cast. A leading role in Cinemax’s Zane Sex Chronicles, DeRosa has generally been offered roles she feels were not written for her personality, looks or acting ability.

“Ever since I moved here (from the East Coast), I’ve always been typecast as this very sexy vixen — the girl that should be big-boobed with blonde hair,” she candidly told Buzzine. “Even my character in Zane Sex Chronicles, they originally, in the script, cast her as sexy, tall, and blonde — and I’m doing the role. It was supposed to be like the typical hot Caucasian girl from Middle America.”

For the record, DeRosa is not blonde and stands about five feet, two inches is relatively petite and proportional. Yet she still gets calls from casting directors and agents asking her to play a vixen-type role.

“A lot of the roles I’ve been typecast and stereotyped in are roles where they really want crazy sexuality and sensuality,” DeRosa sternly said. “It must be something I am emulating and don’t even realize that I do. I must give off this vibe I don’t even realize.”

Some have taken that “vibe” a bit too far, asking her to augment portions of her body, such as dying her hair or getting breast implants.

“I got a call back for so many movies asking, ‘Christina, will you be willing to dye you hair blonde?’ I’m like, ‘Do you honestly think I would look good as a blonde?’ I would look horrible! You couldn’t pay me enough money to do that!”

Since such roles are not really challenging for DeRosa, she is ready to take her career to the next level and have Hollywood see her in a new light. “I haven’t tapped into all of my potential yet,” she said with flair. “So far, I am playing roles that are kind of easy and fun and sexy and sassy. It’s something I can do in my sleep. It’s natural. But I really want to get into some meaty roles.”

Some of those “meaty” roles include the aforementioned remakes of Westside Story and Guys and Dolls, as well as finding her way back to Broadway. Yet, DeRosa also told Buzzine she would love roles similar to Magnani’s work in The Rose Tattoo, a movie she considers “big and monumental.”

“Those are the types of movies I want to do. It’s all in time.”

Indeed, all in time. In the current time, to keep up with Christina’s career, be sure to check out her website at www.christinaderosa.com, or look out for her in the second season of Cinemax’s Zane Sex Chronicles.