Tim McGraw stars in Country Strong, the story of a troubled, alcoholic country singer and her relationships with an up-and-coming singer/songwriter as well as her manager/husband. Gwyneth Paltrow plays the country singer struggling to deal with her demons. Garrett Hedlund, recently seen opposite Jeff Bridges in Tron: Legacy, is the younger man she falls for while undergoing a stint in rehab. And Country star Tim McGraw plays Paltrow's character's husband who puts business interests above his wife's health.

Surprisingly, while Paltrow and Hedlund get to show off their singing voices, McGraw - who is a genuine superstar in the music industry - doesn't have a single opportunity to sing. But that was fine by McGraw who, at the LA press day for the Screen Gems film, said he totally understands why he wasn't afforded an opportunity to show off his talent.

"Well, look, the character, there’s no way that James Canter would’ve had anything to do with singing," explained McGraw. "He never sang, never played an instrument, never would, never had. In fact I think my character sort of had a, not animosity, but I think he thought of singers as sort of childish in a lot of ways. That’s sort of the way I approached this role is I thought that James was really the only adult in the film. Certainly he thought that."

On real people in the music industry similar to his controlling character:

Tim McGraw: "There’s a few like that, but I know artists who need that too. There’s quite a few artists I know who have to have somebody that makes all the decisions, but nobody I can name specifically.

I don't think I modeled it after anybody. The only thing I did do is sort of originally how I pictured James looking was Norville Blackstock, who’s Reba McEntire’s manager and husband also. That was the original look. From the beginning, the formation of the look on, it really had nothing to do with Norville."

On the tough issues addressed in Country Strong:

Tim McGraw: "Look, alcoholism, drug addiction, all those things which are in this movie, they’re so prevalent in our society. I think you could go to any small town in America and any family you ask, they’ve been touched by it in some way or another. I think what makes it sort of white hot, I guess, is when you put a spotlight on it, put fame on it. That’s what makes it vibrate, I guess. Trust me, in anybody’s family, that’s a problem that’s white hot."

On consulting on the set of Country Strong:

Tim McGraw: "I wouldn’t say I did a lot. There were things that I might have pointed out or made suggestions. I didn’t give any advice. I might have made some suggestions or something."

"I think my character had sort of a heavy load. James had to develop a different relationship with everybody on screen. He wasn’t the same guy with everybody. I think there was an overall James, but there was a James that dealt with Beau [Garrett Hedlund]. There was a James that dealt with Kelly [Gwyneth Paltrow] the artist. There was a James that dealt with Kelly the wife. There was a James that dealt with Chiles [Leighton Meester]. I was more worried about keeping that canoe in the river than I was worried about [the music]. Plus, I wouldn’t have signed on with the film if I wasn’t comfortable with how they were going to handle all those things because we had some conversations before, so I was pretty comfortable with the direction it was going to go anyway. There were a few things where I might’ve said, 'Move the amp to the left,' or something like that."

On merging the worlds of country music and acting:

Tim McGraw: "I said no two times because I’m not naïve. I realize that even in any movie I do the first thought that’s going to come into a casting director or director or producer’s mind when they’re thinking of putting me in a movie, besides the fact of can I do it, secondly they don’t want me to be a distraction. Or they’re curious, 'Am I going to be a distraction?' The last thing you want is your audience to come and sit down and every time I’m on the screen they go, 'Oh, that’s that country singer guy. Oh, that’s that country [guy]. There he is again.' If that starts happening and they don’t buy into my character, then I’m not any good to any movie."

"Hopefully I’ve gotten past that a little bit, but I thought initially that that was too much to ask of an audience, to put me in that world and for them to believe that I was this different character and not be caught up in it being me the whole time. So I thought it was too much to ask of them and of me. I didn’t know if I was capable of doing it."

What changed his mind?

Tim McGraw: "I saw The Greatest which is the movie that Shana [Feste] wrote and directed. I saw that and just fell in love with it. I thought it was a beautiful movie and I could see her sensibilities. I thought if she brings those sensibilities and that heart to what she does, if she brought it to this script and to this movie, then together I thought that we could develop a character that would get past those boundaries or hurdles that I thought were there."

On playing the various sides of James:

Tim McGraw: "See, I don't know if there’s a different type of James. I just think he had to deal with the different relationships he had to deal with in different ways. Certainly the most challenging would be his relationship with Kelly because he had to sort of play three [roles]. He was still James but he had to deal with Kelly as a wife, he had to deal with Kelly as a singer, as an artist too. He had to deal with the tragedies that they had gone through in their life. So it was a very complex relationship and I think that that was the toughest out of all of them."

On reuniting with his Friday Night Lights co-star Garrett Hedlund who isn't a guitar player or a singer:

Tim McGraw: "Yeah, he lived at our farm in a cabin and we spent some time together. Like I said, I didn’t give a lot of advice. I may have made a suggestion or two, but when I talked to Garrett, he’s a great kid. He’s a real honest kid and it really comes across on screen and when you talk to him, you realize he’s such a good guy. He’s got such a great speaking voice so I thought there was such a resonance in his voice when he speaks, I thought if he ever really got it than he would have a good singing voice - or something that was very believable anyway. My rap to him was that you don’t have to be a great singer to be a really good communicator. Ultimately, it was about if he didn’t believe it, nobody else would. So he had to sing from a place to where he believed it and he had to approach the role as he was there to be a singer, not there to be an actor playing a singer. So those were the only things I told him."

On his take on the film's themes:

Tim McGraw: "I don't think I ever looked at it as a study on what could happen with fame. For me it was about these relationships of these people. I think you could take these characters and these relationships and put them in any scenario and still sort of buy into what was going on in their lives. I think fame and all that stuff just sort of made it more interesting, I guess, in a lot of ways but there’s about love and tragedy and relationships."

"I think there was a true love story in this film. It turned into it and it ended up you sort of wanted to see how the love story develops with Chiles and Beau, but for me it was a real love story and there was a true love story there between Kelly and James. I think they were really in love with each other and really had something special. Love was sort of sacrificed along the way. I think there was a specific point in the movie, love can survive a lot of things. It has to because we put love through hell as humans, but you can throw poison on it and it’ll grow. It’ll grow around infidelity. It’ll grow around pain, adversity, loss of children, loss of respect. Love can grow around a lot of things, but I think the one thing is the moment of the film where James realizes this is when someone can’t forgive themselves of something. I think that’s what ultimately kills love. I think there’s a point in the movie where James sees a glimpse of what he fell in love with and realizes that that’s all that was left was a glimpse. He realized that Kelly was never going to forgive herself. I think that’s when he realized it was over."

Up next for the busy musician and actor:

Tim McGraw: "Music-wise I have an album that’s been done for a while. Who knows what this label’s going to do, but hopefully it’ll come out in the spring if they don’t keep stealing songs off it to put on Greatest Hits records. That album will be out sometime in the spring. I start a film in March and then I start a tour whenever this film’s over, sometime in April or May."

"[The film is] is called Safehouse with Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds. A spy thriller. I get to actually play something action-packed, shoot people and all that stuff. [...]I’m looking forward to that."

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Country Strong hits theaters in wide release on January 7, 2011 and is rated PG-13 for thematic elements involving alcohol abuse and some sexual content.