At the LA press day for the Screen Gems film, Paltrow explained the preparation process. "Well, I had never studied voice. I have a naturally perfectly nice singing voice but these songs had a lot of scope to them," said Paltrow. "I needed to really build up strength. My singing teacher in London was really like a taskmaster and was really focused in getting a much bigger voice out of me, which I was surprised to find in myself, so that was exciting. And just working on all of the technical parts of the singing and also learning how to sing something over and over and over again because the way I did it before, I would just wake up... One time I sang with Jay-Z at a concert and I woke up and couldn’t talk because I didn’t know how to do it. Now I’ve learned a more technical side of it."
In Country Strong, Paltrow plays Kelly Canter, a successful country singer who winds up in rehab seeking help for alcoholism. There she meets a handsome would-be singer/songwriter, Beau (Garrett Hedlund from Tron: Legacy), who she begins an affair with. And as fate would have it, her husband/manager (played by Tim McGraw) hires Beau to be her opening act after pulling her out of rehab in order to launch a comeback.
Gwyneth Paltrow didn't grow up a country music fan:
Gwyneth Paltrow: "No, I grew up in New York City where there’s no country music radio station so I just wasn’t exposed to it. Of course you hear the major things or the crossover acts, of course. I loved a lot of the crossover, like Bonnie Raitt and Emmylou Harris and Patty Griffin. I remember going to see John Prine when I was younger, but I never was exposed to it a lot or heard it a lot until I took the role and then I sort of had to get serious about learning about country music. I really fell in love with it. This whole thing has been very surprising to me. To discover a whole genre of music at 37 years old and be all psyched about it and geek out on it, it’s fun. I never thought I would be a country music fan or singer or anything."
On what she learned about country singers:
Gwyneth Paltrow: "Quite a lot, actually. People in country music are really nice people. They’re very warm. They’re very open and supportive of each other. They’ve got a lot of Southern hospitality. It was nice. It didn’t feel as cutthroat as other lines of entertainment feel. It’s really nice people."
On researching the role and watching other films about country singers:
Gwyneth Paltrow: "I watched a lot of them. I watched Tender Mercies a lot and Coal Miner’s Daughter. I watched a lot of DVD performance videos to prepare and I studied all the ladies of country. It wasn’t just like I was playing someone who was trying to be a country music singer; I was playing a huge country music star which was much more daunting. Some movies are about somebody who is trying to make it or on their way to making it, but she’s on the way down and had been this massive star, so I was like, 'Wait a minute, how do you play being a huge country star?'"
"I just watched everybody but, you know, honestly I think the thing that made me feel like, 'Okay, I sort of feel like I get this,' is I watched Beyonce a ton. I think she’s the best live performer happening right now. She has this amazing confidence and I thought to myself, 'If I can just get a tiny bit of that self confidence then maybe I can pull off this scene at the end.' You wouldn’t necessarily think that Beyonce would be an inspiration for a country music star..."
On preparing for the musical aspects as well as preparing to play an addict:
Gwyneth Paltrow: "Well, there was the sort of physical preparation which was lots of singing lessons and guitar lessons. Then it was really when I got there and I had this scene, it’s sort of trimmed down a lot in the movie, but the night after I’ve done some horrific thing, I’ve wrecked people’s lives and I wake up and expect to just keep on going. I didn’t understand that. I understand addiction. I used to be very addicted to cigarettes for example, so I understood the idea of, 'I know this is bad for me and it causes cancer and my dad has throat cancer but I’m going to smoke it anyway,' that disconnect or self destructiveness."
"I couldn’t understand it to the point of wrecking someone else’s life so I e-mailed Robert Downey Jr. and I was like, 'Just explain to me how this goes. I don’t get it. You spend a night where you lie and cheat and there’s no consequence and you barf and you can kill someone. Then you get up and have a coffee? How does that work?' He wrote me back the most amazing e-mail and he just explained the psychology of it so well. So he really helped me with that."
On her favorite type of country music:
Gwyneth Paltrow: "I love bluegrass so I listened to a lot of bluegrass and I like a lot of the more singer/songwriter. You have Leighton [Meester] representing the pop country and Kelly’s like prime country and Garrett’s like Texas country. It’s nice to see all the different [types], and I like his line where he says, 'Just because something’s on the radio doesn’t mean it’s good.'"
On the finished film:
Gwyneth Paltrow: "I was really proud of it. I love the fact that it’s very emotional but it’s complicated. None of the characters are black or white or good or bad. I loved seeing a long term marriage breaking down and all the intricacies of that and the subtleties of the relationships. I thought for me, my favorite part of the movie is the music. I think the musical performances are just really fun and exciting to see. I love Garrett in it and everyone."
On performing at the CMA Awards with Vince Gill:
Gwyneth Paltrow: "I loved it. It was like one of those moments. I think I’ll always just look back on that and think, 'I can’t believe I actually did that.' It was sort of a once in a lifetime thing. It was crazy. It was really exhilarating and fun and just unexpected. I never in a million years… If you had told me a year ago that I would have performed at the Country Music Awards, I would have bet against it. It was a wonderful surprise and I adore Vince Gill. He was so supportive of me. If you look at how Vince Gill was to me during that performance, that encapsulates country music. That warmth and support, he was great."
Up Next: Steven Soderbergh's Contagion?
Gwyneth Paltrow: "I think the movie is a really exciting movie. We all kind of have these little parts in it and we’re all kind of important parts in the whole overall thing. It’s exciting for me because I got to work with Steven Soderbergh, but I’m not playing someone from the Czech Republic who does back handsprings or anything like that. It’s pretty straightforward."
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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.
