Garrett will be on the upcoming show – Live with Regis & Kelly on Friday January 7th!

Thanks Andrea!

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Tags: Live with Regis & Kelly

The Minnesota town he grew up in was so small that it had only one radio station. The station played only country music, and when Garrett Hedlund drove the family tractor, he’d sometimes sing his favourite song, “Don’t Take the Girl”, by country-music star Tim McGraw. Another part of this story? “My grandpa used to play Johnny Cash to our turkeys and they’d bob their heads to the music as we were getting ready in the morning.” Uh-huh.

There’s more. In 2004, the Teen Choice Awards nominated Hedlund as “Breakout Male Star” for his first film role, as Achilles’ fatally reckless cousin Patroclus in Troy, starring Brad Pitt as the guy with the heel problem. Hedlund, it’s worth noting, is as movie-star handsome as his famous costar. Next, he played a high-school footballer in the film Friday Night Lights and, in true Hollywood style, his old tractor buddy Tim McGraw played his father.

“It was surreal to have been driving the tractor and singing that song and the next thing Tim’s playing my father in a film,” Hedlund says. “And I got up on-stage and sang his ‘I Like It, I Love It’ with him in Austin. I was really familiar with all the great old men, you know, but I wasn’t a country singer by any means.”

Perhaps he’s being modest. In an L.A. hotel room, the 26-year-old actor speaks with a voice that is rich, warm, and deeper than you might expect. That is, if you haven’t already seen—and heard—him in Country Strong. In the film, which opens next Friday (January 7), Hedlund plays a sweet-souled, struggling Nashville singer-songwriter named Beau Hutton. Playing honky-tonks by night and working in a substance-abuse rehab centre by day, Beau meets country-music superstar Kelly Canter (Gwyneth Paltrow), who likes her whiskey. Tender lovin’ ensues and soon Beau joins Kelly’s comeback tour. Oh, and Kelly’s manager-husband with the mean right hook? Tim McGraw.

To play the talented Beau, Hedlund needed to be able to sing and play guitar. Along with Paltrow and Leighton Meester, who plays an ambitious young singer (and love interest), he had to believably perform on-stage before an audience. In actual fact, he didn’t know how to sing and he had barely even held a guitar.

Months before shooting, Hedlund began serious “guitar training”. He watched “old documentaries—the Highwaymen, Kris Kristofferson, Roger Miller, all these great performers. And, you know, Waylon Jennings and Merle Haggard.” He hit Nashville’s live country-music venues. In a studio, McGraw and duo the Warren Brothers helped him work on a “little song” he’d been writing. The experience was “nerve-racking. I’d sing ‘I’m on this lonely road tonight,’” he says, singing the line in a low, sexy drawl. Both on- and off-screen he sounds like the real thing.

Juggling roles in Country Strong, the upcoming On the Road (he plays Dean Moriarty), and Tron: Legacy—matching the right facial hair to the right movie proved interesting during reshoots—Hedlund is seemingly poised on the brink of film stardom. His mind, however, is still on the heady allure of the country-music stage.

“I just wanted to keep performing. Even in the big auditoriums, you walk out and you’re like ‘Well, all right. Here we go. Look at all of you!’ ”

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Tags: Country Strong

Country Weekly interview with Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim McGraw & Leighton Meester. Gwyneth talks about Garrett around 3:30.

What does Garrett bring to the movie?
Gwyneth: I just loved Garrett, i thought he was very special, very sweet and yet he’s got this very rugged thing about him and one of the things i loved is that Garrett and Tim both have this manly, rugged thing which some movie stars don’t have. And Garrett has it.
There’s a real softness in Garrett that i loved seeing when we worked together, and his very very sweet. I loved his singing voice, i love his songs in the film.
Apparently, they had to work really hard to get it all out of him and he sounds like his been singing his whole life.

Tags: Country Strong, Gwyneth Paltrow Talks About Garrett Hedlund

Who were your inspirations in preparing for your role?

Tags: Country Strong, Fan Questions

I was not at Tim McGraw’s concert in Austin, Texas, in 2004, but now I’m wishing I was. Because his co-star from his new movie, Country Strong, Garrett Hedlund, told me a cool story from that night. It was right around the time that their first movie, Friday Night Lights, was in theaters. (It’s the film where Hedlund is a football player and McGraw is his jackass of a father.) “So I’m there for his show in Austin,” Hedlund told me. “And all the sudden, he pulls me up onstage to sing ‘I Like It, I Love It.’ But, you know, I’m a bass singer, so I didn’t think I could do it. But he made me sing. He was my hero, so I did it for him.” Regardless of Hedlund’s vocal range back in 2004 or now, I think McGraw must’ve heard what we all will hear once Country Strong opens nationally on Jan. 7 — a killer voice. And Hedlund’s even got the aw-shucks humility to go with it. “I couldn’t have done this without Tim,” he said. “He taught me to live it, breathe it and get every inflection down. He was absolutely the best one on set to give me singing advice.”

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Tags: Country Strong, friday night lights, Tim McGraw Concert 2004

9. Garrett Hedlund

While the talented Jeff Bridges may be the big draw for the sci-fi sequel Tron: Legacy, the movie itself belongs to Garrett Hedlund. As Sam Flynn, Hedlund makes the most of his first big screen starring role and leaves audiences wanting more. Like Bridges, he also has two films out as the new year rolls around. In addition to his role in Legacy, he stars alongside Gwyneth Paltrow in the drama Country Strong. Far from just being a pretty face, though there is no doubt he more than qualifies for that title, it’s clear the 26-year old actor has big things in store for him beyond the Grid. In 2011, he’s set to star in On the Road, the film adaptation of the Jack Kerouac novel of the same name directed by Walter Salles and produced by Francis Ford Coppola.

Tags: The New Wave: Top 10 Breakout Stars