"It was not very conventional. But I had never heard him sing and he was really nervous and singing for the first time. We wanted to make it really fun.", claimed Feste about his audition.

Hedlund had suggested to Feste that they meet at the Brass Monkey and “do karaoke together”. Apparently, she agreed. "We had a few drinks and he got up there and started singing and was definitely not the sound that he is at now, which is amazing, because he literally went from singing a Pearl Jam song to singing country like the best of them," Feste added.

"At the end of the day, we weren't making a documentary about country music," she said. "Some things are better for the story if they are not totally realistic. But Tim and Gwyneth [Paltrow] and Garrett and Leighton [Meester] were all very helpful."

She continued, "This is about a life in the limelight and they all know what press conferences are like and they all know what it is like backstage in the green room, so I was asking Gwyneth, 'Hey, when you go see [husband] Chris [Martin] backstage, does it look like this?' and I was asking Leighton, 'When you are talking to the press, how are they pointing their microphones?.'

Country Strong opens December 17 in limited release and January 7 at a theatre near you.

Are you planning on going to see Country Strong?

Source: THR