TV & Film
Live from Nashville Film Festival: Lee Ann Womack
By JOE LEYDON
Cowboys & Indians: Congratulations on your performance as a small-town Texas sheriff in Noble Things. Will we be seeing you in more movie roles?
Lee Ann Womack: Well, I'm so eaten up with music, and I only have so many hours in the day and in my life. So it's hard for me to imagine spending too much time doing something else. Only if the right thing came along would I take time to act. It took pretty much two months out of my life to do this film. Right in the middle of summer — touring season. I just happened to be between projects, and they just happened to be shooting the movie very close to where I have a home in East Texas. So there were a lot of things that made it right. And I knew it was the right thing to do. I've been offered other things that I haven't taken because I have two kids, I have a house, I'm a daughter — I have a lot of things I need to take care of.
Illustration by Sam Sisco
C&I: To say nothing of making music.
Lee Ann: [Laughs] That's right.
C&I: Do you think it may be easier for contemporary country stars to make the transition to acting because — unlike the stars of earlier generations — you've had on-camera experience making music videos?
Lee Ann: I really don't know. I mean, I know I wasn't afraid of the camera, so that theory may be right. And I would imagine that if you're talking about the '50s and the '60s, before country was so mainstream, we didn't get a lot of time on camera. Now we do Leno and Letterman and The Today Show — we're simply on TV a lot more than we were when country was such a niche genre. So maybe we're just a lot more comfortable in front of the camera.
C&I: Some actors might turn down a movie simply because a role doesn't feel "right" for them. Have you taken that same approach to selecting songs to record?
Lee Ann: Absolutely. There have been songs that I knew would be hits for somebody — well, I knew it would be a hit for them, but not for me. And, you know, there are some songs I did that I should have passed on. They might have been hits for me, but later on you look back and you think, You know, I really wish I hadn't done that. But live and learn, I guess. If you're not just thinking about having hits, but thinking about your whole career, there are some songs that just have no place in the vision that you have of yourself.
C&I: A few years back, when you were having chart success with pop-flavored songs like "I Hope You Dance," some critics complained you were straying a little too far from your country roots. Was that a fair reaction?
Lee Ann: Let me put it like this: I'm not surprised by that reaction. I knew that when I did some of the more contemporary-sounding things that people were going to say that. Now, was it fair? I don't know. I've always said that I would love to have a career like Willie Nelson's. You look at his career and you'll see he's done some straight-up country stuff — but he's also done his Stardust records. He's done a lot of different kinds of things.
C&I: So you don't like to be pigeonholed.
Lee Ann: I don't like the way a lot of times here in country music we point a finger at somebody and say, "Now you're being too pop." Or, "You're not dressing like a country singer." That being said, I love country music. It's my favorite kind of music. That's when I really light up, that's what I really do best. That's when I think the audience and critics really see something that I have a passion for. And I do. I have a huge passion for it.
The tab
MUSICAL INFLUENCES: She has been compared to country songbirds like Dolly Parton and Tammy Wynette, but Lee Ann claims she listens more often to male country artists: "George Jones and Merle Haggard are two I've studied, and continue to study."
CROONING WITH KEITH: Keith Urban provides vocals on "The Bees," a cut from Lee Ann's latest smash hit album, Call Me Crazy. "I was so glad to have him," she says, "because Keith truly loves and respects country music. And he knows everything he does doesn't have to be twin fiddles and a steel guitar. I appreciate that."
ACTING OUT: Lee Ann admits it was a challenge to make herself look so dowdy as a small-town sheriff in Noble Things. "Yes," she jokes, "it was quite a change for me. Usually, I'm a girl who likes to go around in 5-inch heels."
Issue: September 2009
