Known for portraying the uber tough Tami Taylor on "Friday Night Lights" and her brain-eating ways on "American Horror Story," Connie Britton has entered a new realm entirely: singing.
Britton couldn't help feeling anxious about her role.as a fading country superstar Rayna James on ABC's new show "Nashville" this fall.
"It's been hard," Britton told New York magazine of singing on the series. "I've been working with T Bone Burnett for months. I'm the remedial student in our cast of singers -- everyone else has great voices, and I'm the one who only did it back in drama school. We'll spend days just sitting around listening to the music Rayna would have grown up with.
I started singing this Bonnie Raitt song with my vocal coach the other, and I literally burst into tears because I'll never sound as good as Bonnie Raitt."
"Nashville" revolves around the world of country music in Nashville, Tennessee, and centers on Rayna's struggle to hang on to her star power while the vocally-challenged (but young) Juliette Barnes (Hayden Penettiere) moves toward the spotlight.
So will there be a full-blown battle between Rayna and Juliette? Not according to Britton.
"My whole mantra from the beginning is, 'This is not a catfight,'" she said at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour. "I don't think anybody [associated with the show] is interested in that. I think we're much more interesting in seeing different people in different places in their lives and what their journeys will be."
As for the singing part, we think Britton will warm up to it. Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose!
"Nashville" premieres on Wed., Oct. 10 at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.
