Gwyneth Paltrow flexes vocal chords in new film

As Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon have done before her, Gwyneth Paltrow has taken on a singing role for her upcoming movie, Country Strong.

"The study of the voice was quite a challenge because I could always sing a bit and I have good pitch and I had a nice kind of voice, but my singing teacher really kicked the [pauses] out of me. She was like, 'there's a big voice in there and we're going to get it out.' It was very emotional and it was hard."

In Country Strong, Oscar winning actress Gwyneth plays country singer Kelly Canter who leaves rehab early to work on her comeback tour.

However Kelly keeps falling off the wagon no matter how much support she has from fans and loved ones, a mentality Gwyneth says she struggled to get her head around.

"I couldn't understand how you could be so drunk that you could wreck people's lives and then just wake up the next day. I struggled with that," the 38-year-old said.

And so Gwyneth called on her Iron Man co-star Robert Downey Junior, who himself has struggled with and recovered from addiction, for some words of advice.

"I asked Robert Downey how does this work? And he was really articulate about addiction and the psychology of it and it sort of helped me a lot."

Country Strong, which also stars country singer Tim McGraw, is out in UK cinemas in March 2011.