Trace Adkins is known not only as a successful country superstar, with a music career that spans more than 20 years, but also as a respected actor: The Louisiana native has appeared in more than a dozen movies, including The Lincoln Lawyer and Mom's Night Out, and has a few more films in the works. In a recent interview, Adkins opened up about his love of both pursuits, telling The Boot that he especially appreciates "the creativity" of acting.

"I’m glad I still have the opportunity to go into the studio and make records, because those are my favorite days. When you’re in the studio with these world-class musicians and you’re taking this raw piece of material and you’re turning it into something and watching it blossom right before your eyes -- when that creativity is happening, where everybody’s working together to try to come up with something really cool, and that collaboration, it’s just invigorating and stimulating," Adkins explains. "I find the same thing to be true on movie sets: You’re surrounded by incredibly talented, motivated people. I like that environment; it’s stimulating."

Getting to work with superstar actors is certainly a perk as well. For one of the movies in which he recently appeared, Deepwater Horizon, Adkins was originally cast as a crane operator; however, when the 55-year-old found out that the filming schedule for that role would require him to be on set for two or three weeks -- more time than he could commit -- he nearly had to bow out of the film. When filmmakers offered him another, much smaller role, as a a bouncer, that would require just one day on set, Adkins was still ready to pass ... until he found out who his co-star would be.

"I said, ‘I’m not going to fly all the way to New Orleans just to do one scene in a movie,'" Adkins recalls. "They said, ‘Well, you get to throw Mark Wahlberg around a lot,’ and I said, ‘Alright.’"

In that case, Adkins admits, it took a few takes for him really get into character.

"We ran the scene two or three times, and [the director] came out and said, ‘What’s wrong with you? You're just not giving it to me,'" remembers Adkins. "I said, ‘Well, I don’t want to hurt the guy ... [and] there’s another problem: When I get on him, the company man comes and separates us. If I was really on him, that dude couldn’t get me off of him, so you’d need two guys!'

"He embarrassed me and called me a bunch of ugly names in front of all these people and made me mad," Adkins continues. "And then he screamed, ‘Action!’ and ran off, and he got what he wanted."

Adkins also recently finished filming a western called Abilene, and is currently working on I Can Only Imagine, a movie based on the 2001 hit by the Christian group MercyMe.

"There’s always something going on," Adkins shared at a recent media event. "I just keep doing that stuff because I enjoy doing it. I get a kick out of it, I really do. I like being on set, whether it’s television or a movie or whatever ... The whole place is just full of very talented, very creative people. I find it stimulating."

Deepwater Horizon was nominated for two Academy Awards in 2017. Abilene, which also stars Kris Kristofferson, is scheduled to be released later this year.

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