Trace Adkins Passes ‘Lincoln Lawyer’ Screen Test

“I’m in it at the beginning and the end and there’s a buncha crap in the middle,” Adkins said with a smile of the movie, which opened Friday.

He’s on screen about 3 minutes, but it’s another solid step in the country singer’s second career with a handful of parts slated for later this year.

While short, Adkins’ scenes are humorous, memorable and key character development moments for star Matthew McConaughey’s character, a defense attorney who operates his practice out of a Lincoln. Adkins plays a biker in the film who has engaged McConaughey to represent a member of his gang.

McConaughey, a country music fan, invited him to try out for the role, but it wasn’t given to him.

“I had to go read for it,” Adkins said last week. “And I really appreciate the fact that the director Brad Furman told me, `I didn’t know who you were. You got the part because you won the part.’ I appreciated that. But it kind of hurt my feelings at the same time. I thought I was a bigger deal than that. What do you mean you don’t know who I am?’“

Once he got the part, Adkins said McConaughey made sure he was able to make the best of it.

“He was very generous and he went to rehearse with me before we did the scenes,” Adkins said. “I went over to his trailer and he said, `Let’s rehearse these scenes, let’s do this and let’s do that.’ I thought it was very gracious to do that. Here’s an old guy that don’t know what I’m doing. He took me under his wing and helped me out.”