We don’t often—or ever?—have an excuse to write about country music here on Movies Blog, but a nifty collaboration between one of our favorite character actors in film and a platinum-selling Georgia band has given us the perfect opportunity.
If you don’t know Clifton Collins Jr., you should. He was most recently seen on-screen as Eric Bana’s Romulan right-hand man Ayel. Before that he had roles as varied as a one-armed small business owner alongside Amy Adams in “Sunshine Cleaning” and death row inmate Perry Smith in “Capote.” It’s pretty hard to get away from Zac Brown these days as well. With a #1 Billboard hit single and a gold album, Brown and his band hit the big time when they released their major label debut, The Foundation, last fall.
Collins hooked up with Brown, shot two videos for the singles “Chicken Fried” and “Whatever It Is,” and now they’ve all been nominated for two Country Music Television (CMT) awards, one for group video of the year and one for breakthrough video of the year. The entire collaboration wouldn’t have happened however if Collins didn’t get a break from the set of Mike Judge’s upcoming comedy, “Extract.”
“I said, ‘Mike, I’ve got five days off coming up. You think I could fly out to Georgia to shoot ‘Chicken Fried’ for Zac Brown?’” Collins told MTV News during a recent conversation. “He said, ‘Woah, you’re gonna shoot ‘Chicken Fried’ for Zac Brown? I think that’s really great that you’re playing a redneck in my movie and you’d be flying to Georgia to shoot a Zac Brown video.”
With Judge’s approval and inspired by the arrival of a new president in the White House, Collins headed down south to shoot a video for a song he called a “beautiful bookend to Toby Keith’s ‘Angry American,’” which was inspired by the 9/11 attacks.
Beginning with a nod to old school home movies and continuing through gorgeous shots of the southern landscape, the “Chicken Fried” video is an ode to the band’s southern roots, commitment to family and, of course, love of tasty, greasy food.
The welcome intrusion of Zac Brown during the filming of “Extract” wasn’t the first time country music crept into one of Clifton’s roles. “I noticed in the book, 'In Cold Blood,' [Perry Smith] sang three of Hank Williams Sr.’s songs," said Collins. "So I did some research [for ‘Capote’] and thought these songs really had a lot to do with the time. I got lost in all of Hank’s songs.”
After the success of the “Chicken Fried” video, Collins had another opportunity to get lost in Zac Brown’s songs. His video for the band’s second single, “Whatever It Is,” spent several weeks at the top of the CMT charts. And on Tuesday, June 16th at the CMT awards in Nashville, Collins and Brown will find out if they’ll be taking home any trophies.
Collins is feeling good about his chances. After all, the ceremony takes place on his birthday.
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