Making your big screen debut is, no doubt, a nerve-wracking experience. Doing it while playing a real-life person who just so happens to be hanging around the set would be enough to rattle even the most seasoned superstar.
That was exactly the case for Carrie Underwood, who, despite being the champ on her season of "American Idol" and making a cameo last season on "How I Met Your Mother," had her trepidations about getting in front of the camera for her role in the upcoming inspirational biopic "Soul Surfer."
In it, the Grammy-winning country singer plays Sarah Hill, a youth counselor who befriended and guided Bethany Hamilton (AnnaSophia Robb), a teen surfer who tragically lost her arm during a shark attack in 2003.
In this EXCLUSIVE behind-the-scenes look at "Soul Surfer," Underwood discusses how she prepared for her big-screen debut and why she and her co-stars wanted to do Hamilton's story justice.
As "American Idol" continues its latest search on Thursday evening for the next big thing in pop culture, both contestants and the show's producers might want to take time out to peep the new trailer for 
After last year's 
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