Crossing over from a music career to acting -- and vice-versa -- has been a hit and miss proposition for several performers over the years. And forget about middle ground: either the person's risk is rewarded with praise, or they're slammed with ridicule.

But the latter scenario is hardly the case for country music superstar Tim McGraw, whose impressive turn as an abusive father of a high school football star in the 2004 movie version of "Friday Night Lights" has led to successful careers in both mediums. Oddly enough, his latest role finds McGraw on the sidelines of the cinematic gridiron again, but this time as a supportive, adoptive father in "The Blind Side."

McGraw said that his sensibilities as a musician and an actor aren't much different, and essentially the goal of both is the same.

"When you're in the studio, it's about finding that voice -- it's character-driven in a lot of ways," McGraw explained in a recent @ The Movies interview. "Every song that you sing is not something that you know about personally, or a scenario that you lived through. So, you search for that character and you search for the voice for that character, and if it's honest and believable, it will want to make people follow that character through the song."

Effectively, McGraw said, movies and music are two sides of the same coin.

"When you're developing a character through the movie, you do the same thing -- you search for the voice for that character -- you search for the voice that's honest and believable in a way that people want to follow that character," McGraw said. "You want people to become emotionally invested in the plight of that character and the outcome for that character."

Opening in theaters Friday, "The Blind Side" tells the true-life story of how Leigh Anne Touhy (Sandra Bullock) took in a homeless African-American teen, Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron), into her family's home after she spots him walking on the street one night, cold and alone. Through the support of her husband, Sean (McGraw), and the Touhy children, Michael is encouraged to excel in the classroom, on the football field as an offensive guard, and most importantly, off the field as part of the Touhy family.

"The Blind Side" is decidedly different than McGraw's last role (as one of Vince Vaughn's rambunctious brothers in the dysfunctionaly family holiday comedy "Four Christmases") not only because "The Blind Side" is a drama, but that his character is based on a real person.

"It was a tough role because Leigh Anne's character is such of a dynamo and Sean's character is so laid back," said McGraw, who is married to and has children with fellow singer Faith Hill. "So, the challenge of this role was to stay with the realm of what's called for with the character, but still have a presence that's strong and the anchor that the family tethers itself to. The challenge in there was to not to get lost."

What makes this particular project exciting for McGraw is that the Michael's story doesn't end as the credits for "The Blind Side" role. Tracking his life through his time with the Touhys and as an All-American college football player in the film, Michael has since gone on to play this year as the No. 1 draft choice for the Baltimore Ravens in the NFL.

"It's so cool to be involved in a project that you can follow the ongoing movie," McGraw said. "The great thing for the audience is that they can go to the movie on Saturday night, and get up on Sunday and watch the actual guy play out his rookie season in the NFL. And he's in the running for Rookie of the Year, too. How great would that be to cap this thing off if he wins Rookie of the Year, and to do it as an offensive lineman? That would be rare."