The lovely, award-winning actress, Mary Steenburgen, has gained major success in the film industry. Now, she is trying something new…the music industry.

After undergoing a minor surgery and receiving a general anesthetic, she developed an unexplainable love for music. “The music started right after that,” she said. She’s now written and/or co-written more than 40 songs, and Universal Music has recently signed her as a new songwriter!

Steenburgen has a new movie set to debut called “Last Vegas”. In the film, she is co-starring alongside an all star, Oscar-winning cast that includes, Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline. “There’s something very delicious — a very kind of wise and beautiful dance that’s done when you work with people at this point in your life that are that accomplished,” she said. Her character has a scene where she sings a song that is all Steenburgen’s, which is very exciting for her! “At one point I kind of looked in the mirror and said, you know, you’re a mom, you’re a wife, people count on you, you can’t go off the deep end into this kind of crazy, musical swirl,” she said.

Although she has played in many movies and even won an Oscar award for her acting, she still admits that she has serious stage fright issues that she has been seeking professional help for. “I love being in a room of 8-10 people,” she said. “Once it starts to get much bigger than that, I’ve always gotten very frightened. I’ve never managed to — just telling you about it, I have sweaty palms. First time I’ve ever talked about it, actually.”

Image via Wikimedia Commons