Jake Owen makes his big screen debut alongside Casey Affleck and Dakota Johnson in Our Friend

You can check out Jake Owen‘s long-awaited feature film debut in the new movie Our Friend, which just opened in select theaters and on demand. 

Based on the book The Friend: Love Is Not a Big Enough Word, it tells the true story of a man who steps in to help a married couple after the wife is diagnosed with terminal cancer.

“It stars Casey AffleckDakota JohnsonJason Segel,” Jake tells ABC Audio. “It was fun, and I enjoyed being challenged in a way that I’ve never been challenged before.”

Jake plays Aaron, a mutual friend of the main characters. Shot in Fairhope, Alabama where the events actually took place, it was an opportunity the country hitmaker was eager to embrace.

“I just like always stepping outside the box a little bit,” Jake explains. “I get bored really easy, and I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. But I always like to try to challenge myself to do something that I’m not sure that I can accomplish, outside of the fact that I have confidence that I could possibly make it work.”

“And there’s been many times that I’ve failed,” he reflects, “and there’s been many times that I’ve been successful. And I kind of like to ride that line of the feeling of doing something right and making it happen.”

“And I think that’s what happened with the film thing,” he says. “I was nervous, but I was like, ‘If I can pull this off, this will be something that’s very fulfilling for me.’ And I pulled it off and it worked out.” (AUDIO IS ABC 1-ON-1)

You can check out one of Jake’s scenes from Our Friend on YouTube now. Meanwhile, “Made for You,” from his Greetings from… Jake album is a top 25 hit.