He may have earned critical acclaim for his role in The Social Network, but Justin Timberlake says his transition from music to movies hasn't exactly been easy.
During a Q&A with Interview's March cover girl Amanda Seyfried, the singer-turned-actor admits that although he loves being on camera, he's also done a "sh*tty job" handling the pressure that comes with it.
"What's been more of a battle for me throughout the process of moving into acting is that I feel like I have to keep reassuring people that I'm not an a**hole," he laughs. "There is a stigma that comes from being on stage and being a musician."
"It's true. I understand your struggle," Seyfried — who recently split with Ryan Phillippe, 36, after three months of dating — assures Timberlake. "But I think you're past that at this point. Besides, what's wrong with being an a**hole?"
Timberlake, 30, acknowledges that he faced similar struggles when he left *N SYNC to embark on a solo career in 2002.
"Whatever you do as a musician, no matter how good it is, somebody somewhere is going to sh*t on it," he tells Seyfried, 25. "You put your heart on your sleeve, and what will happen will happen. But it's like that for any artist. You do a painting, you take a photograph, it's the same. That's how artistry works."
"But isn't that the thrill of it? You put it out there and you really don't give a sh*t," Seyfried tells him. "I thought that doing Chloe was going to be a risk and I was wondering what people were going to think, but then I was like, 'You know what? The experience I'll have making this film is way too important to me." (Seyfried shared several racy nude scenes with Julianne Moore, 50, in the 2010 indie flick.)
"That can be fulfilling to the point where you just don't really care about how the work is going to be received," Seyfried adds. "It's thrilling to just not care — unless, of course, you'd hurt somebody."
