Cory Monteith is living the dream after returning to Canada from Hollywood to star in Gia Milani’s indie film All the Wrong Reasons.

“It is one of the benchmarks of success as a Canadian actor, to be able to return and to work in your homeland,” Monteith told Playback while on the Halifax set of the Canadian theatrical feature.

As a bit-part actor in Vancouver, Monteith watched stars return to Canada to take the lead in the film he worked on.

That became his goal.

And now he’s living the dream.

“I guess you’ve really made it (when you return to Canada), so it’s thrilling for me,” the Glee star said as he performs the role of James Asher, a department store manager whose wife suffers from a post-traumatic syndrome.

“I was immediately captured by the script’s interesting portrayal of interpersonal relationships in an environment like a department store, and I feel like, from the first time I read it, the script was interesting in allowing us to watch people make mistakes in an environment like that,” Monteith said of Milani’s Slamdance award-winning screenplay.

What’s more, Monteith’s past as an employee of The Bay and Walmart in Victoria, B.C. had him ready to play a store manager in Milani’s debut feature.

The Glee star said his TV fans may not recognize him when All The Wrong Reasons comes out on theatrical release next year.

That’s his plan as he looks to show off another side of his acting talents.

“It’s always exciting to explore adult roles when the vast majority of viewers that have seen me on TV know me from Glee, from something of a different tone,” Monteith said.

The New Brunswick-Manitoba co-production portrays four lives intersecting in a department store in the aftermath of a traumatic event.

The ensemble film sees Monteith play a store manager, Karine Vannase play a security guard, while Kevin Zegers plays a fire fighter and Emily Hampshire a store clerk.

The Canadian theatrical release by Pacific Northwest Pictures will take place in 2013.

That will be followed by play on The Movie Network and Movie Central in 2014.