According to Niecy Nash-Betts, Travis Kelce’s costar in Ryan Murphy’s forthcoming TV series Grotesquerie, Kelce’s first foray into acting is surpassing expectations. “You know what, I’m pleasantly surprised,” the Emmy-winning actor told Entertainment Tonight when asked about the NFL star’s skills. “He’s doing really well.”
Back in May, Deadline reported that Kelce and Nash-Betts would star alongside Courtney B. Vance and Lesley Manville in the show, which is set for a fall debut. Kelce confirmed news of his casting via an Instagram Story featuring a video of himself and Nash-Betts. “Guys, guess who I am working with in Grotesquerie?” she asks in the video before panning over to Kelce. “Stepping into new territory with Niecy,” he adds.
In her latest interview with ET, Nash-Betts said that she and Kelce often rehearsed lines for their “very dark” project together while eating In-N-Out. But she wouldn’t share whether the coworkers had discussed his megastar girlfriend, Taylor Swift. “Well now, I don’t ask and tell! Let me just say that,” Nash-Betts told ET.
In June, Kelce was quizzed about his acting debut by his brother and former NFL center Jason Kelce on an episode of their New Heights podcast. Kelce said that he’s been “taking pointers” and “keeping an open ear” on the set of the show. The 34-year-old, who previously led his own E! dating reality series, called acting “a challenge,” adding, “It’s definitely different portraying a character and trying to find the emotions in everything, and the understanding of a script and the scene.”
Kelce continued, “I feel like an amateur right now.” At the same time, said the three-time Super Bowl champion, “I’m coachable. That’s one thing I know from being in sports, I am a coachable guy. It’s just been awesome…. Everybody involved in terms of the actors and the directors and the writers have just helped me out so much [in] understanding what I’m supposed to be doing. And I’m just having fun with it.”
Since hosting Saturday Night Live in March 2023, Kelce has further immersed himself in Hollywood. He recently signed on as host of Amazon’s Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity? game show and serves as an executive producer on two upcoming films—indie drama My Dead Friend Zoe, which premiered at SXSW, and a documentary on artist Jean-Michel Basquiat titled King Pleasure.
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