Kelsea Ballerini Always Said ‘No’ to Acting

There is a very good reason why Kelsea Ballerini has always hard-passed on acting opportunities.

There is also a real good reason for why she's changed her mind.

Kelsea Ballerini's boyfriend Chase Stokes is an actor. In fact, she shares that he just finished filming a new season of Outer Banks.
Additionally, Ballerini is friends with Reese Witherspoon.
TV gigs on the singer's resume include host of the ACM Awards and spokesperson for several hair and beauty products. Next year she'll also be a full-time coach on The Voice.

Talking to Taste of Country Nights, Ballerini explained, saying, "I always said a hard 'no' to acting. Like, hard 'no.'"

Witherspoon has long pushed her to give it a try, but even a movie star's encouragement wasn't enough.

"And I said 'no' because I'm so scared of failing. It's just the perfectionist in me," she says.

"Then, the last few years I think I've just started running towards things that really terrify me, and so I'll probably try it."

Ballerini stopped short of saying she'd landed a role in a television show or movie. The conversation all began when ToC Nights host Evan Paul asked who'd she would like to play her in a movie.

"I would like to play me," she offers, a little tentatively. "That'd be fun."

Maybe Ballerini and Stokes could star together? That'd be rare, but not without precedent. Tim McGraw and Faith Hill were amazing together in the Yellowstone prequel 1883.

Since they started dating, Reba McEntire and Rex Linn have appeared in several TV shows together and will encore with a new sitcom called Happy's Place this fall.

Billy Dukes is a Senior Editor and Executive Producer of Video Content at Taste of Country. He specializes in country music interviews, trend analysis and the Secret History of Country Music. Additionally, Billy covers Yellowstone, 1923 and related television shows through the Dutton Rules podcast. To date, he's written more than 13,000 articles for Taste of Country and produced over 3,000 videos for the Taste of Country YouTube channel.