Kelsea Ballerini Worried 'What If I Suck?' Ahead of Acting Debut inDoctor Odyssey

Mar. 15, 2025

Kelsea Ballerini at the premiere of “Doctor Odyssey” held at Bel-Air Bay Club on September 18, 2024 in Pacific Palisades, California.Photo:Chad Salvador/Variety via Getty

Chad Salvador/Variety via Getty

Kelsea Balleriniis embracing the unknown.

The country singer, 31, made her first foray into the acting world as a guest star onRyan Murphy’s new medical drama,Doctor Odyssey, and she said that the decision to try something new is on theme with the current era of her life.

“Then you know what I do? I’ll go put on my glitter and go back onstage,” Ballerini said. “That’s always going to be home base.”

Ballerini’s guest-starring role in theJoshua Jackson-led medical drama wasrevealed in the show’s trailer, which dropped a week before its premiere.

She’s one of many stars who make appearances in the series, includingJohn Stamos,Cheyenne Jackson,Chord OverstreetandGina Gershon.

Chase Stokes and Kelsea Ballerini attend the premiere for ABC’s ‘Doctor Odyssey’ at Bel-Air Bay Club on September 18, 2024 in Pacific Palisades, California.Disney/Frank Micelotta

Disney/Frank Micelotta

At the L.A. premiere on Sept. 18, she told PEOPLE she was “timid” ahead of the role, as it marks her “first time ever trying the acting hat on.”

“I wasn’t reserved on the fact that it was my first time. So I asked a lot of questions and I feel like I learned so much, and I really hope that I did the character and the show proud.”

She also had the built-in help of her boyfriend,Outer BanksstarChase Stokes, if she had questions.

“I’ve always called acting his world, and so whenever I was asking him questions about this opportunity, I was like, ‘What about this in your world?'” she said. “And he was like, ‘Hey, it’s just a world. I’m a part of it and now you’re a part of it. It’s not my world.'”

She continued, “By the end of the conversation, I was like, ‘OK, so you’ll run the scene with me?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.'”

Kelsea Ballerini Women’s Health cover.Caleb and Gladys for Women’s Health

Caleb and Gladys for Women’s Health

Stokes is also mega supportive of Ballerini in the world she’s more often at the center of: music.

“It is unbelievable. It is a master class in songwriting,” Stokes, 32, told PEOPLE of hisgirlfriend’s forthcoming album,Patterns. “To watch her on the back porch writing and see what it is now, it is the most fascinating thing.”

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Doctor Odysseyairs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on ABC

source: people.com