Travis Kelce has officially begun filming his first-ever scripted series, but the NFL champion knows he’s got a lot left to learn.
PEOPLE confirmed in May that the Kansas City Chiefs tight end, 34, was cast in Ryan Murphy’s upcoming FX series, Grotesquerie. Production on the show began just a day later.
Though Kelce previously appeared as himself on Showtime’s Moonbase 8 in 2020, the athlete — who previously produced the film My Dead Friend Zoe and is set to host the upcoming Prime game show Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity? — is taking on a new challenge as Murphy’s new series marks his first major acting role. And now, Kelce is revealing whether he thinks of himself as an actor.
“I guess you could say that,” he said in a June 6 interview on Good Morning America. “I’ve been on a few shows before, I’ve only played myself on those shows though.” Kelce said that it’s “definitely different portraying a character and trying to find the emotions in everything and the understanding of a script and a scene,” as he’s had to on Grotesquerie, which he stars in alongside Niecy Nash-Betts and Courtney B. Vance.
“It’s a challenge. I feel like an amateur right now, but I’m coachable,” Kelce continued. “That’s one thing I know from being in sports — I’m a coachable guy.” Days after his casting was confirmed, Kelce opened up about how the experience had been going.
“It’s been so much fun. Ryan Murphy is [an] unbelievable writer, director, producer, all of the above, man. He’s just — there’s nothing he can’t do and everybody’s just been so helpful in making me feel comfortable,” he said on an episode of his podcast, New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce. “Even on top of that, just giving me kinda the direction I need and the coaching I need to portray the part that I’m in.”
The tight end admitted that he felt “like an amateur” on set, before joking, “I haven’t gotten fired yet so we’re doing good. They haven’t told me to f—ing kick rocks after the first week, so it’s been awesome.”
He teased that Grotesquerie is a “cool and unique show” and “quite a mystery.” “Every scene has just been so much fun to be in.” On May 10, the NFL star was spotted on set of the show and dressed in an all-white outfit with a button-down shirt, pants and white sneakers. In one photo, he was holding a rolled-up copy of the script in one hand and his phone in the other.
His costars Nash-Betts, 54, and Vance, 64, were also spotted, with Vance dressed as a doctor with a lab coat on and wearing a stethoscope around his neck as Nash-Betts wore a black dress. On May 10, the NFL star was spotted on set of the show and dressed in an all-white outfit with a button-down shirt, pants and white sneakers. In one photo, he was holding a rolled-up copy of the script in one hand and his phone in the other. His costars Nash-Betts, 54, and Vance, 64, were also spotted, with Vance dressed as a doctor with a lab coat on and wearing a stethoscope around his neck as Nash-Betts wore a black dress.
