Jennifer Coolidge’s character Tanya McQuoid’s assistant, Portia, in The White Lotus season 2 was almost played by Kelsea Ballerini. The country singer revealed that she auditioned for the role that eventually went to Haley Lu Richardson.
“I have no shame in my game!” Kelsea, 31, told People at the Variety Power of Women Nashville event on Thursday, May 1. “I auditioned for the second season of The White Lotus for the role [of] Jennifer Coolidge’s assistant that Haley did.”
Even though The Voice coach didn’t get the role, she praised Haley’s work on Mike White’s popular HBO series and said that the Edge of Seventeen star acted “so brilliantly and beautifully.”
Kelsea previously spoke about her desire to dabble in the world of acting when she sat down for an interview with Women’s Health in October 2024.
“[Acting] was one of the things that I was like, ‘Run toward the things that scare you!’” the “Cowboys Cry Too” artist explained. “What if I suck on TV? Then you know what I do? I’ll go put on my glitter and go back onstage. That’s always going to be home base.”
The following month, Kelsea made her acting debut opposite Joshua Jackson in the ABC medical drama Doctor Odyssey. In the episode, Kelsea played a temperamental bride who was getting married on the cruise ship, the Odyssey.
Chase Stokes and Kelsea Ballerini
“She is doing her best and she is stressed out and there’s a lot going on and it’s very emotionally complex and all I can tell you is that, quite literally, my entryway into acting was screaming and crying and throwing up for two weeks on set,” Kelsea said in an interview with On the Red Carpet the night the episode premiered in November 2024.
She continued, “It’s giving drama and romance and medical emergencies all in one and of course the Ryan Murphy touch, a little razzle dazzle on top. When I was asked to do this role, first of all, I was so flattered. I never acted before. And it’s kind of been on my bucket list of, ‘can I enter into this world? I want to.’ And then and then I was asked to play this role and it was such an honor because I’m such a Ryan Murphy fan!”
Even though Kelsea loved stepping in front of the camera, fans of the “Half of My Hometown” artist don’t have to worry about her stepping away from music entirely.
“I am in this space in my life where I’m trying to find space for everything. Music is my baby. I protect it with everything I have. making the record and putting it out and touring it is the thing I care about the most,” she added. “But the women I look up to in my life the most, my peers, my heroes, they’re multi-faceted. They do all the things … I’m just opening myself up to doing more. Acting for the first time on a show like this. Like it’s new, it’s challenging and so fulfilling. So I think I just have my arms open to see what’s next.”
