In his scripted tv debut in 2020, Travis Kelce, enjoying a hot-headed athlete-turned-astronaut, fell right into a desert sinkhole and died.
His profession in Hollywood, nevertheless, is alive, nicely and seemingly with extra prospects than ever for the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs tight finish who seems to be exploring the profession he desires to construct past the goalposts.
Thursday marks Kelce’s return to the sphere for his twelfth season within the NFL because the league’s highest paid tight finish. However he’s doing so with extra eyes on him than ever, which is saying so much for a three-time Tremendous Bowl champ.
He’s getting into this season having simply landed roles within the Ryan Murphy-produced FX present “Grotesquerie” and Adam Sandler’s hotly-anticipated “Blissful Gilmore” sequel. In September, he’ll debut because the host of Prime Video’s upcoming recreation present “Are You Smarter Than a Movie star?” He additionally simply inked a deal upwards of $100 million to deliver his in style sports activities podcast “New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce,” now in its third season, to Amazon’s Wondery.
“We positioned Travis to be world well-known,” André Eanes, who along with his brother Aaron Eanes manages Kelce, instructed the New York Instances in an April interview. “We didn’t understand how it could occur, or when it could occur, or what would assist push that additional alongside. Nevertheless it’s at all times been the thought behind our minds.”
Kelce is much from the primary to aim to go from touchdowns to Tinseltown. Former NFL-ers Terry Crews and Michael Strahan and school soccer gamers Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Carl Weathers and Mark Harmon are amongst those that did it efficiently. What he has made clear – each by the initiatives he chooses to pursue and his just-happy-to-be-here strategy to being Taylor Swift’s boyfriend – is that Kelce is charting a path for himself in Hollywood in his personal manner and writing a brand new playbook for tackling showbiz.
Breakthing by
On the time he booked “Moonbase 8,” Kelce wasn’t a family title and had little performing expertise. His solely Hollywood job up till that time was starring within the 2016 E! courting actuality present “Catching Kelce.”
John C. Reilly, who co-created the area comedy alongside Fred Armisen, Tim Heidecker and “Portlandia” govt producer Jonathan Krisel, instructed The Ringer in 2020 that they booked Kelce for the job after former New England Patriots tight finish Rob Gronkowski handed on the function.
“When Gronkowski stated no we had been like, ‘We’re gonna make Gronkowski remorse this! We’re gonna get the child who’s nipping at his heels!’” Reilly joked. “And guess what, our little Travis Kelce went proper forward of Mr. Gronkowski and gained the Tremendous Bowl.”
Kelce performed a satire of himself, coming off as a bossy and entitled soccer star who was commissioned by NASA as a PR ploy to hitch three aspiring astronauts (Reilly, Heidecker and Armisen) who had been making an attempt to qualify for his or her first lunar mission at a moon base simulator in Winslow, Arizona. He solely appeared in a single episode.
“I feel like anybody dipping into new territory, Travis required a little bit of warming as much as the entire performing factor however after a number of takes he felt very pure and humorous,” Heidecker instructed CNN by way of e mail, recalling his time on the set with Kelce. “I don’t assume I used to be begging him to stop his day job however he was extraordinarily devoted, open minded and an actual pleasure to work with, so it’s no shock to me he’d discover success in no matter discipline he’s keen on!”
Heidecker, additionally a musician who has a brand new album popping out subsequent month, added: “It’s been cool to see him escape in such a healthful and admirable manner.”
After “Moonbase 8,” Kelce appeared to toggle between profitable Tremendous Bowl rings and making buzzy appearances on “Saturday Night time Dwell.”
Only one month after the Chiefs gained the large recreation in 2023, Kelce made his “Saturday Night time Dwell” internet hosting debut. The following time Kelce appeared on “SNL” was in an October 2023 cameo alongside Swift after which in February 2024, he scored his third Tremendous Bowl ring when the Chiefs beat the San Fransisco 49ers in a nail-biter rout.
General, the reception to his “SNL” appearances had been so constructive that it sparked buzz about his Hollywood pursuits, one thing he was requested about throughout a Tremendous Bowl press convention in February.
“I’m comedy all the way in which… I identical to to have a enjoyable time and make individuals snigger,” Kelce stated on the time, talking about which style he’s most keen on pursuing. “I’ll dabble in every thing although simply to see if I’ve enjoyable doing it and I do know there’s undoubtedly Hollywood talks on the market.”
Maybe dabbling throughout all genres is an efficient technique however he may contemplate take cues from different athletes-turned-actors like “The Rock,” who beforehand spoke about one of the crucial necessary elements of his transition from school soccer participant to skilled wrestler to Hollywood star.
“I used to be achieved making an attempt to be somebody I’m to not conform to Hollywood,” Johnson wrote on his Instagram web page in 2020. “As a substitute, I made a decision to be my very own man and Hollywood would ultimately conform to me.”
Reserving gigs
In latest months, Kelce has turn into hooked up to a number of upcoming initiatives, marking what seemed to be a busy low season.
In April, Prime Video introduced that Kelce had been chosen to host the streamer’s upcoming recreation present “Are You Smarter Than a Movie star?” After which in Might, Kelce landed a task on Ryan Murphy’s horror drama “Grotesquerie,” performing alongside Niecy Nash, Courtney B. Vance and Lesley Manville.
Kelce had admitted that he had some some nerves in regards to the gig.
“I really feel like an novice proper now, nevertheless it’s undoubtedly a enjoyable problem, and I’m having fun with each little bit of it,” he stated in an interview with “Good Morning America” in June. “I’m coachable. That’s one factor I do know from being in sports activities, I’m a coachable man.”
Kelce can be set to make a cameo within the upcoming “Blissful Gilmore 2” film, in response to Adam Sandler, who’s returning to star in and co-write the long-awaited sequel to the 1996 golf comedy.
Throughout a latest episode of Kelce’s “New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce” podcast, Sandler teased the scene Kelce is in, saying, “We’re gonna have enjoyable as a result of the scene you’re doing is with so many nice golfers. It’s going to be superb, you’re going to be humorous as hell.”
The sequel will stream on Netflix.
Earlier this yr, Kelce additionally turned a first-time govt producer when he invested within the indie film “My Lifeless Buddy Zoe,” a darkish comedy starring Sonequa Martin-Inexperienced, Natalie Morales, Ed Harris and Morgan Freeman. The film premiered at SXSW and gained the SXSW Movie Pageant’s Viewers Award.
Then there’s the podcast, the one which began as two NFL stars and brothers casually speaking sports activities. Now, it’s a chart-topping manufacturing that has the brothers signing nine-figure offers that eclipse those that they signed to remain on the sphere.
Kelce co-hosts “New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce” along with his brother Jason, who retired this yr from the Philadelphia Eagles after 13 years within the NFL.
If he needed to, Kelce may arguably simply carry on chatting along with his brother on “New Heights” in his NFL afterlife, however historical past reveals that Kelce isn’t one to be pleased on the sidelines, significantly when the Hollywood recreation is looking his title.
For now, at the very least, Kelce maintains that he’s happiest simply being the “man on the chiefs.”
“I simply love soccer and the way it takes me away from life and offers me one thing I can really feel genuinely pleased about,” Kelce stated on Tuesday throughout a Chiefs pre-season press convention. “I’ve a lot pleasure doing it, it’s going to be exhausting making an attempt to determine when to name it quits or not.”
However as somebody as soon as sang, Trav, who’re we to struggle the alchemy?