Deadline broke the news yesterday that Travis Kelce has been cast in Ryan Murphy’s upcoming new series Grotesquerie.
Ryan surprise-announced that the show was happening at the end of February with this teaser:
Nope. Pass. I do not f-ck with kind of scary ass content, thank you.
That, however, is the voice of Niecy Nash-Betts who stars in Grotesquerie alongside Courtney B Vance and Lesley Manville. So basically Travis is joining a cast of acclaimed award-winning actors as, presumably, a very supporting character. I say very supporting because nobody will be taking this seriously if you have him number one the call sheet when Niecy Nash-Betts, Courtney B Vance, and Lesley Manville are right there.
But I do like the move. As we know, Travis has been strategising his post-football moves although we are still at least two years out from when he actually will be living a post-football reality as he’s just signed a new two-year deal with Kansas City with a pay increase; he’s now getting $17.25 million a year on average, the most for a player at the tight end position in NFL history.
So he’s not going full Hollywood quite yet. But those inroads are being made, of course, with him hosting Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity? and now booking a supporting role in a Ryan Murphy show where he will be surrounded by experienced working actors. And this is key – Niecy Nash-Betts, Courtney B Vance, and Lesley Manville have all won their share of awards but they are not movie stars; nobody here is Leonardo DiCaprio. These artists understand the grind, they’ve been through the system at every level, so Travis’s time as a baby actor will be in the company of actors who got where they are not from overnight success but by grinding. It’s a good place for him to learn, if that indeed is the objective. And from there he can, perhaps, take it along the path of the John Cenas or Dave Bautistas before him. Yes, I know, calm down, he’s his own person. But Hollywood speaks the language of comps, and these are close-ish comps to where Travis *might* be headed, and I say this in a complimentary way. John Cena and Dave Bautista are legitimately funny and have thriving careers. I’m not entirely convinced if Travis actually has that talent, he was good on SNL but being entertaining one time on a sketch comedy show where the episode is built around you is a totally different thing from playing a character on a series or in a film. From what I’ve seen, he seems kinda stiff – because he’s in the infancy of his acting career; all the more reason why coming in to train on a set like Grotesquerie could be such a great opportunity to gain some experience.
Here are some photos of Travis from the weekend that we haven’t yet posted. He was at the Kentucky Derby and at the Miami Grand Prix and definitely not at the Met Gala with Taylor Swift.
Let's Squawk about Travis's baby actor era today! (app link here)
