Why Kelly Clarkson Stopped Acting for Years After Her Debut
Many fans watched Kelly Clarkson become a star on reality TV. She won the first season of American Idol and she soon starred in the movie, From Justin to Kelly. Find out why she stopped acting for years after her debut.
Kelly Clarkson didn’t want to win ‘American Idol’
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The singer rose to fame by competing on the first season of American Idol. She eventually won and Justin Guarini was the runner-up. She later revealed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that she didn’t even want to win.
“I do remember Justin and I having the conversation before, and I was like, ‘I don’t want to win, I don’t want to win, because we found out we had to do a movie,” she said.
“He really wanted to do a movie,” she said. “And I really didn’t want to do a movie. I was like, ‘It would be really super cool if I got second and you got first, because the winner has to do the movie and the second one doesn’t.”
She stopped acting after ‘From Justin to Kelly’
Clarkson had to star in 2003’s From Justin to Kelly due to her contract with American Idol. The winner admitted she tried to get out of it.
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“I cried,” she told the Los Angeles Times. “I talked to many lawyers and could not get out of the movie.” She moved forward with doing the movie and it was critically torn apart.
The singer revealed why she was against doing the project from the start. “I just didn’t believe in it, first of all,” she said. “I’m not a beach blanket-movie kind of girl. And I didn’t want it to deter or ruin any chance of me being able to go down the path I actually auditioned for on Idol. They did give me this: I begged them — since I had to do it contractually — I wanted my single to be released before the movie came out and I think that literally saved my career.”
She added, “It was ‘Miss Independent.’ The fact that that was successful, I think that overcame what the movie was.” It took some time for Clarkson to return to acting and she revealed why.
She didn’t do another role because she respects the art of acting
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“But I don’t really want to commit to some big kind of role because I respect that art tremendously,” she said. “All actors shouldn’t be singers and all singers shouldn’t be actors.”
She eventually returned to acting for UglyDolls, which was released in 2019. She voiced a character named Moxy in kids movie. The movie shows dolls having to deal with being different.
“This role could not be more me,” she said. “I get really nervous acting, so I don’t generally do it. I don’t like it. I tend to stay in my comfort zone. But this was kind of awesome, because I thought: I’m not going to have to act … this is basically my character in life.”
Chances are we won’t see Clarkson switch to acting in the future. But now we know how she truly feels about it along with winning American Idol.
