Lauren Alaina has unleashed on 2017.
On Jan. 27, Lauren released her sophomore album, Road Less Traveled, which debuted at No. 3 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart, while the album’s title track is currently No. 11 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart. To coincide with the album’s release, Lauren joined Martina McBride’s Love Unleashed Tour for a string of dates through mid-March. On top of that, the Georgia native recently completed filming her first feature film, also titled Road Less Traveled, which is currently in post-production and tentatively slated for a 2017 release, according to IMDB.
While Lauren couldn’t reveal all of the movie’s details just yet, she did sit down with Nash Country Daily to dish on the experience of filming the movie, the role she played and her Broadway aspirations.
NCD: What can you tell us about your new feature film, Road Less Traveled?
“I’m not really sure how much I can share, but I’ll just tell you about my character and kind of the baseline. I am Charlotte, and Charlotte is a 25-year-old, like mid-20s, songwriter that lives in Los Angeles. She’s getting married. It is this whole story about her journey to getting married, and she can’t find a dress. It’s just a bunch of getting married drama. I really had so much fun. It’s a lighthearted movie. It’s a romantic comedy. It’s the kind of movie that when you’re home in your pajamas, and you want to be comfy, it’s that kind of movie that you watch that makes you feel good. I love being home in my pajamas and feeling good, so I’m excited to share it with my fans. It’s a whole new side of me that no one’s ever seen. I really enjoyed that process. It was hectic, because we shot the whole movie in like three and a half weeks, because I’m touring, and I’m doing everything else. We worked like 15-hour days, every day, for three weeks straight.”
You’re only 22 years old. What was it like playing an older woman?
“I know [laughing]. Well, I live the life of a 30-year-old I feel like. I don’t ever really get to act 22 unless I’m with my friends that are 22, which is nice. I make sure I have time to do that. The character is very similar to me. She’s only 25. It’s not like I had to act any more mature or any more . . . I just had to be this role, this character. I could play a 16-year-old . . . It’s not who you are. She’s very similar to me though. She drinks more [laughing].”
Is this a role that you went after, or did they come after you for it?
“It really happened naturally, honestly. I have wanted to pursue acting for a really long time, but I feel like you always have to do it at the right time, because if you do it too early . . . You don’t want it to overpower. Singing is my passion. Entertaining is my passion. Any way I can do that is what I live for. I love to sing, and I just didn’t want to do it too soon that it would take away from it or even that it would hold me back. I just have been waiting for the right moment. It just kind of came to me. It wasn’t something I was seeking out, really. Obviously, my agents and all the people I work with know that I’m interested in it, so when the opportunity presented itself, it came through actually my record label. There was a movie production company that approached the label.
“They were talking about this idea they had to do a movie based around an artist and their music, but the artist would play a role. I think that they talked about it and thought that I would be a good fit, which was such a compliment to me that they thought that I could do that. Then, I was super nervous. It almost forced me into it, which is a good thing, because I was kind of scared to pursue it. Then, it happened naturally. Now, I’m like all fired up about it and want to do it all the time. We’re trying to find ways that I can sneak it in, even though we are so busy right now that I can’t even wash my laundry. I’m like, ‘Oh, let’s act, too. Let’s throw another thing onto the list of things that we do.’”
Singing and acting. How are your dance moves? You might be a legitimate triple threat.
“I can dance, but I’ve never had any type of training that makes me a dancer, but I feel like if I had an extensive time of lessons, extensive probably, I would be a decent dancer.”
Broadway here you come. You’re the next Jennifer Nettles.
“I really think that that’s something I could do. I think that that would be a cool thing for me to do at some point, like a Broadway show.”
