Entertainment

Jana Kramer credits backyard barbecue for helping husband handle her love scenes

By Larry Fink,Lori Bashian

Copyright foxnews

Jana Kramer credits backyard barbecue for helping husband handle her love scenes

Jana Kramer is sharing how her husband handles her intimate scenes as an actress. During a recent interview with Fox News Digital, the 41-year-old actress and singer discussed her upcoming movie, “The Christmas Ring,” and how her husband, Allan Russell, deals with her romantic scenes. She explained that for him, “at first it wasn’t natural,” but she would always think about what she could do to “kind of help him feel more comfortable.” “I had Ben Hollingsworth and his wife Nila over the house. We had a barbecue with the kids, and it’s like once you get to know my co-star and their hearts and their families, it does, it becomes like everybody’s friends,” she said. “I think over time now that this has been, you know, a couple of movies now that we’ve done like he’s more comfortable with the fact that it is not how people portray it, you know? And it’s not real.” The upcoming Christmas movie tells the story of a military widow who finds love as she is searching for her family’s lost ring, which is also an heirloom from D-Day. KRISTEN BELL REGRETS NOT DATING MORE, WISHES SHE ‘BUTTERFLIED AROUND’ BEFORE MARRIAGE TO DAX SHEPARD In addition to Kramer, the film stars Kelsey Grammer, Ben Hollingsworth and Jessie James Decker, with Hollingsworth playing Kramer’s love interest. “Ben was incredible. Like we had such a great connection,” she said. “I feel like we really did the characters together a good justice.” WATCH: JANA KRAMER SHARES HOW A BACKYARD BARBECUE HELPED HER HUSBAND COME TO TERMS WITH HER ROMANTIC SCENES This is far from the first Christmas movie Kramer has starred in, admitting that when she got the script for his film, she thought to herself, “Okay, another Christmas movie, like here we go,” but quickly realized this was “so much different than a typical Christmas script that I’ve gotten.” “I had Ben Hollingsworth and his wife Nila over the house. We had a barbecue with the kids, and it’s like once you get to know my co-star and their hearts and their families, it does, it becomes like everybody’s friends.” “I just really connected with the character too. I’m like, you, I’ve never been widowed and I don’t understand that pain. And I hope I never, I don’t understand that pain, but I do know the pain of obviously heartbreak and being a single mom,” she explained. “And so I felt like there was a lot that I could bring to the role just from having to let go.” Kramer, who shares two children with her ex-husband, Mike Caussin, said, “I get excited now about projects that I can draw my past from.” WATCH: JANA KRAMER SAYS ‘THE CHRISTMAS RING’ IS DIFFERENT FROM ANY HOLIDAY MOVIES SHE’S DONE BEFORE When it comes to working with Grammer, the “One Tree Hill” star admitted she was “nervous” and kept telling herself to “step up” her acting and “try to match his level” while filming a scene with him. “I’ve got Kelsey Grammer in my eyeline, so I’m like, ‘Oh my God, he’s judging me. He’s looking at my work,'” she explained. “So this is like all going through my brain. And I’m, like, ‘No, I’m gonna, I’m going to do something different in this take.’ I need like the Kelsey Grammar approval, right? And so I was doing like the third take, he’s in my eyeline, and I did something different.” LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS She continued: “I just saw Kelsey go, like he was like good job. And in my brain, I was like, yes, like I did it. Like I made it like a strong choice, and he saw it, and it was different from the other takes. And I just got his approval … just the head shake of the approval … I’m like, okay, this is, this is gold.” In addition to getting his approval, Kramer shared it was also great getting to know the “Frasier” actor while just hanging out on set. She explained that Grammer “was open to talking about family and his relationship and his kids and his work” and shared his biggest takeaways from his long career in Hollywood. WATCH: JANA KRAMER SHARES WHAT IT WAS LIKE WORKING WITH KELSEY GRAMMER ON NEW CHRISTMAS MOVIE Kramer was also happy to work on the film with her friend, Decker, saying she has been wanting to try acting for a while now. Decker told Fox News Digital she feels “so blessed that it became the project where I made my acting debut.” “The ‘Christmas Ring’ is a story about love, hope, and finding the magic of the season, and I feel so blessed that it became the project where I made my acting debut. [Screenwriter] Karen Kingsbury is someone whose work I’ve admired for a long time, and it was such an honor to collaborate with her and bring her beautiful vision to life,” Decker said. CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER She continued: “Doing it alongside my good friend Jana Kramer just made the whole experience that much better. We’ve been through so much together as friends, so getting to actually work side by side on a project like this was such a blast. This film is really close to my heart, and I can’t wait for people to see the love that went into making it.” “The Christmas Ring” is set to hit theaters on November 6. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP