Travis Kelce is set to make his acting debut in the Ryan Murphy-produced Grotesquerie, with a new trailer for the series opening up the NFL star to some decidedly mixed reactions online. It seems that when he’s not busy winning back-to-back Super Bowl championships or being the very public boyfriend of Taylor Swift (the latter of which is probably just as challenging), Kelce has been taking acting classes, which came to fruition when the preview of the FX horror show dropped yesterday.
While Kelce appears only briefly in the clip — saying ominously that “there’s no future after this” — we know that the athlete has a somewhat substantial role in Grotesquerie. The exact details of his character remain unknown, but it’s confirmed that he will star opposite Niecy Nash as Lois Tryon, a detective investigating a series of gruesome murders with the help of a nun and journalist (played by Micaela Diamond).
This is from the man who bought us Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story and American Horror Story, so expect a show that’s just as grotesque as its title suggests. Kelce and Nash form part of the cast alongside Lesley Manville and Murphy muse Courtney B. Vance, who also starred in the producer’s anthology series, American Crime Story: The People Vs. OJ Simpson.
Despite being fleeting, Kelce’s appearance in the Grotesquerie trailer was enough to divide fans, with some saying they’ll tune in solely for the NFL star, and others saying he should “stick to football.” One X user said Kelce’s foray into acting is evidence of him using “Taylor to rise his celebrity,” with others claiming that “he needs to be stopped.”
Thankfully for Kelce, it wasn’t all the kind of haters Swift sang about on that 2014 song. Others were more supportive of Kelce’s appearance, gushing that because “Travis is involved I’m seated.” Meanwhile, one fan even claimed Kelce’s performance was so great that it “ended taylor’s acting career already,” and elsewhere praised him for “successfully weaponis[ing] taynepotism.”
The response to Kelce’s acting debut feels similar to that of Kim Kardashian, who — despite having minimal acting experience — was cast in the fellow Murphy series American Horror Story: Delicate earlier this year. In any case, Kelce will only continue to expand his acting portfolio, since it was revealed last week that the footballer will also star in the upcoming Happy Gilmore sequel, at the behest of Adam Sandler.
The only other time Kelce has been on screens for something other than football was for the reality series Catching Kelce, which I devoured as if my life depended on it.