Why Lainey Wilson's Next Acting Role Is A 'Step Outside Of My Comfort Zone'

Lainey Wilson said her upcoming acting role is a “step outside of my comfort zone.”

The Grammy-winning country star will make her feature film debut in Reminders of Him, an adaptation of a romance novel that bestselling New York Times author Colleen Hoover published in 2022. Reminders of Him is Wilson’s latest role follows her acting debut in the Western drama, Yellowstone. She played Abby, a country artist who sparks a love story with the character Ryan, played by Ian Bohen.

“This was the first opportunity I’ve had where I wasn’t a musician,” Wilson said in a recent interview with iHeartCountry. “And so, I had said after I did Yellowstone, I was like, ‘OK, the next thing I do, I’d like to kind of step outside of my comfort zone and try something I’ve never done. So, this gave me an opportunity to do that, and it was fun. It was, you know, I’m not gonna say easy, but it was like a fun challenge. And I’m excited to do more of it, whatever that looks like.”

The Reminders of Him cast also includes Jennifer Robertson, Bradley Whitford, Mika Monroe, Lauren Graham, Tyriq Withers, Rudy Pankow, Nicholas Duvernay and more. Its description reads: “After prison, Kenna attempts to reconnect with her young daughter but faces resistance from everyone except a bar owner with ties to her child. As they grow closer, Kenna must confront her past mistakes to build a hopeful future.” The Vanessa Caswill-directed film is expected to premiere in February 2026, per IMDb.

Earlier this year, Wilson teased “some of the things that we have in the pipeline, I’m excited to share with y’all,” though it’s unclear whether she was referring to Reminders of Him. At that time, Wilson shared advice she received from music legend Dolly Parton: “‘I make dang sure I am passionate about every single thing that I do,’ she [Parton] said, ‘even if it means I am doing a million things. It means that I have to love every single one of them. It has to be a big ‘yes,’ and if it’s not a big ‘yes,’ that means it’s gotta be a big ‘no.’’ So everything we’re doing right now is a big ‘yes.’”

Wilson recently spoke with iHeartCountry about her next acting role, her latest Academy of Country Music Award wins, her upcoming deluxe record and tour dates, and more. The extended version of Whirlwind will arrive on August 22. 

“These [five new] songs that are gonna be on the deluxe, they were all written after Whirlwind was out, so it was kind of like the next step, or what life I lived right after Whirlwind was released,” Wilson shared with iHeartCountry. “And so, it was cool to be able to tap into that, and also, it’s cool to be able to share that side, too, with the fans. And I’m really, really proud of this. I mean, I’m partial, but somehow, I feel like we continue to push it and level up, and I feel like even the people that I write songs with, they’re feeling the same way. We’re like, ‘OK, we really did it with this one,’ and we’re like, ‘OK, well how does it get better than this?’ And then it somehow does. But that’s a good place. That’s a very good place to be in.”