Jana Kramer On Her New Film ‘The Christmas Ring’

Jana Kramer stars alongside Benjamin Hollingsworth and Kelsey Grammer in Karen Kingsbury’s “The Christmas Ring.”

Photo credit: Rebecca Rene Photography

Jana Kramer is one of the busiest people in entertainment. She’s an actress, country singer, author, and many remember cheering her on when she competed on Dancing with the Stars during Season 23. Multiply-talented in many areas, Kramer says acting has been a top priority this year with roles in four different films. One of them, Karen Kingsbury’s The Christmas Ring, heads into theaters tomorrow.

“Karen Kingsbury is an incredible author, obviously,” Kramer says. “And when I got the offer for the part, I thought, okay, here’s a Christmas move which I love, but they do have a similar formula. So, when I saw this was written by Karen, it excited me because I knew it was going to have something different in it, and it did.”

Kramer plays a military widow who falls in love with an antiques dealer (played by Ben Hollingsworth) while on a quest to find her family’s lost ring. The ring, which has been in her family since her grandfather discovered it in France on D-Day, has a back story all its own. Kelsey Grammer adds a special dynamic to the film as Hollingsworth’s dad, and the rest of the cast which includes Jessie James Decker, Debbie Winans, and Megan Ashley Brown, rounds out the warm, family-friendly feel.

“It has everything you love about a Christmas movie but has a different depth,” Kramer explains. “There’s the loss of my husband who was in the army, then there’s the faith aspect which I love. I speak about my faith a lot, but I haven’t done many faith films. And Karen intertwines faith in such a beautiful way.”

Kingsbury is a #1 New York Times Bestselling Christian novelist who recently started her own production company and is now turning some of her books into films. The first was Someone Like You – released last year.

Both Kingsbury and Kramer call the Nashville-area home and joined family, friends, and fellow cast members at the film’s premiere in Franklin, Tennessee last week.

While Kramer has more focused on acting in recent years, she’s also a singer/songwriter. She released two country albums, one in 2012 and the other in 2015, that saw a number of songs chart, including two that reached the Top 10: “Why Ya Wanna” and “I Got the Boy.”

“The music started for me when I was on the show One Tree Hill,” she says. “I grew up listening to country music and I love it so much. And when they turned my character into a singer, that’s when I got a record deal with Warner Music. I toured for five-plus years and am still writing music and putting out songs, but for me acting has always been number one.”

In addition to everything else she does, she also hosts a weekly podcast called Whine Down with Jana Kramer. She touches on a wide array of topics, many from her own “crazy life,” as she puts it, with the goal of helping and encouraging others. She’s become vocal on a number of personal topics over the years, not by choice, but by necessity.

“When I was on Dancing with the Stars, my relationship got outed without me wanting it to be. My ex-husband was in sex-addition rehab, someone leaked that, and it was very painful because I didn’t want that out there. But then I was like, okay, so many people have written the story, so I wanted to control my own narrative in it.”

On the podcast, she has also shared her previous experience with domestic violence. She’s found that talking about those and other “real-life subjects” can be healing both to herself and others.

“I talk about these things because for every person that says oh, you’re an over-sharer and this and that, there’s someone that says thank you, this has helped me, I don’t feel as alone anymore. And that makes me go okay, God sees my pain for purpose. And for me, too, it’s like, I’m not alone in this. And it feels nice to not feel alone in a very lonely world at times.”

Kramer believes in embracing hope, love, and positivity – another reason she hopes people go see The Christmas Ring. She says working on the film, with its exceptional cast and crew, was a wonderful experience.

“Ben was amazing, he’s such a good actor and we had really great chemistry. We sat down and went through the script and asked how do we make this more conversational or how do we make this fit better for both of us? And Karen was so open to us being able to tweak things here and there. And then, Kelsey (Grammer) was incredible. As a veteran actor I obviously wanted to give him his space, but he was so lovely. He chatted about Frasier and his family and was terrific to work with.”

Even though it’s a little early in the holiday season, Kramer hopes people will go see the movie as it heads into theaters this weekend.

“There are not many Christmas movies that go to the theater, so it’s such a fun thing. I would just say – make it a fun thing for you and your family because it is family friendly. Enjoy the best time of the year and get early in that season-feeling early by watching a movie.”