For her first ever rom-com, Minka Kelly hit the trifecta.
“I mean, I got to live in France for two months and make a rom-com, then was making a holiday rom-com, then making a holiday rom-com in France on top of all of that? It was just such a gift and a dream come true,” Kelly says. “It was really fun.”
Kelly stars in the new Netflix movie “Champagne Problems,” out now, about a sales executive named Sydney who is sent to France to acquire a Champagne vineyard for her company. Upon arrival, she has a chance encounter with the charming Henri, who turns out to be the vineyard owner’s son.
“It’s such a feel-good, happy, nostalgic experience watching the movie, and it was such a special experience making it as well,” says Kelly, in New York for a short two-day break from shooting Season Two of “Ransom Canyon” to discuss the movie. “It was a real no-brainer for me. I was just really thankful to even be considered, and I couldn’t believe that I got to do it. It was a real gift.”
Minka Kelly
Lexie Moreland/WWD
It was the first romantic comedy Kelly, who is best known for her role in “Friday Night Lights,” has ever done, a genre that’s always been on her list. A few short months after signing on she was off to France, where they split time shooting between Paris and the Champagne region.
“It is as beautiful as the movie,” she says. “There’s not a lot of magic in the edit.”
Kelly, 45, had just finished Season One of “Ransom Canyon,” a Western drama following the lives and loves of three ranching families in Texas, before chopping her hair off and heading to France to “have a laugh.”
“It was just so refreshing and so fun to be on set where you’re encouraged to be silly and goofy,” she says of “Champagne Problems.” “To just let that side of you out as opposed to — I’m used to things being pretty heavy. And so it was so nice to just be surrounded by people making you laugh all day long.”
Minka Kelly and Tom Wozniczka in “Champagne Problems.”
Courtesy of Netflix
After promoting the film, she’ll head back to Albuquerque, N.M., where “Ranson Canyon” shoots.
“We know now what we’re making and we know that it works. And so we’re just really excited to do it again,” she says. “And also this year there’s a bit more levity, which I’m excited about, especially coming off of ‘Champagne Problems.’ It’s nice to incorporate a little bit more fun and sort of break the tension every once in a while with a little bit of a laugh.”
Season Two, which adds Patricia Clarkson in the role of Kelly’s mother, also marks a shift in Kelly. For Season One, the actress, who grew up in Albuquerque, decided to live in Santa Fe, to have some distance from her hometown. Now she’s living in Albuquerque for the first time since her childhood, and embracing all the emotions that come with that.
Minka Kelly
Lexie Moreland/WWD
“It was pretty incredible writing a whole book about growing up there, and then right afterwards it’s like, ‘OK, great, you’re going back,’” she says, referencing her 2023 memoir “Tell Me Everything,” about her childhood and particularly her mother.
“Living in Albuquerque 1763802466 I’m able to experience it differently than when I was younger. I am appreciating so much of the beauty of New Mexico that I took for granted when I was a child,” she says. “I wake up every morning to the most beautiful sunrises you would ever imagine. And I go home from work every day to the most beautiful sunsets. And I just feel every day when I see that, it feels like a little nod from the universe going, ‘good job, kid.’ And it makes me emotional all the time.”
Minka Kelly
Lexie Moreland/WWD
