The Real Reason Kelly Carlson Stopped Acting
If you were a huge Nip/Tuck fan back in the day, there's a chance you've thought about Kimber Henry, the troubled blonde played by Kelly Carlson. The performance is legendary, which is why it's arguably odd that Carlson has stopped acting altogether.
A little back story Carlson's character on the Ryan Murphy series before we jump into this curious case: Kimber was only supposed to be a guest character in the Season 1 premiere, but she was promoted to a recurring character for the first two seasons. By Season 3, she was one of six series regulars. Although the character is quite compelling, it was reportedly Carlson's performance and fan reaction to her that got her the steady gig.
The Tk native said in a 2004 interview with The Trades, "You hope and you have confidence that something like that will happen to you, but the chances are so slim, that reality kind of puts you in check." She added, "No, I didn't anticipate [the fame], but maybe somewhere in my gut, I knew my career was going to advance at some point. I just wasn't expecting it to be Nip/Tuck, but I'm so thankful because I love the show so much. Now I sort of believe in luck [laughs]. What happened to me is really kind of like a dream come true."
So why did Carlson give it all up? We explore the truth below.
Kelly Carlson is dedicated to her husband
As it turns out, there's no huge scandal or juicy backstory as to why Kelly Carlson left Hollywood. After Nip/Tuck, Carlson went on to star in the CW's Melrose Place and then Ghostfacers. She also starred in one episode of The Finder and was in the movie Jimmy, per IMDB. After that, nothing. Luckily, Carlson recently spoke about her career these days on an Instagram Live when a fan asked her what she was working on. Carlson told the fan that she and her husband, Dan Stanchfield, moved to San Diego for his job and it's just a matter of not being close enough to Los Angeles to work.
She said (via People), "Why am I not acting? Not for any reason, really. Just that we live far away. I need to be in L.A. and we're not for my husband's work, which is down — he's in the Navy, so we're way down in southern San Diego. And that's kind of it." She added that her husband also teaches survival skills classes, so they have to be sort of far out of the city. "Now he's the star of the family and I'm the manager wife," she concluded.
Makes sense to us!
Kelly Carlson is content where she is
Kelly Carlson may have paused her career for her husband, Dan Stanchfield, but she's not mad about it all. "I'm kind of a free spirit. I kind of am, and I'm kind of not," she mentioned in her Instagram Live (via People). "But I'm always up for new experiences." She added with a smile, "And Dan is such a great guy, I'm not gonna say no. Yeah, you don't say no to this kind. No, no. You make adjustments."
She also clarified that this was her decision alone. "And it's not that he asked me to leave," the actor clarified. "He didn't at all. It was like I saw a lot of value in what he was doing and so I said we have to go do it. And so we moved."
The bottom line here? Hollywood didn't cancel Carlson, and she may make a comeback one day. In fact, she's set to star in an upcoming movie called the Reason, which will premiere sometime in 2020 despite being filmed in 2016. The movie is based on Williams Sirls' novel of the same name, which follows "a group of interrelated individuals in a small town stricken with crisis, unearthing the probing question: Where is God when bad things happen?," according to The Source.
So Carlson is not totally out of the game. And even if she was, it sounds like she's doing just fine anyway.