COUNTRY QUEEN STAR MELISSA KIPLAGAT ON WHY SHE ALMOST QUIT ACTING

Country Queen star Melissa Kiplagat sat down with Buzz Central and opened about her acting career.

Speaking in an interview, the mother of one said she almost quit acting during the covid pandemic. “Around that time, I was at a point in life where I was really questioning whether I wanted to stay in this industry or not. Because I was like, I am almost turning 30, I’ve been in this industry since 2013. What do I have to show for it? I was seeing my other friends from high school, they have cars, they have great jobs, they have investments. I was just like what is my bank account telling me right now. I was at a point where I was contemplating whether I wanted to stay or not, I’d even started applying for full time jobs. So when I got pregnant, I was okay, I can move on now.”

Things changed when she received a call that the show was picked by Netflix, “When I got pregnant, we didn’t have confirmation that Country Queen was coming back. We found out it was coming back towards the end of 2020 and I was a few months pregnant at that point. I thought they were going to replace me. The only reason I decided to come back and do the show when they told me they were not reshooting the first episode and I was like, I don’t want to mess everyone by making them have to find the budget for the first episode, which means everyone’s paid less. I was like if they were willing to wait for me to give birth then I will do it.”

Melissa said she had pressure to lose weight for her role Akisa, “There was pressure to lose weight because of the way that the script is, there’s no time gap between episode one and two. The producers were super supportive but it was definitely overwhelming because I thought the way I always hear about people giving birth and in one week they lost 10 pounds. I was expecting that and I even told my producers I’ll even be underweight. But it didn’t happen, every pound that I lost I had to work for it.”

Though motherhood is tough she loves being a mum, “I love it. It’s a lot but I love being a mom. It’s my favourite thing.”