Jana Kramer is opening up about not being able to afford to give her children the life she wanted for them.
During a recent interview with Fox News Digital, the 42-year-old actress spoke about her new film, “The One,” and how moving to Nashville, Tennessee has allowed her to give her kids the childhood she had.
“I remember being in Studio City with the two kids, and we couldn’t afford to have a bigger place with a bigger backyard and neighborhoods like that. Again, we just couldn’t afford certain neighborhoods and, for me, Tennessee has just always been a place that every time I land, my nervous system just like relaxes, it feels calm,” she said.
As someone who grew up in the Midwest, she “struggled” with the idea that some of her “greatest memories as a child” included running around her “neighborhood and just going from friend’s house to friend’s house,” and staying out playing “until the sun went down.”
After moving to Tennessee, she said it now brings her joy to watch her children having a similar childhood, spending their days “on their bikes and going to their friends houses,” noting “it just makes me feel like home.”
“I love it here. You can always go back,” she added. “You can always go to Hollywood, but things have changed so much with self-tapes, which I actually don’t love, but you can. It’s a plane away.”
WATCH: Jana Kramer moved to Nashville to give her kids a taste of her Midwestern childhood
The “One Tree Hill” star explained that while she knows many people who are raising their children in Los Angeles, and “that’s amazing for them,” she enjoys the “totally different life” in Tennessee.
She attributes her affinity towards Tennessee to her own upbringing in Michigan, noting she values how she was raised, “that I just really wanted that same upbringing for my kids.”
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The actress shares two children with her ex-husband Mike Caussin – Jolie and Jace – and a son, Roman, with her husband Allan Russell.
Kramer’s latest film, “The One,” tells the story of an 18-year-old navigating through homelessness after aging out of the foster care system.
“I remember reading the script and just, I love a complicated story, you know, I think it’s always fun to play those roles because life is complex,” she said. “But I loved the story behind it. I loved the faith element. It wasn’t completely thrown in your face, but it was a beautiful thread throughout the movie. And it just had a lot of heart to it. And so I felt that in the movie, and then I felt that pain that everyone was going through. And so, I just really wanted to be a part of telling that story.”
WATCH: Jana Kramer ‘learned a lot’ about the foster care system while filming ‘The One’
“The One” hits theaters nationwide on Nov 5th, coinciding with national homeless youth awareness month, bringing timely attention to the film’s story.
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The actress shared that the movie is “shedding light” on this issue, noting it was “heartbreaking” to see the character portray the feeling of “not having a home base” and living with the idea that at “any second the rug can be pulled from underneath them.”
WATCH: Jana Kramer’s new movie ‘The One’ focuses on teenage homelessness
“I just… I can’t imagine that as a kid,” she said. “It’s like I think about my kids, and it makes me sad to think about. Them not feeling safe or them being put into unsafe homes because our job as parents is to protect them. And it makes me really sad that, some kids in the foster system don’t get placed into safe homes and those that have to hop around.”
