Filming the new Lifetime movie Gaslit By My Husband was both a difficult and therapeutic experience for Jana Kramer.
“I told the head of Lifetime that I really wanted to do something in the domestic abuse space and be able to shed some light on that,” Kramer, 40, shared on the Monday, June 3, episode of her “Whine Down” podcast. “And when this came about, I was just like, ‘Wow, this hits close to home with some of the things that happen.’”
Gaslit By My Husband is inspired by the true story of Morgan and Rodney Metzer, played by Kramer and Austin Nichols, respectively, in the movie. Rodney becomes the prime suspect after a masked intruder attacks Morgan, leading her to question their entire relationship. (The real-life Rodney pleaded guilty to kidnapping and aggravated assault for the 2021 attack, per Fox News, and will carry out a 70-year sentence, 25 of which will be spent in prison.)
After initially worrying whether the movie’s story would be too difficult to experience, Kramer said she was encouraged to take it on with the help of her therapist and Morgan. Kramer also noted that she “could not have done it” without Nichols, 44, whom she previously starred alongside on One Tree Hill.
During the podcast, Kramer recalled filming a difficult scene in which Nichols’ character attacks her by placing a pillowcase over her face. “If someone is on top of me — and it could be having sex — if I feel like I can’t get up, I will go into a full panic attack mode ‘cause the body remembers my first abuser on top of me and I couldn’t move,” she explained.
Kramer recalled not being able to breathe while shooting the scene, as it took her ‘right back to being strangled.” She added: “I screamed so loud that they called ‘cut’ because I couldn’t breathe. And I ripped the thing off my head and I just lost it and I had to go outside, and then we had to take five because my whole body was just, like, back in it.”
Kramer said Nichols was the “only person that I felt safe around” during the difficult moment, and that she eventually was able to “take the power back.”
Kramer, who is currently engaged to Scottish soccer coach Allan Russell, did not name-drop her abuser during Monday’s podcast. However, she has previously opened up about suffering domestic abuse from her late ex-husband, Michael Gambino.
The exes were married for less than a year in 2004. Gambino was convicted of premeditated attempted murder not long after their 2005 split and was released on parole after serving five years in jail. He died by suicide in 2012.
Unlike the film’s attack scene, Kramer said it felt like a “weight was lifted” off her shoulders after filming a scene in which Morgan confronts Rodney with a speech in court, an opportunity Kramer said she “never got” to have.
“I was like, ‘But I’m gonna play it, in my brain, how I would have said it to my abuser on the stand,’” she told listeners. “And it was, I mean, they kept every emotion, every piece, and it was probably — I walked away and I remembered what my therapist said, where she said, ‘You got to take the power back,’ and I got to, like, bury it.”
Gaslit by My Husband premieres on Lifetime Sunday, June 9, at 8 p.m. ET.
If you or someone you know are experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support.
