Rita Wilsonfeels the love this holiday season.
“I am a big believer in gratitude. I wake up every morning, I say a prayer of gratitude; I say one before I go to bed at night,” the actress-singer, 65, tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “Gratitude is the antidote to fear, and there’s always something to be thankful for. Always.”
Wilson’s new movieLove Is Love Is Love(out now on demand) carries that message through three stories of love and loss. The mom of two plays a songwriter who honors a friend who died at a luncheon with the woman’s daughter and other people from the pal’s life.
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The country star penned a song for the film, called “Because Love,” and enjoys roles that allow her to combine her love of acting and music.
“Can they bring backGleeor something?” Wilson jokes of musical acting parts. “I love music and songwriting because it feels like the part of myself that gets to say what I want to say. I have more control over that. In acting, you’re waiting around for interesting material or you’re having to create it yourself, and it’s an interesting conundrum for women that are not 25 years old.”
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Although Wilson always loved music, she didn’t start creating it until approximately a decade ago thanks to support from friends like the late screenwriter-director Nora Ephron and songwriter Kara DioGuardi.
“I said, ‘I wanted to write music, I wish I could.’ She said, ‘Why don’t you?'” Wilson recalls of DioGuardi, 51. “I said, ‘Because I don’t play an instrument, I don’t read music.’ She said, ‘Yes, neither do I, but do you have something you want to say?’ When she put it like that, everything opened up for me.”
Now, “all my stories are in my songs,” Wilson says.
Though Wilson continues to act and release music, the “Count Your Blessings” singer — who, along with Hanks, 66, were among the first starsdiagnosed with COVID-19— confesses that the lockdown gave her the gift of slowing down.
“I was the quiet that was so meaningful. It was the not rushing to do something, it was not being in traffic,” she says. “It was connecting in a way that you’re with your family, [if you’re] lucky enough to be with your family together, that was wonderful.”
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During a season filled with loved ones, Wilson says she likes to keep the attention off herself, at least when it comes to rewatching her movies — evenseasonal favoriteJingle All the Way(streaming on Hulu and Disney+).
But Wilson remains grateful. “I’m so thankful to have done all of the stuff that I’ve done,” she says. “I’ve learned from everything.”
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source: people.com
