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Rita Wilson Finally Pursues Her Dream To Sing

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 05:46 PST, Jul 16, 2016

Rita Wilson has opened up about what it was like realizing her dream, according to PE. The longtime actress, who recently released her new album, has revealed what it was like pursuing her dream to become a singer-songwriter.

Rita Wilson wrote in the liner notes of her album that it’s never too late to pursue your dream.

“Ask yourself what your dream is, and when you have the answer, go and get it. You can do it.”

Rita Wilson also admitted that it took her a while to realize what she truly wanted from life. And it turns out that it wasn’t acting, it has always been singing. The 59-year-old actress-turned-singer has starred in such films as Jingle All The Way and Runaway Bride.

“As a kid I always loved to sing, and my parents would say, ‘Get up and sing for our friends’ when they’d come over.”

But then Rita Wilson suddenly got into acting and she thought that acting could become her regular job. But she never thought of what she truly wanted from life. That’s why Wilson ended up being torn between her dream of being a singer and being an actress, which was taking up most of her time.

And while Rita Wilson struggled to do both things, be a singer and an actress, it was her role as Roxie Hart in the revival of the musical Chicago that “reinvigorated” her interest in pursuing her true dream, the Runaway Bride actress revealed.

Rita Wilson has been married to Forrest Gump actor Tom Hanks since 1988, according to the Desert Sun.

And when she was cast in the musical Chicago in 2006 and part of her role was to sing on the show, she finally returned to her dream – singing.

Six years later, Rita Wilson released her debut album AM/FM, a mix of cover songs, which were received by her fans so well that she even did live shows.

“When I did the first album and I kind of got my feet wet a little I didn’t have any intentions of doing an album of original songs after it.”

And that’s when Rita Wilson became inspired by songwriter Kara DioGuardi, who also happened to be performing the role of Roxie Hart, Wilson’s character in the Chicago musical, as well. And the two recorded a collaboration song, which led her to write her first song.

And then Rita Wilson got in touch with Kristian Bush, who performs for the band Sugarland, asking him if he would like to write with her as well. And eventually, the actress-turned-singer accumulated a lot of songs.

“And then I said, ‘I think I’m writing an album!’ I started recognizing that there were themes that were emerging that could be tied together with the songs I was writing.”

Many music critics have noted that the tracks from Rita Wilson’s latest album sound as if she has been singing for years. The album is a mix of pop with rock, pop, and country, and Wilson admits that the songwriting process for the album was “very personal.”

“And every time you write with someone you really have to strip down and just be really authentic and real.”

But apparently, that’s what Rita Wilson loves about the process of writing songs with someone, because in order to make a musical collaboration work you need to really get into your thoughts.

Among her TV credits, Wilson starred on HBO’s Girls and played a part in the Broadway play Fish In The Dark. Rita Wilson was also diagnosed and treated for cancer. So the actress-turned-singer has had a busy life lately.

“It seemed really busy; I cannot lie about that.”

[Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP Images]

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