Chase Stokes Gushes Over Seeing GF Kelsea Ballerini Live Her Dreams (Exclusive)

Chase Stokes and Lana Condor talked to “Extra” about their new action-thriller “Valiant One,” about a U.S. helicopter that goes down in North Korea, leaving a group of reserve soldiers to find a way out before starting a war. 

Chase spoke about getting out of his comfort zone after “Outer Banks.” 

He told us, “It's a nontraditional war film. It’s very character-driven, and I think as an artist, I want to follow characters and play characters that resonate with me personally, because I think the more personal you get the wider it'll reach… After doing 30 episodes of a TV show, it felt nice to shave my head and not have the floppy locks and go try something different.”

Lana, who is beloved for her "To All the Boys" movies, similarly wanted to try something new.

She shared, “I had just finished doing three rom-coms and I really wanted to push myself… out of my comfort zone, and I wanted to try something that might honestly seem so deeply unexpected to the public." She went on, "I wanted to prove to myself that I have more to give and more sides of myself as an actor that I don't necessarily think I had shown previously.”

Condor and Stokes both come from military families, and they reflected on what it meant to be able to tell this story.

“I genuinely wanted to do it because we both come from military families,” Lana said, adding of service men and women, “We are so humbled and honored to be in this position where we can honor them and show that real people are put into unbelievable circumstances in real life and fight for us, for our country.”

Condor said it was “top of mind every single day.”

Stokes shared, “I also come from a military family and I have friends who have served and are serving and so I am constantly — outside of just this film — I’m very conscious of the fact that I get to do what I do because the men and women who serve this country protect us and our rights to be able to do things like play pretend for a living, so there was a real want to honor everybody across the board who serves this country.”

When asked about the most challenging part of the role, Lana said, “The most difficult part for me was 100 percent getting accustomed to having so much additional weight to carry,” noting they wore chest plates, carried heavy guns, and their rucksacks were full of supplies.

“I think we had maybe like 60, 70 additional lbs. of just material on us,” she said, further explaining, “We were actually hiking mountains and running through fields, carrying bodies, like, all of that was real and that was by far the hardest part for me.”

Stokes also talked about “Outer Banks” coming to an end after five seasons.

“I haven't read a single script yet,” he said. “I don't even know when we're going to go back to work but… I'm excited to finish it strong and finish it in the ways that I hope that our audience feels satisfied with and pays off these characters.”

On a personal note, Chase also gushed over how proud he is of GF Kelsea Ballerini, who just kicked off her first arena tour and is a new coach on “The Voice”! 

“Her work ethic is unmatched, and to do something like ‘The Voice’ — which is a huge lift — and then to just start doing a 36-stop arena tour on top of that and it's, like, selling so fast,” he said. “I was looking at everything from Chicago last night, it's insane. I don't know how she does it and somehow she does and she does it with grace and still finds time for real life in between. I think it's just a beautiful thing to see your partner living out her 13-year-old dreams.”

Lana also raved over newlywed life with her hubby Anthony De La Torre. 

“It's the best, I love it,” she said of being married. “We've been together for so long, but yeah, I got married in October and I am so happy and he is everything to me, and I'm just really grateful that I have my dream husband.”