Nikki Reed and Ian Somerhalder are setting the record straight about their relationship with Hollywood.
On Thursday, April 24, the couple caught up with Julia Cunningham for SiriusXM’s The Julia Cunningham Show, when Reed, 36, shared that while her husband often talks about “walking away” from their careers in entertainment, she doesn’t view things that way.
The Twilight alum — who shares daughter Bodhi, 7, and a 1-year-old son with Somerhalder — previously shared that she and her husband opted to relocate their family to a farm “very far outside [Los Angeles]” in recent years.
“The entertainment world really gave us these amazing platforms, so we’re super grateful for it,” Somerhalder, 46, said on the radio show.
“He talks about walking away a lot. I don’t view it like a walk away. I sort of view a nice transitional moment right now of figuring out how to really marry business with passion, with, you know, truly walking the walk,” Reed added. “I think you can talk about this stuff all you want, but if you don’t have your feet on the ground and you aren’t doing it in practice, then it’s hard to really be an expert in something you don’t know, and so that’s a real priority for me.”
As Reed explained, she and Somerhalder are “kind of like the yin and the yang in that he is unbelievable in his ability to use his voice and amplify a message and he’s all around the world doing this work, which is incredible.”
The pair have launched multiple projects, with Somerhalder behind documentaries such as Common Ground and Kiss the Ground, and they both have been public about promoting environmentalist efforts.
“I’ve had to learn to really plant my feet in the ground so that he and I can balance that out,” Reed said. “You know, you can’t run a farm if you’re not there.”
Back in October, Reed spoke with at the 34th annual Environmental Media Association (EMA)’s awards ceremony in Los Angeles, when she shared why she doesn’t “make any definitive statements about anything” when asked about returning to her acting career.
“I don’t look at anything. I’m just very, very busy. I work over 90 hours a week,” said Reed, who is now the CEO and co-founder of sustainable jewelry brand Bayou with Love and also runs a supplement company called The Absorption Company. “Right now, I’m running a company full-time and just launched another, a shared company with the absorption company. And I just can’t imagine being able to pivot my energy away, but there’s no door closed.”
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Reed’s last onscreen appearance came in the 2019 Netflix series V-Wars, while Somerhalder most recently appeared in his executive-produced 2020 Kiss the Ground documentary. At the EMA Awards Gala in October, Somerhalder said that he felt acting was in “the rearview mirror.”
“Well, I dunno, we got the rights back for V Wars, but I just don’t know how the hell we would ever make a TV show,” he told PEOPLE, referring to the pair’s Netflix sci-fi thriller. “We’re building three companies at the same time, raising kids.”
A month before, Somerhalder told that he stepped aside to build up his companies, make the films and ultimately “raise my kids.”
“I say this in all humility, in all respect, but I would much rather do this than go spend two months in some city, shooting a TV show away from my family or transporting my family back and forth,” he said.
“Once you reach a certain level, you’re like, ‘Okay, I want to focus on family and the future of farming and food and energy and the big things,'” Somerhalder added. “I don’t need to chase awards and anything that would make me feel better about myself.”