Kate Hudson Has Some Notes for Contemporary Rom-Coms

Photo: Carlo Paloni/BAFTA via Getty Images

On a rainy afternoon in an East Village noodle shop, Kate Hudson is swearing me to secrecy. “This is my favorite place,” she says as we sit down in an establishment that I agree to keep nameless. “Don’t tell anybody. Just call it a ‘mysterious favorite.’” As she settles in, pulling a thick off-white sweater over her head, she explains that she’s been a regular here since she lived in the neighborhood years ago; they bring her a Perrier before she even requests it. Though she’s based in Los Angeles, she’s almost always had a place somewhere in Manhattan — Gramercy, King Street, a grimy Chelsea loft with ex-husband Chris Robinson (a real-estate memory that delights her when I bring it up midway through our lunch). “Every time I go a couple years without a home base here, I feel a little off-center,” she says.

We’re here to talk about Hudson’s Best Actress Oscar nomination for Song Sung Blue, in which she plays Claire Sardina, a real-life Milwaukee hairdresser with big dreams who started a wildly popular Neil Diamond tribute band with her husband, Mike (played by Hugh Jackman). She landed the role after she appeared on CBS Sunday Morning to promote her first album, Glorious. Jackman saw the segment and texted director Craig Brewer, and Hudson signed on shortly after. It’s her first Oscar nomination since 2000’s Almost Famous — she was nominated at 21 for playing Penny Lane in the Cameron Crowe dramedy — and it’s being heralded as a comeback for the actress.

The Knives Out and Running Time star is a bit loath to describe it that way, but she’s game to talk about the ups and downs of her career to this point: the years of rom-coms, both good and bad; what movies like The Skeleton Key and Le Divorce mean to her now; and what she learned about the business from Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, and Meryl Streep. (She’s understandably less forthcoming when it comes to talking about her next, unfinished rom-com, described in a recent announcement as “in the vein of Sleepless in Seattle, When Harry Met Sally, and You’ve Got Mail.”) “Movies become so successful that people think, We can do that. Same formula, same feeling, but less money, betting on newer talent,” she explains over noodles. “That’s a different version of what a rom-com is … I don’t think they’re the same genre.”

Congrats on the Oscar nom. Where were you when you heard, and what was your reaction?
I was at home. What was the feeling? Even if you’re a so-called shoo-in, I think you’re still shocked. For this one, I didn’t know if I wanted to watch the announcement. I felt like I should sleep through it and see what happened — if my phone started ringing. But then I was like, No, we’ve been working so hard. Everyone’s out there selling the movie, pushing the movie. People are loving the movie. It just felt like I had to experience either the end of this “Claire era” or the celebration of more. So I watched it. These are my peers, people I want to work with and have worked with. People I admire. It’s my community. When they show up and there’s people writing my name down and celebrating my work, it feels like a big hug.

Have you spoken to Claire since? 
Not yet, no. I will. She’s wonderful, she loved the movie. And I’m so happy that she does because when you’re playing a real character who exists in the world … I was doing this one interview early on, and I could see the way that the journalist was starting to frame things, and I was like, “Remember, these are real people.”

What was the framing?
It doesn’t matter. But when you’re honoring someone’s life story, you handle it with more care than you would any other performance.

What does that care involve?
I studied Claire and the documentary and wanted to make sure that I got part of her essence. I was also honoring Craig’s version of their story, because it’s still a movie. So you kind of walk this line a little bit. What is Claire and the essence of Claire, and what is Craig’s version and what is he trying to say in the script? Meeting Claire and spending time with her while we were filming — she’s filled with joy. That’s one of the things I love about her. In the documentary, you see her loving Mike with everything in her body.

You do look at Hugh like that in the movie.
It was like they were one person. One couldn’t exist without the other.

What was the most challenging part of making Song Sung Blue?
Honestly, I’ve never done prosthetics where I have to sit in a chair for three and a half hours on top of everything else.

For the leg?
Yeah. When you’re someone who needs to move around, just sitting still for hours is hard. But it was stimulating work. We only shot for 36 days. We didn’t shoot on a stage or anything; we’re all shooting in weird bedrooms or basements. Hugh and I had a wonderful time together. Every once in a while, you meet someone in your career that you know is going to be in your life forever.

You guys have a sort of similar energy. It makes sense to me that you would bond.
We’re very different people, but we’re both ready to go. We’re worker bees. Energetic, athletic. He doesn’t sit still either. But he’s really low-key. Surprisingly. He feels like such a movie star that you think he’d maybe behave in that way. But he’s super laid-back.

I read an interview where you talked about how you like to be super “tactile” with your co-stars and how you told Hugh that off the bat. What does that look like, exactly?
Not all my co-stars! I’m not like, touching all of my co-stars. [Laughs] “I must touch you.”

I’ve never done a love story like this. Even though there is sort of a cute setup in how they meet, this is a love story where, if the love doesn’t work — if it’s not super believable — the movie wouldn’t work. So when we did our table read, I said to Hugh, “How can we feel super comfortable with each other? I want to ask a million questions. I’m gonna touch you a lot and hug you. And if I ever make you feel uncomfortable, you have to tell me.” I felt it was important for us to feel cozy and intimate. And you do that by being curious. So within three days, we kind of knew everything about each other. It’s nice to be forced to meet someone and really connect with them. And that they’re open to it. Not everybody is. People are not as trusting.

You’ve described yourself as a “frustrated musician.” I wonder whether you related to that aspect of your character, Claire.
The good news: I don’t feel frustrated anymore. Ever since I made my album. That’s why I’m here talking about this movie. Hugh saw me talking about the album, and that’s why I got the part. So it was taking the initiative to not wait for some movie, and just doing it. I always thought, if the right thing came along, I could go in through a side door and then make an album and feel more confident about it. But then COVID happened and I thought, I have to put my music out there.

Kate Hudson as Claire in Song Sung Blue.
Photo: Focus Features

What was it about COVID that made you feel ready?
When I started working, I got really lucky really quickly. Here I am at 21 years old, nominated for an Oscar, my career is taking off. This idea that I would go make an album or have a tour cycle was like, “Don’t break what’s not broken.” If I had an album that didn’t do well, at the time, it wouldn’t have been great.

And I was busy. My partner at the time, Chris Robinson, was a touring rock star. So it was just shoved to the side. It didn’t stop me from writing or wanting to do music. But as I got older and older, it started to feel further away. People would want me to get up and sing and stuff, and I started to get this fear. I never wanted to be a recording artist and sing other people’s music. It felt fraudulent — because I write. Not that I think people who do that are fraudulent, but my relationship to music was always from the inside.

During COVID, I looked at my career as a whole and asked myself if I was happy with my creative output. And I really wasn’t. I was like, I’m not doing the things I love. I haven’t been putting my writing out there, whether it be music or film. I haven’t been putting myself out there and risking that type of failure. If this is the end of all of our lives, well, that’s a bummer. And I’m going to regret this. There’s things I want to do and I’m going to do them, whether they’re successful or not. Next thing I know, I’m in a studio with Linda Perry and we’re writing an album.

And I just did something you’ll see soon. Somebody asked me the other day to write a song for something. It’s always been a big part of my personal life, just not my professional life.

How did this feeling of not being happy with your creative output apply to your film career?
The thing with film is if you’re not directing it, and it’s not your film, you have no control. You show up and do the best you can. You give everything and you hope you’re working with people who know how to translate that. But it doesn’t always work out. It could be everything on paper — a great director, a great part. But it doesn’t turn out great or have the reception you wanted. As an actor, I’ve known this my whole career. The work is where the joy is. The outcome, you never know.

This idea that everyone has the pick of the litter — I’m not sure people understand. You have to be desired to be in a role.

You’ve spoken a bit about how you feel like people didn’t see you for these somewhat grittier, darker parts.
Some people did. I did a movie with Sia called Music; I loved that movie. Nobody saw it. I did Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon. I do think if I hadn’t done Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon, Rian Johnson wouldn’t have hired me to do Glass Onion. Internally, these things matter. But publicly, I think, when people are betting for me on type, they bet on comedy and rom-com. I think every actor falls into a category, and mine just happens to be a cute, fun one. I get to have fun and be funny and cute. [Laughs] But it means you have to work harder at trying to establish other things.

After How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, you continued to do rom-coms for a good chunk of the 2000s. But you stopped for a while after 2016. Was there a specific moment when you felt like, I’m tired of doing comedies and rom-coms, and I want to swerve?
No. For me, it hasn’t all been about my career. I’m the epicenter of my children’s lives. Since I was 23, 24, I’ve been a mom. So if someone came to me and said, “Hey, we’re gonna do three months in Australia in September,” when I have two kids who are young and in school, there’s just no way I could have done that. That part of my life has always been my priority. And only when they got to a certain age did I feel more comfortable leaving them for certain periods of time.

Uh-oh. Something just went in my eye. I think one of those things of wasabi went in my eye.

You’re handling it so gracefully.
[Opens and closes her eyes vigorously and repeatedly] Okay, I think it’s done.

My biggest thing is that it’s hard to make a good comedy. It wasn’t about the genre. After a while for me, it was more about the taste. Why are they being made? People like the investment because they do very well for a short period of time, and then they kind of fall away. For me, the great rom-coms are the classics. Not the flash-in-the-pan stuff. So As Good As It Gets. You’ve Got Mail. Sleepless in Seattle. My mom in Private Benjamin. These are the movies you want to watch over and over.

How do you feel the genre has evolved since How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, which is absolutely one of the classics?
It still sends me really pretty checks, I’m not gonna lie. I’m like, whoa! The movie that lives on and on and on. I love it. Every generation discovers it. A 13-year-old little girl just came up to me who loves How to Lose a Guy. Just wild.

During that mid-aughts era of rom-coms, there were a lot of rom-coms getting made, but, as you said, some were sort of flashes in the pan. What kind of scripts were you getting over those years?
I think there are two versions of the rom-com formula. There’s the complex movie with great character development that has relevant themes attached to it and can sit in something that feels timeless and connect to the fundamental desire to find love. That’s very pure. And when you tap into that with great writing and great actors, you’ll make something that will last.

But then these movies become so successful that people think, We can do that. Same formula, same feeling, but less money, betting on newer talent. That’s a different version of what a rom-com is. They don’t take as much care. They just want the formula. And people still love them! The Hallmark version — the version that goes into these categories that feed a lot of people. That’s great. But those aren’t the movies I’m interested in making. And I don’t think they’re the same genre. I was just rewatching As Good As It Gets. And Pretty Woman! How great was that movie. And risky for the time. I mean, she’s a hooker! [Laughs]

Being inside of the genre as it evolved — what did it feel like? Would you get a script and think, This is really good, and it would turn out to not work? Or were the scripts of lesser quality?  
That moment for me was really my 20s and 30s. It’s not like I went in knowing what the hell I was doing. I was 22 when I did How to Lose a Guy. I was so young. I’d work with great directors who’d made really great films, and you trust them. And when you look back on the ones that had great success, or didn’t have great success, that’s when you can figure out, Where did this work and where did this not and why? That’s just a learned thing.

People saw your Glass Onion role as a return to comedic form for you. And with Song Sung Blue as well, there’s a narrative that this is a “comeback” Oscar for you. Do you see it that way?
Honestly? I don’t think about it. [Laughs] If that’s the narrative, great! But this isn’t a narrative that I created. So if somebody else feels that way and that’s how they see it, great, sure. What’s negative about it?

Do you see the Oscar nomination as something that cumulatively recognizes your career and body of work? Or does it feel really specifically about this role?
What I feel right now is a lot of love. From relationships that I’ve had for so long, over so many decades, and people who are excited for me. I can feel that warm reception. It’s a really nice feeling.

It’s been interesting for me to actually go back and look at all of these things and to think about them in that way. I’m only forced to reflect when I do press. I would never sit and ask myself these questions. I did this thing in Santa Barbara. They gave me the Arlington Award and they played all of these clips from my movies from 20 years ago. I got up to give my speech and I was like, “It’s so wild to actually see all of this in one sitting.” I have a thousand notes on my own performances. Like, “That was an interesting choice!” Because I don’t look back. I can share my process or what I’d like to see my life look like moving forward. But the truth is, as an actor, we’re constantly in progress. If you’re not, then you’re not really understanding what the craft’s all about. When I look back, I just see the beginnings of a career. And now it feels very far away. But to actually see the progression is really interesting.

Did you see Jay Kelly? What you’re saying reminds me of that movie’s final scene, where he’s watching all of his clips and getting emotional.
No! I didn’t see that one. It’s wild because you’re not just seeing the work. When I see those scenes or I look back on the films, I’m seeing all of the people that were there, how freezing I was, how uncomfortable I was. Remembering how I couldn’t get through that scene because I was laughing so hard. I’m seeing my life underneath it.

What was the most moving scene for you to watch during that retrospective?
The “what kind of beer” scene from Almost Famous. Cameron Crowe is such a great writer. Watching that again, the way John Toll, our cinematographer, shot it. Every time that scene comes on, I’m right back in that field. We were losing light. A very high-pressure day. I can feel all of it when I see it.

To me, that scene is really a perfect encapsulation of what you can do as an actor. The lightness balanced with the deep pain.
Cameron and I talk a lot about happy-sad. He writes about it in his book, The Uncool. Did you read it yet? It’s that magic. The essence of everything in life. The cusp of happy and sad existing at the same time. I live there. Cameron lives there. Certain people see the beauty and see how profoundly sad it is all at the same time. I choose to always go toward optimism, but I can really sit in how this existence, when you love so big, is so profoundly and deeply sad. Because it’s fleeting. And I feel that all the time. I think a lot of artists do.

But that’s the sweet spot for the kinds of movies that I like to make. The movies that, if done right, tear people’s hearts out. That scene is a Cameron Crowe happy-sad. It is classic Cameron Crowe. It’s great to be able to work with people who really see that.

I think we need another Kate Hudson–Cameron Crowe movie.
I know. It’s so funny because he’s my neighbor. We live next to each other, basically.

Do you hang out?
Yeah. He’s the best.

I was reading this old 2000 Vanity Fair profile of you, from around the time of Almost Famous. Do you remember it?
Oh my God.

You were at Chris Robinson’s apartment walking around in his Black Crowes T-shirt, and the writer was observing how your boobs kept popping out of the sides of your shirt as you talked. And you said, “I have no breasts anyway!”
[Laughs loudly] Oh my God. That’s so me. We lived in this Chelsea apartment, in what was basically a walk-up, because the elevator never worked. My ex-husband and I lived there when Chelsea had nothing. We had to walk ten blocks to get coffee. We used to get coffee at the strip club around the corner. I’d just poke my head in and be like, “Can I get a black coffee?” And they’d be like, “Sure.” That was an era. That’s so funny. I’m sure the writer was like, There was so much pot in there.

It sounded like a lot of fun.
I’m sure it was a mess, too. What was I thinking? I was 21.

You sounded madly in love.
Oh, we were. We were.

But I’m asking about it because there was a quote from Kurt Russell in it that I thought was really interesting. You said he told you you’d have four roles in your life as good as Penny Lane, if you were lucky. Looking back, what have they been so far?
Kurt has so much wisdom. Everyone’s like, “What kind of advice does your mom give you?” And I’m like, “My mom and I are not talking about our careers. We’re talking about all of the other things.” But Kurt, when it comes to perspective on this business, is so … like, thank God I have Kurt. He’s so honest about it. We have this joke in our family, like, if a movie does well, “Oh, well that’s another seven years of work!”

You just never know when it’s all gonna go horribly wrong. Kurt’s whole thing is like, “Put your head down. Do the work. Enjoy the process. Be a pro.” We don’t look at it like this is a one-way ticket to success. It was the opposite: Well, this could be a one-way ticket to a life of sadness, no money, and some free jobs, community theater. And yet it’s interesting that we’ve all had success. I think it’s because of that: Hone the craft. Respect it. Ask yourself why you love it. That’s really how I grew up. And his whole thing was, “You’re lucky if you get one, let alone four.”

What would you say those four have been for you?
I don’t like looking at it that way. Then it feels like I’m putting other people I loved working with down. But there have been seminal moments. Whether it be the success of something like Almost Famous, which completely changed my career. Bride Wars was, for me, the first and last time I produced, except for Running Point. There have been those things that have given me life in this business. To make a good living at it. To put my kids through private school. Very rarely have I had a disaster of an experience. And even then, I’m like, “Okay, life lessons!” I just observe how chaotic something is and try not to get swept up in the drama. I know it sounds maybe lame, but my own personal feeling is that every experience is giving you something.

What were some other seminal moments for you?
Working with James Ivory, Merchant Ivory, on Le Divorce. Naomi Watts and I had so much fun. That movie lives wherever it lives, okay? But that experience was one of my favorites.

The Skeleton Key, we had so much fun making that movie. Gena Rowlands! Peter Sarsgaard! Mitch Dubin is the camera operator who does all the Spielberg stuff — one of the greats in our business. I will never forget being in a week of night shoots and rain, and at one point, we’re both in this ditch in the dirt and mud. And I’m looking at Mitch’s face like, “This is the life!” Sitting there for what seemed like an eternity in pouring rain. You either love this about the job or you end up falling out of love. And I love it.

You said you talk about other stuff with your mom. What other stuff? I’m curious what you picked up from her comedically by just watching her versus talking to her about things?
Like any only girl with a thousand boys, we’re definitely co-dependent. But we’re very different actresses and our process is different. My mom is totally spontaneous. Incredibly instinctual. Brilliant. And I like to be spontaneous — I like the unpredictability of not knowing where something might go in comedy. But it’s definitely a different way of working. Kurt is actually more — when I would watch him when I was younger, I loved watching his process.

I got to watch a lot of people when I was younger. The fact that I got to witness the type of artists I did when I was growing up is just — talk about a master class, talk about opportunity. Your parents don’t get you jobs; that’s now how it works. The opportunity is: You grow up in this town, and you’re surrounded by people in the business, and you’re watching people be incredible at their craft. You take it and you honor it differently when you want to do it. If you don’t respect the craft, you’re risking all of these people you grew up with being like, “How does this person not respect it? What happened here?”

Who do you remember watching?
I remember watching Meryl on Death Becomes Her. I was a little girl, but old enough to really take in watching a master at her craft.

I’ll never forget watching Ron Howard direct Backdraft and how he commanded such an intense set in this big warehouse in Chicago. The last scene of the movie had tons of pyro. But watching Ron navigate that? I remember watching and thinking, If I ever direct, that’s how I’ll do it. It’s unbelievable to be able to have those experiences. Going into the business for me, the stakes felt higher. I didn’t want to let anybody down.

That’s a lot of pressure.
I know my kids are gonna end up doing it. If you have it in you, you can’t not do it. Ryder for sure. He loves it. But I hope I carry on to my kids, if they choose to be in the industry, the same love and respect as I understood it from my parents.

Were you on the set of First Wives Club? Do you have any memories of Diane Keaton?
Oh, yeah. Wait, when was First Wives Club? I feel like I was working in the city. But maybe I was in high school. Hey, Siri, what year was First Wives Club filmed? ’95. So I was in high school. But I came to set a couple of times. My mom had such a good time. Such a classic.