Kate Hudson posing on the SBIFF red carpet. (Jaesa Verdaguer / Daily Nexus)
In the late 1990s, actress Kate Hudson was set to attend New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts but deferred a year due to an acceptance at another university: “The University of Cameron Crowe,” as she called it.
That university — the set of the 1970’s-era film “Almost Famous” — launched Hudson’s career as an actress and secured her a spot in the Best Supporting Actress category at the 2001 Academy Awards. Now, 25 years later, Hudson is nominated for another Academy Award — this time Best Actress — for her role in “Song Sung Blue,” another film with music at the heart.
It is her performance as singer Claire Sardina, along with her prolific career in entertainment, that earned her the Arlington Artist of the Year Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF). On Feb. 13, Hudson sat down with Hollywood Reporter Executive Editor of Awards Scott Feinberg to reflect on her career.
In a red carpet interview with the Daily Nexus, Hudson spoke about her relationship with music, especially in light of her recent endeavors as a singer-songwriter.
“Music does become a soundtrack of our lives. For me, it’s been the most defining thing. Music in cinema is so important and I never want people to lose sight of that,” Hudson said.
Hudson grew up on movie sets, so there was never any hesitation to follow in her parents’ footsteps. For her, movie sets were places to be respected — they weren’t fancy or different, it was just where her parents worked.
“I was able to fall in love with film by actually watching the magic of how it is executed, not necessarily the dream of what it is on the screen. [It was] definitely a different perspective,” Hudson said.
While Hudson had acted in a few films prior, “Almost Famous” and her performance as Penny Lane was her breakthrough role. She wasn’t always supposed to be the magnanimous “Band-Aid” though: she was originally cast as the sister.
After convincing writer and director Crowe to let her audition for Lane, she gave “the most confident performance by nobody I’ve ever seen,” according to Walter Parkes, previous Head of Motion Pictures at Dreamworks. Crowe shared this quote with Feinberg ahead of the tribute event.
“Working with Cameron Crowe that young is like a masterclass of writer-director relationships. His writing is so specific to his tone,” Hudson said. “And so making Cameron’s writing feel effortless is actually very challenging. They’re like lyrics,” she continued.
Hudson has since been in serious relationships with three musicians, so perhaps she was always meant to play Lane.
After the whirlwind of “Almost Famous” and her first Academy Award nomination, Hudson remembered her mom telling her to soak it all in rather than jumping to the next role, despite Hudson wanting to take anything that came her way.
“My mom was always about purpose … Mom’s purpose, right? Like why, what’s the why? I love that about my mom, it’s very specific,” Hudson shared. Her mom’s mantra was the reason why she took three years to relish in “Almost Famous” before her next big role: “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.”
Romantic comedies are hard to get right, Hudson explained. While typically written off in comparison to dramas, romantic comedies are the films that audiences will always rewatch, and the ones that stay in people’s hearts longer — Andie Anderson and her yellow dress and “You’re So Vain” always come back.
“My thing with [romantic comedies] is that the great ones are the ones that are watched and rewatched. They’re the warm blankets. They’re the ones we go back to,” Hudson said. The same can be said about her 2004 film, “Raising Helen,” the first film where Hudson was directed by Garry Marshall, who also directed her mom.
Hudson waving to the Arlington Theatre audience. (Jaesa Verdaguer / Daily Nexus)
Hudson is most known for her career as an actress, but she told the audience that music has always been her first love.
“I always thought music would be something that I would do, but then I was like, ‘Okay, don’t fix what’s not broken.’ This idea of crossover careers could have been a kiss of death and you’re sort of warned against it,” Hudson shared.
Hudson had dabbled in singing in some of her past work, notably “Glee” and “Nine,” but never in the exact way she wanted. She wanted to write an album, but once she got married and had children, the idea began to fade. And then, when she, along with everyone else, was locked inside during the pandemic, her songwriting career bloomed and she wrote her first album, “Glorious.”
On her first true musical role in “Nine,” directed by Rob Marshall, and her first experience getting to sing and dance alongside acting, Hudson said, “When you have people who champion you, Rob Marshall is one of those people, it sort of gives you that boost of confidence. It does take having people believe in you to get there.”
Hudson’s newly emerged musicianship led her to roles in films like Sia’s “Music” and most recently, “Song Sung Blue,” where she plays one half of the Milwaukee-based Neil Diamond tribute band “Lightning & Thunder,” based on a true story.
Hudson was cast as Sardina after Hugh Jackman, who plays the other half of the Diamond duo, saw her on CBS Mornings talking about “Glorious” and recommended her to director and producer Craig Brewer. It was an immediate yes from Hudson.
Sardina and Hudson lived two very different lives, but their love of and passion for music fused them together in an unbreakable bond. Both being moms pursuing their true love later in life, their spirits are identical.
“When you have to make music or you have to sing, it eats away at you if you’re not doing it. I know what that feels like. I also know the joy that I feel when I’m singing,” Hudson said. “Watching [Sardina] is my favorite thing. She loves it so much and she sings with every ounce, every thing in her body… I can definitely relate to that part,” Hudson continued.
There is a video of the two of them talking on set, in director’s chairs, both of their heads thrown back in laughter. Hudson shared that seeing that video felt like seeing a mirror image of herself.
“I was clearly playing this girl in a movie,” Hudson laughed.
Following the discussion with Feinberg, Hudson’s longtime friend and fellow actress Gwyneth Paltrow presented the award.
In true Lane fashion, Hudson and Paltrow became friends in the early 2000s at Hudson’s “rockstar husband’s” show. Paltrow remembers Kate with her curly blonde hair doting lace and cutoffs, the starting point to the rest of their lives alongside each other.
“Kate is an extraordinary mother. Her kids are these beautiful, hilarious, very much themselves people. They’re really in their own skin and confident and kind and that’s the greatest gift you can give your children. That does not happen by accident,” Paltrow said.
Gwyneth Paltrow presenting Hudson with the award. (Jaesa Verdaguer / Daily Nexus)
Throughout the evening, it was clear Hudson’s children were at the center. Her first son traveled the world with her, and is now set to graduate from her would-have-been alma mater, NYU Tisch, in the spring. When she had her second son, she shared that everything got slightly more challenging, and Hudson wanted to be home as much as possible.
In her acceptance speech to the audience, Hudson thanked her children first and their patience for this whirlwind time in her life. She thanked the Santa Barbara community for its warm embrace of the arts and joked that all of her friends have moved to the area, so she might be next. She also thanked Sardina for living an extraordinary life.
Finally, Hudson thanked her parents — the reason why she does what she does.
“They instilled real confidence in me as a young woman. I think for young girls, especially when you’re self-assured and have confidence, people try to dim your light. They really taught me that my joy is a super power and that my optimism isn’t a weakness,” Hudson finished.
The 98th Academy Awards will take place on March 15, where Hudson is currently nominated for Best Actress.
This article appeared in the 2/19 print edition of the Daily Nexus
