“I think what happens is that when you become famous in something that people love to see you in, like a rom-com, that becomes the thing that people want to continue to put you in, bet on you with,” Kate Hudson contemplates.
Speaking to Exclaim! in front of a freshly decorated festive backdrop in her Los Angeles home, Hudson is quick to stress that it’s not that she doesn’t think Hollywood hasn’t given her a chance. She’s aware of the “many amazing opportunities” the industry has offered her, but her early success in films like How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, placed her in a particular box with casting directors.
She laments how, after achieving a certain degree of fame for playing a certain type of character, it’s difficult for audiences to allow her to “disappear into something like Claire.”
Hudson is referring to Claire Sardina (a real-life entertainer, best known for being half of Lightning and Thunder, a Neil Diamond tribute act with her late husband Mike), the latest role for the actor in Song Sung Blue, which has already earned Hudson a Golden Globe nomination.
Claire represents a departure from the characters we typically associate with Hudson. Switching out Hollywood glam for Midwest flair, Claire also faced severe challenges in life, notably when she lost her leg after a tragic car accident. The accident left her in a dark place, battling depression and a dependency on pain killers.
It’s a career-best performance for Hudson. Her ability to harness Claire’s pain in a story about resilience, love and joy shows us a Kate Hudson we haven’t seen since her Oscar-nominated turn in Almost Famous, 25 years ago.
“For something like this, you have to get really intimate. You have to get close. We had an incredible crew that was right in there with us,” Hudson recalls. “The scenes in the bed for me, that bedroom — we’re honouring not only Claire’s life, but people who suffer [from addiction].”
Hudson acknowledges that being an artist means, “you unfortunately have many people that you’ve lost to addiction. I’ve had many experiences with friends, family that have struggled. As much as I wish it felt super far away, it doesn’t.”
The time spent in Claire’s bedroom form some of the most heartbreaking moments in the film. With Hudson’s Claire inconsolable in her grief and Mike, played by Hugh Jackman, desperate to find a way through to his wife, those scenes are palpable in their agony.
“You have to honour the character as you would honour yourself,” Hudson says thoughtfully.
In filming those particular moments, director Craig Brewer took a hands-off approach. Having known Hudson for 20 years, Brewer understood completely what this role meant for the actor, and respected it, especially in the more challenging parts of the film.
“I knew that I had Kate in a position and in a place in her life and in her artistry where she wanted to give me her all,” Brewer shares over Zoom.
He continues, “I just wanted to be a net for her up on that tightrope. And so a lot of those scenes, I would come up and whisper to her and just give her encouragement. I wouldn’t give an adjustment. I would just say, ‘You’re doing right by her right now, Kate, so just proceed with some confidence and give me one more, if you wouldn’t mind.’ “
Although they’d first met many years ago when Hudson’s first son was still a toddler, Brewer hadn’t seen her in awhile and was slightly taken aback when he watched her do an interview on CBS last year promoting her debut album, Glorious.
“She started to tear up because she was dealing with the fact that her her son was going off to college,” Brewer remembers. It caused him to pause and think, “Wait, that can’t be right. He’s going off to college? Time really went by in such a quick way.”
Seeing Hudson discuss this new phase of motherhood lit a lightbulb over Brewer’s head as he had been, as luck would have it, searching for his Claire. “I am looking at Kate as older and, at the same time, much more relatable to the kind of stories that I want to tell right now,” he says.
Brewer adds, “Song Sung Blue [is] really a story about, ‘Well, am I over? Can I really go after the things that I really want in life?’ Whether it be love or a new family, or the dream of doing music and going out and playing in bars and venues.”
Claire, Song Sung Blue and Glorious represent the beginning of a new season in Hudson’s career, proving that she can go after what she really wants in life, just as the Sardinas had.
Even through a computer screen, it’s obvious how excited Hudson feels at the glowing reception towards Song Sung Blue, which will be in theatres on Christmas Day.
She recalls starring in Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon four years ago as Bonnie Belle, a stripper who attempts to exploit the telepathic powers of a young woman she encounters. “I loved making it with Ana Lily Amirpour and I got to disappear into Bonnie, but nobody really saw that movie,” she says with a laugh.
Perhaps because she saw her parents’ careers up-close as a young girl, she has a more clear-eyed, realistic perspective of how art and commerce need to co-exist, and so she doesn’t take for granted the early buzz around her performance in Song Sung Blue.
“This movie was able to hit almost every thing that I love to do. I get to sing, I get to be joyful, and then I get to sink into something that is incredibly challenging, and show different sides of myself as an actor. What a joy to be able to incorporate the things that I love the most all in one,” she says. “And for people to really be loving it — it just feels amazing.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source exclaim.ca ’
