<\/p>\n
It\u2019s safe to say that there might not be a Kate Hudson<\/a><\/strong>if not for Almost Famous<\/em>. Though she had appeared in a few movies before starring in Cameron Crowe<\/strong>\u2019s semi-autobiographical film, her performance as Penny Lane<\/a> was the breakthrough that launched a career that\u2019s still going strong to this day.<\/p>\n And shockingly\u2014she almost didn\u2019t play the part. That\u2019s what she said while speaking with Entertainment Tonight.<\/em><\/p>\n After first marveling over Penny Lane \u201cand her coat!\u201d and the fact that Almost Famous <\/em>came out twenty-five years ago, Hudson, 46, said how she was initially cast as Anita, the sister to Patrick Fugit<\/strong>\u2019s character, aspiring rock journalist William Miller.<\/p>\n \u201cSarah Polley<\/strong> was supposed to play Penny Lane,\u201d said Hudson. Polley was a child actress, appearing in\u00a0The Adventures of Baron Munchausen\u00a0<\/em>and the Canadian series\u00a0Road to Avonlea<\/em>. In the late \u201890s, she had a career resurgence with roles in The Sweet Hereafter <\/em>and Go, <\/em>and her next big part was that of the groupie in love with Billy Crudup<\/strong>\u2019s character, rocker Russell Hammond.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBrad Pitt<\/strong> was supposed to play Russell,\u201d shared Hudson. \u201cAnd then, [he and Polley] fell through, and I was the only one cast.\u201d<\/p>\n Seeing an opportunity, Hudson decided to take her shot. \u201cI was like, \u2018Cameron, can I please audition for Penny Lane?\u2019 And he didn\u2019t really want it at first,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd then, like four auditions later, finally, he called me and was like, \u2018Want to be Penny Lane?\u2019 and I was like, \u2018Oh my god, yes!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The action proved beneficial <\/a>for everyone. Hudson\u2019s face on the Almost Famous <\/em>poster became one of the most iconic film posters of all time. The film was a critical success, earning four Academy Award nominations (including one for Hudson, as Best Supporting Actress). At the 2002 Golden Globes,\u00a0Almost Famous\u00a0<\/em>won the award for Best Motion Picture\u2014Musical or Comedy, and Hudson won the award for Best Supporting Actress.<\/p>\n \u201cAll of this was magic for me,\u201d she said, \u201cbecause it completely changed my life. I mean, it changed the whole trajectory of my career.<\/p>\n Hudson\u2019s profile would skyrocket after Almost Famous<\/em>, as she would star in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days<\/a>, You, Me and Dupree <\/em>and land a recurring role on Glee<\/em>. Most recently, she had a jaw-dropping role<\/a> in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery<\/em>, and later this year, she\u2019ll appear alongside Hugh Jackman <\/strong>in the Neil Diamond<\/strong>-themed musical biopic, Song Sung Blue.<\/em><\/p>\n Related: Kate Hudson Stuns Fans With Real-Life ‘Penny Lane’ Moment in Aspen<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n This story was originally reported by Parade<\/a> on Sep 14, 2025, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s safe to say that there might not be a Kate Hudsonif not for Almost Famous. Though she had appeared in a few movies before starring in Cameron Crowe\u2019s semi-autobiographical film, her performance as Penny Lane was the breakthrough that launched a career that\u2019s still going strong to this day. And shockingly\u2014she almost didn\u2019t play […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2022035,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[371061,343715,309934,332919,371792],"class_list":["post-2022034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-almost-famous","tag-cameron-crowe","tag-kate-hudson","tag-sarah-polley","tag-semi-autobiographical-film"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Kate-Hudson-Reveals-She-Almost-Didnt-Play-One-of-Her.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2022034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2022034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2022034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2022035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2022034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2022034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2022034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}