{"id":2213049,"date":"2025-12-26T17:53:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T17:53:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2213049"},"modified":"2025-12-26T17:53:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T17:53:21","slug":"jackman-hudson-tell-neil-diamond-impersonators-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/jackman-hudson-tell-neil-diamond-impersonators-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Jackman, Hudson tell Neil Diamond impersonators’ story"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n Bruce R. Miller
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Hugh Jackman has played real performers before\u00a0\u2014 Peter Allen in \u201cThe Boy from Oz\u201d comes to mind. But portraying someone who mimicked someone famous? That was a new challenge.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cYou don\u2019t have that constant thing of everyone going, \u2018Yeah, no, that wasn\u2019t him,\u2019\u201d Jackman says. \u201cWhen you\u2019re playing someone who\u2019s very well known, the risk becomes sort of more of a mimic than something that feels super honest.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Hugh Jackman, left, and Kate Hudson, star as a Neil Diamond tribute act in\u00a0in “Song Sung Blue.”<\/p>\n

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The Tony- and Emmy-winner got the opportunity to test his skills in \u201cSong Sung Blue,\u201d the story of Mike Sardina, a Neil Diamond impersonator. A hit on the bar and fair circuit, Sardina created an act with his wife, Claire. Formerly a Patsy Cline impersonator, she joined him as \u201cThunder\u201d in their \u201cLightning and Thunder\u201d act.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The two were determined to get to Las Vegas, and then tragedy struck\u00a0\u2014 Claire lost a foot and part of her leg when a car crashed onto their lawn. Mike continued to perform, but without Claire. Eventually, he got her back on stage, and the two attracted the attention of the real Neil Diamond. The film builds to the potential meeting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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People are also reading\u2026<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n
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Hugh Jackman, left, and Kate Hudson play married musicians Mike and Claire Sardina in “Song Sung Blue.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Because most filmgoers aren\u2019t familiar with Sardina, they won\u2019t look for distinct quirks. Allen, however, required a freedom of sorts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cHis essence was the crazy, \u2018anything could happen\u2019 joy of entertaining live,\u201d Jackman says. \u201cThe same for Mike. That\u2019s the essence of the character \u2014 and that\u2019s what you want.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Claire, their children and other family members were on the set when \u201cSong Sung Blue\u201d was filmed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThey were so happy, so thrilled,\u201d says Kate Hudson, who plays Claire. \u201cThey feel like we really took care of their story.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Kate Hudson, left, and Hugh Jackman in “Song Sung Blue.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Hudson leans into Claire\u2019s Wisconsin accent and studied the 2008 documentary (also named \u201cSong Sung Blue\u201d) that followed the couple. She worked with Jackman\u2019s dialect coach, too, to approximate the Wisconsin accent. \u201cHe was amazing,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cHe made sure we sounded like we\u2019re from the same family,\u201d Jackman says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt became sort of a blend,\u201d Hudson says of the accent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Hugh Jackman, left, and Kate Hudson play married musicians Mike and Claire Sardina in “Song Sung Blue.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Jackman says the film works because it\u2019s the story of people holding on to their dreams but still struggling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWhen you see them in the documentary turning on the gas stove, and you realize it\u2019s not for cooking but for heat in the house, you just go, \u2018God bless them,” Jackman said. “They\u2019re still holding on to that ‘wanting to entertain’ dream.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Hudson, who released an album, \u201cGlorious,\u201d last year, loved impersonating Patsy Cline in \u201cSong Sung Blue,\u201d and says she\u2019s eyeing the Dusty Springfield story as one she could put on film. \u201cHer story is really amazing,\u201d she says. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to twist my arm to want to sing. I love it so much.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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And Claire, her latest character? Already the raves are in. The real Claire Sardina, Hudson says, is \u201cover the moon.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cSong Sung Blue\u201d is in theaters<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Stay up-to-date on what’s happening<\/h2>\n

Receive the latest in local entertainment news in your inbox weekly!<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/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 tucson.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bruce R. Miller Lee Enterprises Hugh Jackman has played real performers before\u00a0\u2014 Peter Allen in \u201cThe Boy from Oz\u201d comes to mind. But portraying someone who mimicked someone famous? That was a new challenge. \u201cYou don\u2019t have that constant thing of everyone going, \u2018Yeah, no, that wasn\u2019t him,\u2019\u201d Jackman says. \u201cWhen you\u2019re playing someone who\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2213050,"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":[398917,420785],"class_list":["post-2213049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-dcc","tag-lee-national"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Jackman-Hudson-tell-Neil-Diamond-impersonators-story.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2213049","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=2213049"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2213049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2213051,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2213049\/revisions\/2213051"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2213050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2213049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2213049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2213049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}