Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is Fresh Air. I'm Tanya Mosley, and today my guest is Kate Hudson. She's up for an Oscar for her role as Claire in the film Song, Song Blue, starring opposite Hugh Jackman as one half of Lightning and Thunder, a Neil Diamond tribute band. Here they are together, singing Neil Diamond's 1971 hit, Solomon.
Take my hand, sweet Lord Walk with me this day
If folks could see, you just started singing as you were listening to yourself.
It's such a joyous song.
Chapter 2: What motivated Kate Hudson to pursue music alongside acting?
Yeah, yeah.
Kate Hudson landed the role of Claire Sardina after Hugh Jackman first saw her sing on CBS Sunday Morning. He had already committed to the movie, and he was so taken by her performance that he texted director Craig Brewer and said, I think I just found your Claire. She was on TV promoting her debut album, Glorious, which she began writing during the pandemic.
And while Hudson is primarily known for her acting, as I was preparing for this interview, I was struck by just how often she's used her voice over the years, singing on screen in Nine, performing Cinema Italiano, and on television in Glee, where she played the demanding dance instructor, Cassandra July.
This latest Oscar nomination for Best Actress comes 25 years after she first earned a nod for playing Penny Lane in Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous. From there, she became one of the most recognizable romantic comedy stars in the 2000s. starring in films like How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and Bride Wars.
Most recently, she starred in the Knives Out sequel Glass Onion and the Netflix series Running Point about a woman who inherits ownership of a professional basketball team. The show has been picked up for a second season. And Kate Hudson, welcome to Fresh Air and congratulations on your Oscar nomination.
Thank you. It's nice to be here. I look forward to our conversation.
Yes. Well, I just had a chance to look at this Oscar nomination luncheon. Yes. Where all of you all are awesome. on bleachers and it's like a class photo, it's almost like a graduation.
It is. It is. I remember it the first time. It's actually one of my favorite experiences because I remember the first time feeling like, oh, you know, we all got to be in one room and it's really just a bunch of people who love to make movies.
Mm-hmm.
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Chapter 3: How did Kate Hudson land her Oscar-nominated role in Song Sung Blue?
The other day, it was, well, they call it a sober birthday.
Happy belated sober birthday.
Here's the thing. With sobriety, you've got to face up to certain truths.
Way to go. Lightning, 20 years. All right, I'm not a songwriter. I'm not a sex symbol, but I just want to entertain people, and I want to make a living. I know, me too. I don't want to be a hairdresser. I want to sing. I want to dance. I want a house. I want a garden. I want a cat. So here's what I'm thinking. I need something big. I need something new. And as you put it, nostalgia pays.
That was my guest, Kate Hudson, with Hugh Jackman in the film Song, Song Blue. What was it about Claire's arc that you felt you understood?
Well, I think part of what's fun about what we get to do is that there's some things we don't understand, and we have to delve into it and... try to portray something that seems further away from your real life than maybe other people would think. It's like there's not much about Claire's life that I really would personally be able to understand.
The one thing that I do understand about Claire is her longing for love and family, her strong desire for community, and her love of music and her love of singing. And performing.
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Chapter 4: What insights does Kate Hudson share about her experience on Almost Famous?
Everything else became about honoring her story and really trying to, you know, portray that as successfully as I could and respectfully.
She has ups and downs, but I mean, she... She really, there's a moment where she actually loses her leg. And so you had to learn how to kind of move even your body with the idea of wearing a prosthetic. She deals with depression, ups and downs, all of those things as well. Addiction. Addiction as well. You chose not to meet with the real Claire.
And I wondered, is there something that gets in the way of being able to explore those parts of her by not meeting her?
I chose not to research her personally, right? So I have met Claire, and I've spent time with Claire, and she's amazing, and I love her, and it was great. So when we started filming, I did spend some time with her. But in the beginning, it was important for me and for Craig that, you know, Craig's story— Craig Brewer, the director. Craig Brewer, the director.
We're making this film that is an adaptation of the documentary— And he took eight years of their life, consolidated into two. And my job as an actor is to give Craig the movie he wants. His relationship to Claire and the family is the intimate one. And for me, I think it would distract me from being able to give Craig what he needed.
You know, I didn't want to challenge him because I had spent so much time with Claire. I want to trust my director and what his vision is for his version of their life story. And then Claire sort of came to set, and then we got to meet each other and hang out, and I'd already done all of the work, you know.
And getting to know Claire after that became the validation that we were— That you were on the right track.
On the right track, yeah.
Yeah.
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Chapter 5: How does Kate Hudson balance motherhood and her career?
Right? So I got to play the comedy, some sense of humor. I got to play the love, the love story, the desire. I got to play being a mother. And then I got to go into a place of... where my life force is taken out of me, you know?
And what that complication is as a mother to not want to be present or exist or live to be under the throes of addiction and living with intense shame and then trying to fight your way out of it. It's like... Very, very rare. So everything attracted me to that project.
The scary thing is, is that then you risk, because this movie isn't one dimensional, it doesn't hit you over the head with one thing. it has to walk a line. Those kinds of movies are so hard to execute because they risk being too earnest or too sentimental, or they risk not being truthful enough in stories of addiction or depression.
How do you make a entertaining, life-affirming story about such an intense struggle of someone's life? So when you can hit the sweet spot, these are the types of movies, I think, that live forever.
You know, Kate, in the intro, I mentioned that Hugh Jackman saw you singing on CBS Sunday Morning. And I know you taking on this role, the story is much more complicated than that. The fact that he saw you and then text it to Craig Brewer, the director, I think I just found your Claire. Had anyone in the industry ever chosen you for your voice before that moment?
You know, I think Hugh, it wasn't about my voice as much as it is about what I was talking about. And what I was saying was talking about why I had to make an album. And Hugh, to speak for Hugh, you know, he would reiterate, when he saw it, I was talking about my kids. I was talking about COVID and what happened when I was sort of reflecting on if I was going to die.
Am I happy with my creative output? I'm very happy with myself as a mother. I feel like I've made all the right mistakes and all the wrong mistakes. I feel like I've been really great when it comes to parenting.
I'll tell you, Kate, it's so refreshing to meet a woman who says that because... Don't we so often, like, we're always stopping for a moment to say, I'm not sure if I was a great mom.
Yeah.
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