What does one do on the morning of the Academy Award nominations? Wake up early? Try to sleep in? Wait for your publicist to call?
Having returned home late from a friend’s dinner the night before, Kate Hudson debated the best course of action ahead of last month’s nominations — before deciding she needed to wake up and hear the news either way.
“It’s been such a ride,” she says. “I wanted to be able to go back to sleep knowing that this part is over. Or I wanted to just wake up and celebrate and be tired. You prepare yourself for everything. But you just feel completely unprepared for when your name is called.”
Hudson’s lead actress Oscar nomination for her turn as Claire Sardina in “Song Sung Blue” is the culmination of an incredible awards season, in which she’s also been nominated for a Golden Globe, an Actor Award and a BAFTA. Based on a true story, the movie follows Claire and her husband, Mike (Hugh Jackman), who headlined the popular Milwaukee-based Neil Diamond cover band Lightning & Thunder in the 1980s and ’90s.
The honor comes 25 years after Hudson received her first and only previous Oscar nod for playing Penny Lane in her breakthrough role in “Almost Famous.” And although she’s had a slew of successes in the interim — including the now-classic rom-com “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” and other hit movies; Netflix’s Lakers-inspired comedy series “Running Point,” currently in postproduction on its second season; and the popular podcast “Sibling Revelry,” which she hosts with brother Oliver Hudson — it can sometimes seem that we’ve underappreciated, and perhaps underestimated, Kate Hudson.
But for her, being recognized for “Song Sung Blue” isn’t some long-awaited vindication. As always, it’s about the work.
“When you’re acting, all you want to do are the things that stretch you, that are exciting,” she says. “You have these opportunities that come, and they don’t come very often, and so you get excited by that process. I don’t think you look from the outside in and say, ‘I always knew I could do this.’ It’s more, my drive is to continue doing this. It’s more, when you look into a horizon and you’re like, ‘Oh, that looks interesting. I wonder what that’s gonna be?’ versus, ‘I’m gonna do that and I’m gonna be good at that.’”
So the most rewarding part of the movie is not the possibility of adding trophies to her decor, but rather how complex and layered Claire is, who during the course of the movie survives a tragic accident. The role provided Hudson with “so many wonderful things to soak in and perform.”
“There was no one note,” she says of her onscreen alter ego. “There were 10. Everything mattered. The process was really extensive, which is something that I long to do all the time. But it doesn’t happen very often that you get to play so many different things in one movie. That’s our drug as an artist. It mattered that I got this right. There was a personal stake attached to it for me, which was not wanting to let Claire down and wanting to honor her life experience.”
While much of the industry has transformed in the 25 years between Hudson’s Oscar nominations, much has also stayed the same. “It hasn’t changed so drastically that it feels like it’s a different world,” she says. “The soul of our industry is very present. I was talking about this with Ethan Hawke [who is nominated for his turn in ‘Blue Moon’]. We’ve been having so much fun with this. We love it. And it’s nice when you’ve been doing it for so long and then you’re in the conversation and you still just love it and enjoy it.”
Did she have a hint when filming “Song Sung Blue” that it could become a career-defining moment for her? “I don’t ever get that far outside of myself,” she says. “The goal is really just to make the best version of something that you love, and then walk away from it and hope that you’ve created something that ends up translating.”
“Song Sung Blue” also marked the first time, since becoming a mother, that she was able to leave her children for an extended period to film a movie. “I feel so lucky right now. My kids are a bit older and I can really get into my creative space,” she says, before adding with a laugh, “I don’t have any more strollers in my house. It’s a whole new world.”
As is her nature, Hudson talks openly and honestly about how being a mother has intertwined with her career. “Mothering doesn’t stop,” she says. “I remember being in a meeting with my dad. Within this meeting I had two phone calls, one from the school and one from someone else asking me a question about my kids. And I had to take these calls because I’m the epicenter. And my dad looked at me and he goes, ‘I don’t know what that’s like.’ I loved that he said that. He was so proud. And also like, ‘Wow, I wouldn’t know what that is, as a man.’”
Being able to celebrate this moment with her family, including her parents Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, is the “cherry on top” to the entire awards season for Hudson. There are not that many mother-daughter pairs who can both boast Oscar nods. “I honor that so deeply,” she says. “My mom’s 80 years old. She’s had a phenomenal career. She’s my No. 1 best friend in the world. Even though I’ve had a different type of career and we’re very different actresses, that’s my mommy and I learned from her first. So there’s something about being in the same industry and being able to celebrate each other in these moments that becomes even more meaningful because it’s understood differently.”
Hudson has never shied away from being the daughter of famous parents. “To pretend that’s not a huge part of my life would be dishonest,” she says. “It would be irresponsible to say that there isn’t an opportunity that comes from growing up in this town. The difference is if you take it for granted or if you honor it. I see where I had the opportunity and where that privilege comes from. But I also don’t discount how much work needs to go into getting to where [I am]. It doesn’t just happen. It’s something you have to create.”
She particularly credits her parents with the work ethic they instilled in her from a young age to have respect for the craft and the job. “You don’t just show up and think you’re gonna become an actor. You have to take it seriously. My dad always said put your head down and you just do the work. You just just keep plugging away.”
That perspective also helps her see this experience as having a bigger purpose than just her nomination. “It really feels special to be a part of the community this year that’s talking about the importance of celebrating cinema in the theater and how much we need to be saving this industry and nurturing it,” she says. “We have to protect it or else we lose the art form.”
After the hubbub abates, Hudson says the hardest part will be knowing that it will be time to say goodbye to the character and the movie. “It’s the saddest goodbye because you really love a character, and then that moment marks the real letting go of that experience,” she says. “It’s really like sending your kids to college. You’re like, well, now it just lives. It lives without me having to support it. That makes it really emotional. Win or lose, you know?”
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