released a debut album<\/a> after hesitating about it forever. How much has that changed your life?
It was maybe the best decision I\u2019ve ever made. The latter half of my life, it\u2019s that moment where you actually look at what you\u2019re putting out creatively and if you\u2019re satisfied with it, and [ask] as a creative, \u201cAm I happy with everything I\u2019ve left if I died today?\u201d My answer was a big no. Not that I haven\u2019t done things that I\u2019m proud of, but I didn\u2019t feel like my output was as authentic or honest as it could be.\u2026 \u200aI was shocked at what came back at me [after the album]. I was not expecting women to come up to me and be like, \u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to do this thing in my forties. And you doing this makes me feel like I can do anything I want.\u201d I feel like I\u2019m just getting started.<\/p>\n\n\tBetween you and Hugh Jackman, who loves singing more? Or is it a tie?
[Laughs.] It\u2019s definitely a tie. I feel like I\u2019d be dead without it. I really do. \u2019Cause I could sing by myself. I could sing with three people in a room. It\u2019s my happy place. And Hugh\u2019s the same. But Hugh has this enormous generosity of spirit when I am performing with him. He\u2019s way more connected to the audience and engaged in bringing them in. I, like, get weird in my head. It\u2019s so nice to perform with him because, by the end of a show, he\u2019ll know everybody\u2019s name in the front row. It\u2019s so funny.<\/p>\n
\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n
\n\tHow important is it to you to step out of romantic-comedy roles?
I \u200adon\u2019t get these opportunities often. People get used to seeing you a certain way and they want to see you a certain way, and I love that. But I became a performer to do all kinds of different things.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhen you say you love that \u2014 do you really?
I do! Because I love comedy. People think that it\u2019s easy because it feels effortless. The reality is it actually takes a lot more effort and intelligence about the craft then it is given credit. So I love making movies like that. The problem is that [studios] don\u2019t invest in them like they used to, and it\u2019s really hard to make good ones.\u200aIt\u2019s almost like you\u2019d rather be in an indie movie with no pressure than a big rom-com where there\u2019s a lot of pressure and expectation, business-wise. It\u2019s been my blessing, and also the thing that boxes you in.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tYour Song Sung Blue character experiences a horrible trauma and then a breakdown. How do you tackle that emotional work?
I \u200adon\u2019t know where those things come from. It almost feels like channeling. It almost feels out-of-body. I asked Neil Diamond, \u201cWhat\u2019s your favorite song you\u2019ve ever written?\u201d And he said, \u201c\u2018I Am \u2026 I Said,\u2019 because I was having all these conflicting moments in my life. I was having a hard time writing this song, and all of a sudden it just channeled.\u201d I feel that way about performing. You just have to go there and allow something to happen.<\/p>\n
\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n
\n\tIt\u2019s also nice to remember that tragedy is something that we all experience. No matter what. There was a great guru who said, \u201cPeople live in this anxiety of \u2018something bad\u2019s gonna happen.’\u201d And he said, \u201cTragedy is imminent.\u201d We all experience some form of tragedy at some point in our lives. The hard part is joy. The hard thing is actually [figuring out] how to live here and now, so that when you get to the tragic part, you actually had great life experience. And I think that\u2019s the essence of this movie. <\/p>\n
\n\tThere are so many themes, but one of them is this idea that lightning can strike twice. What are we doing if we\u2019re not doing everything that we love? To live in fear is no life at all. What is it to love something so much that it doesn\u2019t matter where you\u2019re doing it, but that you\u2019re living your dream? Or what is it to actually love someone so much that you can stick through all of it with them?<\/p>\n
\n\tWhat was your initial reaction when you realized the dark turn the story takes?
Definitely anxiety, meaning that it could go in a different direction if it\u2019s not executed to exactly what you read in the script. The script was wonderful, but it could have gone the other direction. You\u2019ve got accents and Eighties sequins. And really at the heart of it is this love story that, if you don\u2019t believe it, the movie doesn\u2019t work. And that was my biggest thing \u2014 I knew I could deliver the goods. I believe in myself enough that I could deliver what was on the page. What you can\u2019t know is the chemistry. And this movie wouldn\u2019t be a movie if Hugh and I didn\u2019t have a real intimate connection.<\/p>\n
What did it take to get there with Hugh?
When I met Hugh, I said to him, \u201cI\u2019m super tactile. I really feel like we need to get close. And if we don\u2019t work, the movie\u2019s not gonna work. And just let me know when you feel uncomfortable.\u201d But it was immediate. It was like I\u2019d been married to him for years. And I don\u2019t know what that is. I don\u2019t know why that happens or if it\u2019s like something outside of ourselves. But it was so wonderful immediately, and I felt so much love for him and I think vice versa. Everything came together at the perfect time for us on this movie. So we had this closeness that hopefully came across.<\/p>\n
\n\tYou mentioned talking to Neil Diamond in the context of this project. What was that like?
I actually talked to him after. I grew up in Colorado, and he lives like 10 minutes from where I grew up. I go home all the time, and I called [once] and was like, \u201cIs Neil here?\u201d Because I\u2019ve never met him. And he was so excited, and Katie, his wife, was like, \u201cPlease come over.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\tWe just sat on his porch and had the best day. It was after we made the movie, and he had seen it, and I just felt very lucky. He was so grateful for this movie. He said, \u201cI don\u2019t know what it is about my music, but every decade or so something brings it back to life.\u201d He was so thankful to [director] Craig [Brewer] and all of us for doing the movie. It really made me very emotional being with Neil, because he\u2019s decided to retire and he\u2019s living a very quiet life there. And we just sat and had lemonade on the porch.<\/p>\n
How well did you know his music before this?
I didn\u2019t know his music very well. I know all the big stuff, of course. Everyone\u2019s a fan of all the [songs] that you know. But I\u2019d never really gotten into his music. And then when we got this movie, I immediately went into all of his stuff. He\u2019s so prolific and his music has so much love. It\u2019s so joyous and connective. Then he has these songs like \u201cBeen Here Before,\u201d the one I sing at the end of the movie. And I\u2019m like, \u201cWhere did this song come from?\u201d So through this process I became a giant Neil Diamond fan. And then I met him and on top of it, he\u2019s a great guy.<\/p>\n
\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n
\n\tYou have concert scenes with an actor playing a young Eddie Vedder in the new movie. As someone who lived through that era as a huge music fan, did that feel weird?
So weird. I would\u2019ve been in the audience as a teenager [at the time]. Nineties in high school was the best. I also had moments where I would sit in our [characters\u2019] house and I\u2019d look at the television set and I was like, \u201cGod, it was so nice to sit around a sofa and watch one program.\u201d It was so much simpler.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tWhat\u2019s going on with your next album?
The last time it was really important that it was super homegrown. And now I\u2019ve been writing with a lot of different people, which has been really interesting and really fun for me. I [also] really like writing alone. I watched Deliver Me From Nowhere, and as a writer, I really had a real emotional experience. I love Nebraska so much. I do know that I have a ton of music. I have one song that\u2019s like Nineties Janet Jackson, and a little Prince. I look forward to putting music out, which will be probably next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"W hen Kate Hudson finally released a debut album in 2024 after years of hesitation, it launched the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366793,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,10797,37511,341,114118,114119],"class_list":{"0":"post-366792","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-hugh-jackman","12":"tag-kate-hudson","13":"tag-music","14":"tag-neil-diamond","15":"tag-song-sung-blue"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}