Kate Hudson was 21 years old when her endearing performance as “band aid” Penny Lane in Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous earned her Oscar, Bafta and SAG nominations and a Golden Globe. Now 46, the actress, producer and recording artist – up for another Oscar and Bafta for her performance opposite Hugh Jackman in Craig Brewer’s Song Sung Blue – reveals the quarter century since that formative experience “feels like a thousand lifetimes”.
“People go, ‘Life moves so fast,’ but I don’t feel that way,” she says. “I’ve done so much in 25 years – with children, business, movies and music – that I feel full. I love to reflect, but I don’t long for the past and I don’t look back very often. So when you’re in a moment like this and in a movie people love enough to be in this conversation, I’m going to soak up every second of it.”
Since Song Sung Blue’s premiere at AFI Fest last October, there has been much to soak up for Brewer’s affectionate portrait of a real-life couple, Mike and Claire Sardina, who formed a Neil Diamond tribute act in 1990s Milwaukee. A Christmas Day launch in North America via Focus Features and an international rollout via Universal has seen the film gross a robust $52.2m at time of writing. And Hudson has been rewarded with a swathe of nominations that also includes SAG-AFTRA’s Actor Awards.
Sharing its title with both a 1972 Diamond song and a 2008 documentary about the Sardinas by filmmaker Greg Kohs, Song Sung Blue sees Jackman and Hudson perform a wide selection of the musician’s compositions in a film that blends heartfelt romance with period kitsch. Its fact-based storyline also contains some dramatic incidents that will come as a surprise to those unfamiliar with its subjects’ histories. Readers who have yet to view the film may therefore wish to do so before continuing.
Under the moniker Lightning & Thunder, Vietnam vet Mike and single mother Claire cultivated a degree of fandom in their native Wisconsin with their spirited Diamond covers. But their lives were upended in 1999 when Claire was mowed down by an out-of-control car in her own front garden, an accident that cost her a foot and left her with severe depression. Mike, whom Claire married in 1994, had struggles of his own with alcohol and heart issues, and would eventually die of a head injury in 2006. Small wonder Hudson was struck by Brewer’s script when it was initially brought to her attention, at a time when the project had yet to be greenlit by Focus Features.
“My agent slipped it to me, as they say, because she wanted to put it on our radar,” recalls the actress. “I couldn’t believe it was a real story and that all these things actually happened to this couple.” However, a year or more would pass before an offer to play Claire materialised, thanks in part to an appearance on a morning show watched by both Brewer and Jackman.
“Hugh saw me on a show and felt I was right for the part,” reveals Hudson. “I was like, ‘Well, I hope this works out because it would allow me to do a lot of things I haven’t been able to do, and all in one character.’”
For all her success in comedies such as How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days, Bride Wars (which she also produced) and You, Me And Dupree, it is fair to say Hudson, like her mother Goldie Hawn before her, has had limited occasions to make an impact in a dramatic role or vehicle. Song Sung Blue presented an opportunity to rectify that, provided of course she was able to do its inspiration justice.
“This is someone who went through a lot of challenges, had a tragic accident and then suffered mental health issues,” she reflects. “I felt an enormous responsibility to her and I carried the weight of that throughout the process.”
Having Jackman by her side helped to lighten that load in what – bar a previous encounter in a workshop for an unproduced stage musical – would mark their first collaboration. “In any love story one performance doesn’t exist without the other, so getting to know Hugh was the biggest thing for me,” says Hudson. “The first thing we did was record the music, so figuring out the harmonies and the duets was a great way for us to be open and intimate and trusting.”
Support network
A two-month shoot in late 2024 – under the working title Denim And Diamonds – saw locations in New Jersey fill in for Milwaukee and the likes of Jim Belushi, Fisher Stevens and Michael Imperioli swell the cast in humorous supporting roles. It would also see Brewer reunited with Amy Vincent, director of photography on his earlier films Hustle & Flow, Black Snake Moan and 2011’s Footloose.
“I had never worked with a female DoP before so as a woman I felt very safe,” says Hudson. “Amy understood the vulnerabilities in certain moments in a way that made me feel she had my back.”
A moment that springs readily to mind is a scene after Claire’s accident where she momentarily forgets she is an amputee and falls painfully out of her bed. “It was not only one of the saddest things in the script but also a big character shift,” explains Hudson. “What is it like to rebalance your brain and equilibrium and understand an entirely new way to walk? So much of what we do as actors is physicality and movement. You learn and learn it until it becomes second nature, just as you would a dance.”
Song Sung Blue continues what has been a comeback of sorts for its star, coming after her 2024 debut album Glorious and the first season of sports-based Netflix comedy series Running Point, which she executive produces. After 30 years in her industry, though, Hudson has learned to regard success and failure with the same sunny equanimity.
“There are so many tumultuous and unpredictable things about being an artist in this business,” says the multi-hyphenate, who previously wrote and directed 2007 short Cutlass, starring Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning, and has aspirations to move behind the camera on entering “the back half” of her career. “I hope this film allows me more opportunities to do completely different characters.”