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Kate Hudson was 21 years old when her endearing performance as \u201cband aid\u201d Penny Lane in Cameron Crowe\u2019s Almost Famous earned her Oscar, Bafta and SAG nominations and a Golden Globe. Now 46, the actress, producer and recording artist \u2013 up for another Oscar and Bafta for her performance opposite Hugh Jackman in Craig Brewer\u2019s Song Sung Blue \u2013 reveals the quarter century since that formative experience \u201cfeels like a thousand lifetimes\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople go, \u2018Life moves so fast,\u2019 but I don\u2019t feel that way,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve done so much in 25 years \u2013 with children, business, movies and music \u2013 that I feel full. I love to reflect, but I don\u2019t long for the past and I don\u2019t look back very often. So when you\u2019re in a moment like this and in a movie people love enough to be in this conversation, I\u2019m going to soak up every second of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since Song Sung Blue\u2019s premiere at AFI Fest last October, there has been much to soak up for Brewer\u2019s 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\u2019s Actor Awards.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s 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\u2019 histories. Readers who have yet to view the film may therefore wish to do so before continuing.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s script when it was initially brought to her attention, at a time when the project had yet to be greenlit by Focus Features.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy agent slipped it to me, as they say, because she wanted to put it on our radar,\u201d recalls the actress. \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe it was a real story and that all these things actually happened to this couple.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
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\u201cHugh saw me on a show and felt I was right for the part,\u201d reveals Hudson. \u201cI was like, \u2018Well, I hope this works out because it would allow me to do a lot of things I haven\u2019t been able to do, and all in one character.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is someone who went through a lot of challenges, had a tragic accident and then suffered mental health issues,\u201d she reflects. \u201cI felt an enormous responsibility to her and I carried the weight of that throughout the process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having Jackman by her side helped to lighten that load in what \u2013 bar a previous encounter in a workshop for an unproduced stage musical \u2013 would mark their first collaboration. \u201cIn any love story one performance doesn\u2019t exist without the other, so getting to know Hugh was the biggest thing for me,\u201d says Hudson. \u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Support network<\/p>\n
A two-month shoot in late 2024 \u2013 under the working title Denim And Diamonds \u2013 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\u2019s Footloose.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had never worked with a female DoP before so as a woman I felt very safe,\u201d says Hudson. \u201cAmy understood the vulnerabilities in certain moments in a way that made me feel she had my back.\u201d<\/p>\n
A moment that springs readily to mind is a scene after Claire\u2019s accident where she momentarily forgets she is an amputee and falls painfully out of her bed. \u201cIt was not only one of the saddest things in the script but also a big character shift,\u201d explains Hudson. \u201cWhat 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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 Net\u00adflix 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are so many tumultuous and unpredictable things about being an artist in this business,\u201d 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 \u201cthe back half\u201d of her career. \u201cI hope this film allows me more opportunities to do completely different characters.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kate Hudson was 21 years old when her endearing performance as \u201cband aid\u201d Penny Lane in Cameron Crowe\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[458,146,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-282489","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}