Caffeinated Clint
Even after a day of intense interviews, the perennially cheerful Kate Hudson is relaxed and cheerful. Her blonde hair seems even blonder than usual, and arrives wearing a short, crinkly red dress. She owes her good spirits and fast, staccato speech to having consumed “half way down a cappuccino.” She’s here to talk to us about her new film "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days".
Hudson is in town to talk up her new movie, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, a briskly paced romantic comedy, in which the 24-year old actress plays Andy, a Cosmopolitan-type journalist who is out to write an article on how to lose a guy in 10 days, and meets her match when she meets a single advertising hotshot (Matthew McConaughey) who made a bet that he can stay in a relationship for more than 10 days. It is this unique premise for a romantic comedy that caught Hudson’s eye, she explains. “I’ve read all the romantic comedies and it’s the same premise, which you’ve heard and seen before. There’s so many out there with the whole Cinderella romance, and this one just seemed to be fresh and different, in that I’ve never seen a premise like this before and it was two different sides of the story.” Though a study in manipulation and despite Kate’s character not being likeable throughout much of the film, the actress kind of related to her. “I’m not nearly as ambitious as I think Andy is. She’s more of a career woman, or else she wouldn’t try so hard to do her job well. I’m a little more laid back.”
The film explores the dos and do nots of a successful relationship, but while Hudson remains happily married to rocker Chris Robinson, she laughingly concedes that she and her husband made many mistakes when they began dating, some three years ago. “I think we were both just completely obsessed with each other, so we did all the things that people say you’re not supposed to do, like calling each other all the time, and saying I love you. I brought my dog to his house when I moved in from New York. and that of course if one of the no, no’s in every love book, but I’m still married.”
Like her mother, Goldie Hawn, Hudson’s career took off suddenly and at a young age, with 2000’s Almost Famous her significant launching pad for imminent stardom. Yet the actress is reluctant to talk about her own success. “I go home to my husband and my three crazy dogs every night and I really don’t even think about it, I don’t look at myself like that.” Hudson is modestly happy that she has attained a level of success “because I’m working,” she explains. “I always just wanted to work, and I think being successful in other people’s eyes is probably what allows you to keep working. But I’m just really grateful that I’m a working actress. This is a very competitive and difficult world, and I didn’t want any part of the competitiveness; I just want to work.”
Hudson says that she hopes her career mirrors some of own favourite actresses, women such as Cate Blanchett for instance. “I just love her energy, and she gives so much on screen.” But Kate also admits to being “a Bette Davis girl” because “she was a feisty woman, fiery and confident. I think there’s something about entrances, when you see a woman enter a frame and the power that certain females have. They don’t have to say anything and they could be the worse actress in the world, but their presence is so incredible. It didn’t matter what Bette Davis was doing when she entered that frame, all eyes were on HER, and that to me was magic. Also, she didn’t give a hoot about what anybody said about her. Sometimes I would listen to old interviews with her and she was just so fabulous.” Besides, adds Hudson smilingly, “My grandmother had Bette Davis eyes.”
Hudson is busy these days, in between marriage and career, including helping to run the production company she co-owns with her mother, step dad and brother Owen. Asked about whether she receives additional advice from her Oscar-winning mother, Kate says only from a maternal perspective. “I mean she’s my mother and I’m her child, and it’s about the person and not anything that has to do with my career.” Hudson concludes that she is learning a lot from her mother as a producer, rather than a fellow actor. “She’s the first female actress producer, and a lot of women I think look up to my mother because she paved the way for a lot of actresses to be producers and so luckily I get to work with her.”
– PAUL FISCHER
