Why Kate Hudson turned down a role in a Kurt Russell movie: “I ended up saying no”
Growing up in the shadow of several Hollywood stars, including her mother, Goldie Hawn and her stepdad, Kurt Russell, Kate Hudson knew she wanted to act from a very young age. It’s only natural that visiting film sets and watching movies getting made would make Hudson want to become a part of the industry herself, but from the beginning, she was wary that she would forever be associated with her parents in a field where nepotism is rife.
The actor decided to begin acting in the 1990s, making her film debut in 1998 with Desert Blue. Yet, it was her part in Almost Famous, the legendary story of an aspiring young music journalist whose life is forever changed when he goes on tour with a band during the height of ‘70s rock and roll, that boosted Hudson’s career. She played Penny Lane, a groupie who lives and breathes for music, becoming known for her signature curly blonde hair and Afghan coats.
From there, she frequently starred in comedies, especially of the romantic variety, like How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and Bride Wars, and it seemed as though she’d achieved the success herself, with many people unaware that she had a head start in the industry as the daughter of some famous Hollywood figures.
Hudson had been careful not to emerge in the industry as just another nepo-baby, a term that is increasingly common these days as more and more kids from famous parents are entering Hollywood through unfair advantage. These fears of nepotism criticism led Hudson to turn down a role in a film that could’ve been a huge breakthrough for her, several years before the release of Almost Famous.
Since she was a small child, Hudson had visited Russell on set, and she found these experiences incredibly inspiring. “My dad’s sets were the fun sets. It was like Big Trouble in Little China, and we had slides that would go down into rubber fish, and these amazing costumes,” she revealed at a panel for the Awards Chatter podcast.
Big Trouble in Little China was one of many John Carpenter movies that Russell appeared in, so when Hudson was offered a chance to appear in his Escape from New York follow-up Escape From LA, you’d think she’d take it. Yet, Hudson, who was still a teenager at the time, wasn’t sure if it was the best idea to sign onto the same movie as her stepfather, who was already an established icon.
She auditioned for a part, but soon changed her mind. “I went in and auditioned and got that part, and I sort of realised, ‘Oh, this is when you start to make choices that will define your career.’ And, ‘Do I want to be defined by being Kurt’s daughter who got this part? No.’”
Hudson concluded, “[It doesn’t] matter if I got it because I was good enough — it would never be what people would ever think. And I knew that and was like, ‘No, I can’t.’ So I ended up saying no to that, too.” So, she made the wise decision to carve her own path, and it has evidently worked in her favour.
