Kate Hudson talks about her insistence on casting Matthew McConaughey in How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days. The actress reflected on her life and career during a Life In Pictures talk at BAFTA in London on Friday.
Hudson, who has acknowledged her strength in rom-coms during the 2000s, revealed that she and studio executives at the time initially disagreed about the direction of How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days.
“I really admire actors in our industry, but for rom-coms you need this guy to have chemistry with,” Hudson told moderator Briony Hanson, Director of Film at the British Council. Regarding the 2003 film’s casting process, she added, “We kept banging our heads against the wall, and the studio and I just didn’t get along.”
The actress revealed that she finally got her “okay for everything” because she “resisted a lot of things,” including the casting of her co-star. Former Paramount Pictures CEO Sherry Lansing reportedly asked Hudson, her first choice, to play Benjamin Barry, opposite Hudson’s Andy Anderson, at which point the performer suggested McConaughey.
“We had an energy together, and I wanted to play him,” Hudson said. “It felt kinetic. We both have a competitive spirit, we’re both super athletic. We like to push each other and I love Matthew’s commitment to everything; he’s focused on shaving. What you think is.”
Elsewhere in the conversation, Hudson discussed the difficulty of getting the right tone for comedy, and the amount of energy it requires from an actor. “Comedy is more tiring,” she said, “to keep that pace all day and to find energy.” “When the day is done doing comedy, I want to sleep. When the day is done doing drama and sentimental work, I want to go get a drink.”
While discussing her place in the rom-com genre and comics more broadly, Hudson revealed that she would be open to being involved in a franchise-wide project in the future, and discussed the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She mentioned her half-brother, Wyatt Russell, and recalled a conversation about his work as John Walker / U.S. Agent in the 2021 Disney+ series “The Falcon and the Winder Soldier.”
“I remember him calling me and going, ‘You have to do marvel,’” Hudson said. “I would be open to it, sure. why not? If it’s true, I’ll love it, and I think I’ll have a lot of fun.”
The actress also addressed the lack of female-led films while discussing her 2009 film Bride Wars, which she starred in alongside Anne Hathaway and also produced. “There is definitely an appetite and space [female-led films]’ But I’m looking forward to having more space,” she said, while praising the superhero genre. “You have ‘Captain Marvel’ — Marvel wrapping its arms around women. But it’s still rare.”
Although Hudson’s Life In Pictures talk spanned more than 20 years of her career, the actress said she and her stepfather Kurt Russell talked about getting one role every five or 10 years “gives you another 10 years in the business” and nodded to Russell working with Quentin Tarantino. As for her own once-in-a-decade experience, she praised Rian Johnson for her portrayal of Birdie Guy in this year’s “Glass Onion.”
“[This role] Hudson said. “I just felt like I got material I could play with. When you have good material like that, and you have people you feel safe with, it’s like we’re doing that. We want to do things that come off a limb. It doesn’t happen that often.”
The conversation turned to television, which Hudson said she would be open to exploring more in the near future. She revealed a project currently in development in partnership with “Girls” creator Lena Dunham, and that she is “actively looking” at directing and considering starting with a TV project.
“It’s the first time I’m really touched by wanting to invest in something like this again,” she said. “But I want to look at the next TV project specifically, like look at my film career, because you really have to sit with that character for at least six months.”
[ad_2]
