Kate Hudson At Her Best

00:00:05
Speaker 1: And let me tell you something. Hugh was like, Hugh loves to tell the story. He's like, he goes, I knew, and she kissed me that she will never think of me the same ever again, And he was right.

00:00:20
Speaker 2: Hi everyone, I'm Katy Kuric and this is Next Question. Hi everyone, I'm Katie Kuric. Hi. Nice to see you all. It's great great to be with you in LA. I'm especially happy not to have been in New York the past week or so, and I'm really thrilled to be in conversation, as they say, with Kate Hudson tonight. I have been stalking her on Instagram saying I wanted to interview her after I saw this movie, and obviously my persistence paid off. And I wanted you all to know that if you enjoy this interview, you can hear it again on my podcast Next Question. Please subscribe if you can, and also we'll be talking about it in my newsletter Wake Upcall. Go to Katiecuric dot com for that shameless plug.

00:01:12
Speaker 3: Thank you very much.

00:01:13
Speaker 2: Thank you so enough about me, Please Welcome to the Stage. Academy Award, BAFTO Award and Actor Award nominee Kate.

00:01:22
Speaker 3: Hudson, thank you so much. Wasn't she amazing? Come on? I mean, so, Kate, I love this movie.

00:01:37
Speaker 2: I saw it a few weeks ago, and, as The New York Times put it, quote through genuine word of mouth, not the publicist orchestrated prattle that often drives awards season consensus. Hollywood insiders are saying it is the best work of Kate Hudson's career.

00:01:56
Speaker 3: So, I mean, I'm sure you've been hearing that.

00:02:00
Speaker 2: I don't know if you're tired of even talking about it, because you never get tired of talking about this movie. But I mean, how are you feeling right now about the reception this movie has gotten, and really particularly your extraordinary performance.

00:02:17
Speaker 3: It feels amazing, you know, it really does.

00:02:19
Speaker 1: It feels warm and loving, and I think the best part of it is the response for the film, you know, because it just touches people in a way that is different than anything else I've really done.

00:02:36
Speaker 3: It hits everybody in a different way about their.

00:02:39
Speaker 1: Own life, and it makes them incredibly emotional and it's so life affirming. And I just love hearing people's response after they see this movie.

00:02:51
Speaker 3: It's why we make movies, you know.

00:02:53
Speaker 2: I was going to say, it sort of feels like an old fashioned movie in some ways, right, and a really beautiful story that is well told and not a lot of special effects or any kind of Well it's dark, but you know, uber darkness and moodiness.

00:03:12
Speaker 3: It just feels real. Yeah.

00:03:13
Speaker 1: Someone called it in an interview that I did trauma porn. There's no trauma porn, and I thought, I was like, I've never heard that, and I like that. Yeah, it's not a cynical film, you know. It's like I think that the movies that inspired me to become an actor, we're movies like this that I watched and I was like, not only does it make me feel like I want to be a better version of myself in my real life, but I want to play that part in this movie, you know, because it hits every single note.

00:03:44
Speaker 3: Everybody, we're all hitting all the notes, you know. I like that. You say it's not cynical. I think that's really true. It's not.

00:03:51
Speaker 1: In Craig Brewer, the writer director, it's sort of like he has this pureness of heart and he just never talks down to these characters, and it could have been a very easy thing for someone to take a couple that is quite kitchy in what they do, and Neil Diamond music, which has its own flare, and it would be very easy to make a very different kind of movie. But their stories so beautiful and tragic, and their love story is so beautiful, and Craig's like the perfect person to be able to make a movie like this and just have no cynicism attached to it.

00:04:38
Speaker 3: And I think we need more movies like that, you know that.

00:04:45
Speaker 2: I know, let's talk about how you sort of found this project because your agents sent you the script in twenty twenty three, and I'm curious when you read it and you got to know on paper anyway, Claire Stingle, what Drea you to the role?

00:05:02
Speaker 3: Everything?

00:05:03
Speaker 1: You don't read parts like this very often, especially for women. I think, like the multifaceted parts like you're, the humor, the love, the transformation into a different accent, you know, part of the world, to then descending and having the life force taken out of you, to then have to come back up and then to perform and to sing. It's not something that we see often as women that have all of those things, and then if you do see them, you sort of risk the fear of them going horribly wrong. This is one of those kinds of movies that could have either been really executed as brilliantly as Craig.

00:05:48
Speaker 3: Did, or it could have gone in a different direction.

00:05:50
Speaker 1: So when you see that, you kind of long to play parts like that. It's very often you read parts that are more one dimensional. They hit an note and they keep driving the note, and things like this.

00:06:04
Speaker 3: Aren't aren't as common. But I think you're right.

00:06:06
Speaker 2: In different hands, it could have been like totally cheese ball, but it wasn't. And I think you're right. He did a beautiful job. But also I think the performances account for that as well. And you took this role very seriously.

00:06:21
Speaker 3: I read.

00:06:22
Speaker 2: I mean, it wasn't exactly Robert de Niro and Raging Bull, but you gained fifteen pounds. I want to know what you ate to do that, because that must have been really fun.

00:06:31
Speaker 3: It was fun.

00:06:32
Speaker 2: And oh my god, Kate, you stopped your skincare routine.

00:06:36
Speaker 3: God, I sure did, but I don't.

00:06:39
Speaker 1: I stopped my skincare, you know, partners in life, like my botox, you know, but I still washed my face. Yeah, I feel like you know, Look, it was the eighties and the nineties, we didn't have those the kinds of the plethora of lasers.

00:07:00
Speaker 2: Probably a woman who wouldn't be doing that stuff anyway, even if it were available to her.

00:07:05
Speaker 1: Oh and I think, you know, it's a funny question to answer because Claire is so beautiful and so even though it wasn't my norm and how I live in my daily life or my practices and health practices and things like that, beauty practices. You know, transforming is all what you longed to do as an actor. And I was transforming into Claire, and and I loved every second of it, you know.

00:07:34
Speaker 3: And I wanted to respect.

00:07:36
Speaker 1: Who she is and what her story was and is and do that in the best way that I could.

00:07:43
Speaker 3: And it required that of me.

00:07:44
Speaker 2: And I love the way that you actually fell into the accent naturally because of.

00:07:51
Speaker 3: Your my nanny. Your nanny was from Wisconsin.

00:07:55
Speaker 1: Nanny was from Wisconsin, and she had a very thick Wisconsin accent, which I realized when I started this movie was actually not really a Wisconsin accent.

00:08:03
Speaker 3: It was like it was like a Wisconsin.

00:08:08
Speaker 1: Sort of trying to lose the Wisconsin accent, which turned into kind of Canadian so then when I went to start studying Claire, you know, I had the documentary to really study Claire, and then I had this great dialect coach, Jess, who works with Hugh Jackman as well, and he sort of was like, that's not how you say that in Wisconsin. So there was sort of a you know, a mishmash. But Kathy then became my assistant when I got older, because I have trust issues and so I called her and I was like, is there any way you'd come work for me and help me right now?

00:08:43
Speaker 3: And she was like, no, I will never. You will never be my boss.

00:08:48
Speaker 1: I basically helped raise you, but I'll do it for six months.

00:08:52
Speaker 3: I'll help you out.

00:08:52
Speaker 1: And twenty four years later she was still working for me, and she just retired and went back to Wisconsin. So the sing song of Wisconsin is in my blood. And the custard, a lot of custard I got. And the cheese curds, oh, the cheese curds.

00:09:09
Speaker 3: Yeah. And the Jimmys.

00:09:11
Speaker 1: They have these things called jimmies that are like these they're basically chocolate sprinkles, but they do them better.

00:09:16
Speaker 3: Kathy always had them sent from Wisconsin.

00:09:19
Speaker 2: I like Jimmy's you put them on the ice cream cone? Yeah, diep them in the thing.

00:09:24
Speaker 3: Anyway.

00:09:24
Speaker 2: All right, let's talk about your singing, because seriously, isn't it annoying? It's so annoying when people love are so multi talented. I mean, it just kills me. And your voice is just amazing. You released an album called Glorious in twenty twenty four. So what made you decide at this point in your career, I'm going to sing. I am going to be doing roles that require me to sing, and I'm going to put out an album while i'm at it.

00:09:55
Speaker 1: So my father's a musician, my real father, Bill, And as a little girl, I wrote music.

00:10:02
Speaker 3: I've been writing music my whole life.

00:10:04
Speaker 1: Not like I say writing, I'm like bad music, and that's some good music, but mostly bad my whole life.

00:10:12
Speaker 3: But I kept doing it and doing it and doing it.

00:10:14
Speaker 1: And when I was nineteen, I started playing more instruments and I thought maybe music would have been a big part of my life.

00:10:20
Speaker 3: But I actually did a little movie called Almost.

00:10:24
Speaker 1: Famous, and it completely changed my life, and music then became something that was not gonna be really in my cards in terms of making an album or putting music out there like that. And at that time, it was like, if you did anything that you know, don't break what's not broken. And if I made an album and it was not a success, it could have really hurt my career.

00:10:48
Speaker 3: So it was like, just.

00:10:49
Speaker 1: Enjoy the success, you know, enjoy where you're at. But then in that one decade goes by, and another decade goes by, and then another decade goes by, and I was it was COVID and I remember thinking during lockdown, like I are we all dying?

00:11:09
Speaker 3: It's like, is this it?

00:11:10
Speaker 1: And I thought, you know, you started to reflect on your life, and my thing was, is I'm really proud of who I am as a mother, right like what I put in as a mom, God forbid. Something happened to me. I feel good about what I'm leaving behind already. But then I thought I about my creative output, and there was real dissatisfaction for me of like I would regret not putting my music in the world, not because I need any validation, but because it's in me and I have to get it out, and it would be like I would never know what that would have been.

00:11:49
Speaker 3: So that was it. I was like I've got to figure it out. I've got to do it.

00:11:53
Speaker 1: I've got to keep saying I've got to sing, and I have to I have to put it out and not be afraid, and even if for my kids, even more for myself, because they know, you know, they seem they see me writing and stuff, and I'm sure they'd be like, why did mom never do all of this?

00:12:09
Speaker 3: You know?

00:12:10
Speaker 1: So I did it, and I did it without any expectation of what was going to happen, and then, of course what happens is is you put yourself out there like that, and in this situation, it was received so warmly and had so many people cheering me on for my album. And then Hugh saw me on a show and I was talking about why I made the album and he called Craig the director, and was like, I found your Claire and here I am, and I was like, all of these things, you know.

00:12:43
Speaker 2: And how much did how much did you have to work Kate on sort of? I mean, you do an amazing Patsy Cline, one of my favorite singers, with your first number in the movie. How much did you have to really work on your voice for this film or was it just all natural to you.

00:13:02
Speaker 3: I mean, it's pretty natural.

00:13:07
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie, okay, I'm not like a technical singer, you know. I think part of the fear of singing, of getting out there and singing, is like, I'm not a trained singer.

00:13:17
Speaker 3: I'm very instinctual.

00:13:19
Speaker 1: I am now doing things to try to protect my voice, and I know that I need to work the muscle and all those things. But so for me, it's like the runs and the stuff was never the thing I learned, right. Uh, It's more more about like instinct. But you know, when you get in the recording studio, you just start playing around and you start finding that you know, your ears starts finding sound and Patsy Cline and listening to her and trying to like get as much of that as I possibly could, you know, and singing her song. I mean, I'm such a big Patsy Clin fan. So that's like it's dreamy the sings. Sweet Dreams is like crazy awesome. Crazy is my go to karaoke song. It is, but it's so hard to sing.

00:14:02
Speaker 2: I don't know why, Picket, but it is really hard to sound horrible. But anyway, Hi everyone, it's me Katie Couric you know, if you've been following me on social media, you know I love to cook, or at least try, especially alongside some of my favorite chefs and foodies like Benny Blanco, Jake Cohen, Lighty Hoyke, Alison Roman and Inagarten. So I started a free newsletter called good Taste to share recipes, tips and kitchen mustaves. Just sign up at Katiecuric dot com slash good Taste. That's k A t I E C O U r I c dot com slash good Taste. I promise your taste buds will be happy you did.

00:14:58
Speaker 1: So.

00:14:59
Speaker 2: This is of course based on a true story obviously, and I know you had a chance to meet Claire, but not at first. Craig didn't want you to be too influenced by her, but she did come to the set, and I'm curious what she was like, what that was like and her response to the film.

00:15:18
Speaker 1: Oh, I mean, meeting her for the first time was one of the great things because I'd been playing her for about a week and a half, studying her for about a month, and I hadn't met her, you know, and so when she showed up it was amazing and we just hugged forever.

00:15:38
Speaker 3: I have it on video, I'll show it to you. I actually should post it. I haven't even posted it. Yeah, I don't know why I haven't posted it. But we're just hugging.

00:15:47
Speaker 1: And she was amazing and it was great, and you know, it made me happy that Craig said, I don't want you to get too invested in her personal story alone, because that was his.

00:16:02
Speaker 3: Job.

00:16:03
Speaker 1: You know, it's his vision, it's his movie. I feel like if I would have gotten to invested in Claire's story, I would have been a little bit more challenging for Craig in certain things that maybe I would have learned about her or saw that I wanted to incorporate. So it made that kind of took the pressure off of me a little bit, which was great. And then when I got to meet her and get to know her, I was like, oh, Craig knows. Craig knows exactly what he's doing, you know, And so it was it was perfect.

00:16:34
Speaker 3: It worked out perfectly, and she loved the movie. She loves the movie.

00:16:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's a love letter to Claire, you know, and her life is so amazed, she's so inspiring.

00:16:44
Speaker 2: It is a love letter. But it's also I wouldn't call it trauma porn, but it is hard. It is really hard to watch when she is suffering. And I think you did such a great job, Kate, depicting some of these very dark moments in the film, her depression, her dependency on pills, her psychosis, some of those tight shots of you when she is institutionalized. I mean, how hard was that to do and how hard was that for her to watch?

00:17:16
Speaker 3: I'm curious.

00:17:19
Speaker 1: I wasn't there when she watched it the first time, but it was challenging. It was hard, you know, and I couldn't imagine what them must feel like for Claritistic and watch her life story.

00:17:30
Speaker 3: For me, it's the challenge.

00:17:34
Speaker 1: Is the joy of what we do, right, So it's one of those things. It's I guess we're kind of well, not crazy, actors are crazy. It's like we love something that's challenging and hard, and you know that you get to really delve into well, it makes it it's so much more interesting, right.

00:17:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, it's why we do it. You know.

00:17:56
Speaker 1: We want to like really get inside of something and you want to you understand the experience and then do the best thing you can to portray that so that you can have this collective human experience and feel something you know that can move you and transport you. But I also like the process is really about how safe.

00:18:21
Speaker 3: You feel in the environment as well.

00:18:24
Speaker 1: When people create those kinds of spaces, you can go so many places and then it sort of becomes channeling. And I always say the process for me is just like massive preparation. And one of the best things about doing this right now is I feel like it's so much fun to talk process instead of selling a movie.

00:18:45
Speaker 3: You know, it's a very different thing to sell a movie.

00:18:47
Speaker 1: You know, we've talked for years and years and we're out there, we're trying to get people in the seat. It's really fun to talk to people who love cinema about the what a process is of getting really involved in a character.

00:19:01
Speaker 3: Because you do it with.

00:19:01
Speaker 1: All of them, it doesn't matter how challenging they seem. Every character you do, there's so much process involved to make it feel effortless. And that's the thing for me is the effortlessness. It's like, I never want anyone to catch me acting.

00:19:20
Speaker 2: And you worked really hard, I know, to learn how to work kind of in the world of prosthetics and to play that role.

00:19:29
Speaker 3: How did you prepare for that?

00:19:34
Speaker 1: Thirty something years of dance class movement, I think again, movement, dance understanding.

00:19:42
Speaker 3: It's like choreography, you know, and then you let it go.

00:19:45
Speaker 1: It's like you understand how someone walks, You understand what kind of pain is attached to it. And you're carrying and thinking about all these things as you're doing, as you're performing, especially when you have for Claire, which to me was sort of of a timeline of her like recalibration and rebalancing herself from the accident to when she goes down to pain cycles to how the pain and the shame. I worked a lot on shame, how that sort of affects meant you mentally and probably how you move.

00:20:20
Speaker 3: And how you know and how you how your whole body's functions.

00:20:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, and all those things are, you know, work hand in hand, and so I work. I work a lot with Larry Moss. I don't know if anybody has worked Eyes the Vest. You get kind of addicted to Larry Moss, but he uh, you know, there's so many different things that you work on in one scene, you know, and a lot of that has to do with the color that's added, and then you let it go and you just play the scene, you know.

00:20:48
Speaker 3: And so that's kind.

00:20:49
Speaker 1: Of with a lot of those moments where where I went down, there was just a lot of a lot of sort of imaginary things that I was taking with me, whether it be an animal, whether it be color substituting, like you know, like like the simplest thing for me was like the door to my bedroom, Like what was my relationship to that door at that moment? You know, And those are things that you don't want anybody seeing, But when you hear the door knock, what is the history of that relationship to that door at that moment for her? After those couple of days of being in that room and going into her opioid crisis, and so all that stuff matters when you're preparing.

00:21:37
Speaker 2: You know, let's let's talk about Hugh. I don't know how much time we have left, but we have plenty of time. Good because I love Hugh Jack and Kate does too. I mean, we were just going on and on and on. He is truly, in my experience interviewing a lot of people, one of my favorite interviews of all time because he's the Honestly, he's so mind and generous and wonderful. My husband helped me. Uh was came over with me and he said, why don't you ask Kate? Yeah, we know you love Hugh Jackman, but what one thing did he do on set that really annoyed this shit out of you?

00:22:17
Speaker 3: I'm like, I don't. That is the weirdest question, isn't it.

00:22:20
Speaker 2: But since you're gonna ask me, I know it was probably nothing, right, Hm, Oh, we're gonna get a little tea.

00:22:29
Speaker 3: I feel like no, but.

00:22:31
Speaker 1: Hugh would want me to tell this story so in the in the it's a really gross story though, so but I'm.

00:22:37
Speaker 3: Gonna do it anyway.

00:22:39
Speaker 1: So when we were doing this scene, the proposal scene, we were chasing the weather you know, was supposed to like blizzard and it was going to be awful. So we're trying to get the scene done really fast, and it's on Hugh and we do his all his coverage. We turn around onto my coverage and it was like it was like my thank Sardina was like you're welcome.

00:23:02
Speaker 3: I'm going to put you guys in a snow globe.

00:23:05
Speaker 1: And he's fucking like quarter size bigger snowflakes started falling, and we all looked at each other and we're like, shoot, like keep shooting, And we just started shooting in the snowstorm. And then we had to turn around and turn around on Hugh again and reshoot his coverage and We're going fast and I go up to kiss him, and Hugh has a little bit of an issue with when his nose starts running in the cold. And let me tell you something. Hugh was like, Hugh loves to tell the story. He's like, he goes, I knew and she kissed me that she will never think of me the same ever again. And he was right, he goes, he just saw it on my face. I was like, and he was like, I'm so sorry. I was. And then the whole time, I'm thinking I have to go back in. I gotta go back in to kiss Hugh. And I'm looking at him and I'm like, did you wipe your now? Okay, well, I'm glad that question the only time he was not generous.

00:24:20
Speaker 3: Or too generous. Yeah.

00:24:23
Speaker 2: But but had you all did you know each other before you did this movie together?

00:24:28
Speaker 3: No? No, we did not. I mean we had met.

00:24:31
Speaker 1: We had done a workshop together for this this show that never got made, but I'm on broad Broadway show.

00:24:40
Speaker 3: But no, we'd never worked together, and we had that.

00:24:43
Speaker 1: We had the best time, but I was nervous because I'd never done a love story like this and he's never really done something like this. And my biggest fear was that if the love story didn't work, the movie just doesn't work. And thought it was the first thing I said to him after our first table reading. I just said, you know, I just feel like if we don't have this connection, we risk the movie not working, and so I want to do whatever we can to get there.

00:25:15
Speaker 3: And then I warned him.

00:25:17
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm going to touch you a lot, and I'm going to ask you a lot of really personal questions, and if you feel uncomfortable, tell me.

00:25:26
Speaker 3: I have tough skin. I can handle it. And he was like, no, let's go.

00:25:31
Speaker 1: And he was so open, and we knew everything about each other in like three days.

00:25:36
Speaker 3: Literally, I actually think we did.

00:25:38
Speaker 1: We like unpacked many years of our life and our love and relationships and family and kids, and that was it, I mean, and then the second we started singing, it was like oh. And I remember walking down the aisle at the wedding and I looked at him and he had this big smile on his face, and I had a big smile on my face, and I was like, well, first I was like, oh, marrying Hugh Jackman. This is so fun. I love my job. But then I got up to the to the you know, to the podium and or to him, and and I was like, you know, I.

00:26:15
Speaker 3: Feel like this is going to work.

00:26:16
Speaker 1: I feel like we're gonna I feel like we're going to look like people who really are in love and and and and we really do love each other.

00:26:24
Speaker 3: So it's great.

00:26:31
Speaker 2: If you want to get smarter every morning with a breakdown of the news and fascinating takes on health and wellness and pop culture, sign up for our daily newsletter, wake Up Call by going to Katiecuric dot com. What I like about him is he just had he puts on no airs. You know, when you get to be a big star like you and you're the same way I think, Kate, you know, you get a little pretentious sometimes and full of yourself, and I just have never since that in Hugh Jackman.

00:27:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, we don't believe the hype. We're sort of like, hm, you know, I think it's I think it's a Yeah. He's got a great head on his shoulders, and he's a like he just wants to entertain people. He's such a connector. He would sit here and and he'd get to know everybody, and he'd look at everybody's in the eye eye, and he'd like know half of the people's names in this room. If he spent an hour with all of you, and he'd leave and he'd remember you, and then you'd show up somewhere else two years later and he'd go, Sarah, and you'd be like, wow, I mean, he really is that. My son, Ryder, who only has met Hugh a couple of times, he said to me after one time we all spent some time together, he goes, you know, Mom, if there were really still saints, I actually think he would be one of them. And I was like, but and he meant it and he's an adult now, and I was like, you're right. He really is that pure of like general. His generosity of spirit is so beautiful.

00:28:20
Speaker 2: You also, I guess after the movie was done, you got together with Neil Diamond himself in Colorado, and you have to tell us what that was like. I know, he has Parkinson's and so I guess his health isn't isn't the best. But I know I read you sat on his porch with him, So just tell us about that encounter, what that was like, and how he felt about the movie.

00:28:49
Speaker 3: He loves the movie. He loves the movie. He's very grateful.

00:28:55
Speaker 1: It's really interesting when someone you you know, have learned to admire. I just really just covered Neil Diamond in this process and and hit and how prolific of a songwriter he is.

00:29:06
Speaker 3: Wait a second, Yeah, I discovered Neil Diamond.

00:29:09
Speaker 1: Well, I mean I knew like Sweet Caroline and Cracklin Rosie. I mean yes, but I I'm like a nineties girl, you know. I was like, I was like a nineties like you know, radiohead type girl, So like Neil. Neil Diamond was definitely not on my rotation growing up. But it was at karaoke and it was when I watched you know, Quentin Tarantino and Girl, You'll be a Woman Soon, And so I knew of Neil, but I'd never like gone deep on Neil. And I'm someone who goes deep on artists, right, So being able to really understand and and and get into his lyrics and understand him as a songwriter was really eye opening for me because he's pretty phenomenal songwriter and songs that you didn't even know he wrote, you know, so, and to meet him and to have him be so grateful for this movie was sort of felt bizarre, you know, because we're so grateful to him for letting us.

00:30:09
Speaker 3: Kate's had a cough for three weeks, but she told me.

00:30:13
Speaker 1: I'm not contagious, but if anybody get sick, it wasn't me.

00:30:23
Speaker 2: But what, you know, I'm curious was he grateful that. One of the things many things I liked about this film is even for someone like me who knows most of Neil Diamond's well known songs, I think there were a lot of songs that I hadn't heard, you know, the one that you sang at the funeral, for example, and the weird.

00:30:45
Speaker 1: Solo what is that suliman? I've never heard that song? Yeah, come on, that's like I that Craig is like, I want that to be a song that has played every graduation. His goal in this movie was to make that song the song. No you know, Neil was what he said to me is he said every once in a while, something comes along and gives my music a new life to a new generation. And he thanked me, and he thanked you for giving his music that opportunity to meet new people.

00:31:28
Speaker 3: And I just thought that was so beautiful. And we got to sit on.

00:31:32
Speaker 1: The porch and drink lemonade and he would just tell stories and I'd listen, and it was great.

00:31:37
Speaker 3: You know, that's such a treat.

00:31:39
Speaker 1: It was.

00:31:40
Speaker 2: I think someone told me Hugh was on a show or when he went to visit him. I don't know if this happened with you too, Kate, that anytime anyone in Neil Diamond's house says something like oh this pie is so good. Yeah, that he makes everyone say so good, so good, so good?

00:31:57
Speaker 3: Is that true whole family.

00:32:00
Speaker 1: But it's not like it's it's like it's almost like a superstition now. So like if I'm like, oh god, I went to the store and they had this, like you know, candle, it was so good, and you'll just hear someone go so good, and the other person will go so good, and then after like five times it happens in the house.

00:32:20
Speaker 3: I asked, well, I went.

00:32:22
Speaker 1: I went first, and then he went after, and and and it happened to me and I said, are you guys saying so good, So good?

00:32:30
Speaker 3: And and they're like, oh, yeah, we do that.

00:32:32
Speaker 1: You have to in the family, Like if someone says that, you have to say it twice. So funny, and then Hugh went. I didn't say anything, and he went and then he called me. He's like, did you hear that thing where they do so good, So Good? I was like, Hey, did it?

00:32:45
Speaker 3: Yes? I mean, it's kind of amazing.

00:32:48
Speaker 1: And so the whole press tour you realize how much you say so good Now you're going to realize it after this you say it all day long and we just all we just say it, and how now it's like second nature.

00:33:01
Speaker 2: So well, I know, it's been twenty five years since your first OSCAR nomination for Almost Famous, which I can't believe has been twenty five years. And as I mentioned, Kate, you've been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. So excited, a BAFTA Award, and an Actor Award for your role obviously as Claire in Song Sung Blues. So how excited are you for the Oscars? And I mean, how are you feeling going into that? Really big night in terms of winning or being a part of it. Well, is it an honor just to be nominated or is that bullshit?

00:33:46
Speaker 1: It really is you know, we had our bullshit now I know it really is.

00:33:54
Speaker 3: It really is an honor.

00:33:56
Speaker 1: It isn't really inspiring time for me and I think for everybody involved. And we had the Oscars luncheon yesterday and it's so awesome.

00:34:08
Speaker 2: It's just I was just hoping you were gonna say, it's so good, it's so good, so good, so good, but.

00:34:14
Speaker 1: It really is, Like it's just it's just you look around and you know, everybody works so hard to get movies made, and let alone being in what is considered the group of some of the best movies of the year, it's just an amazing thing to be a part of, you know.

00:34:32
Speaker 3: And when you.

00:34:33
Speaker 1: Really, like I think, I think, when you grow up in the business, when you have parents who do it, you know, like I did, and do you see it from a totally different perspective. You see how hard everybody's working to get something off the ground, and you see the fighting of trying to get a movie made the way you you want to get that movie made, trying to get the people that you actually want in the movie versus who the financiers wants you in on the movie. It's everything you do to get something made is an uphill battle.

00:35:13
Speaker 3: It's never easy.

00:35:15
Speaker 1: And so when you're in that room and you get to celebrate all of the you see everyone celebrating.

00:35:21
Speaker 3: I'm not even just talking about.

00:35:23
Speaker 1: Myself, but those uphill battles, the wins, you know, it's just a great feeling. And we all have done this, at least for me and for most people in that room.

00:35:33
Speaker 3: You know. Now I'm two.

00:35:34
Speaker 1: Decades well, four decades in, I guess, but two decades in for my own personal experiences, and I still love it. I still love what it is. I still love the good, bad, and the ugly of it. And I'm so happy to be soaking it all in right now.

00:35:53
Speaker 3: And I think on.

00:35:54
Speaker 1: The day, it's like you're happy, happy, happy, and then all of a sudden, it's your category and you're like.

00:36:00
Speaker 3: It's okay if I win.

00:36:01
Speaker 1: I really notice if I won, and then it's like a flash, it's over and you either win or you don't. And I've already experienced not winning once, so I know what that feels like.

00:36:12
Speaker 3: And you know, who knows.

00:36:14
Speaker 1: Maybe I'll maybe I'll get the other way around, or maybe I'll just have the same experience. But honestly, like, it's just amazing to be able to be there. And I was going to say, it must be so gratifying. I feel like people, to your point, work so hard. It's such an uphill battle, and it's so much blood, sweat and tears to get a movie made, to be in one and to realize your performance the film was so well received, but your performance in particular really touched people and move people and inspired people. That just must be so gratifying in and of itself that that, in many ways is the prize.

00:36:59
Speaker 3: It is, it really is.

00:37:02
Speaker 1: I also think, you know, I've always made I love making movies for myself, and I love making movies, you know, to sort of you know, stoke the fire in me, the creative fire.

00:37:16
Speaker 3: But I really make movies for people.

00:37:19
Speaker 1: And when you see how movies touch people and you feel that connection with them in real life, when you're walking down a street or sitting at a restaurant, someone turns to you and tells you a story about why a movie you did or a part you did mean something to them.

00:37:34
Speaker 3: It is the essence of why I love.

00:37:36
Speaker 1: To make movies, and so this part in particular, you know, it's like this is like the cherry on top, you know. And I'm so grateful that this performance is being seen in this way, you know, because it's we I put a lot into it, so it feels really, really really good.

00:37:59
Speaker 2: Well, I thank on behalf of everyone here tonight. We're thrilled for you. Congratulations on everything. Thank you, thanks for listening everyone. If you have a question for me, a subject you want us to cover, or you want to share your thoughts about how you navigate this crazy world, reach out, send me a DM on Instagram. I would love to hear from you. Next Question is a production of iHeartMedia and Katie Couric Media. The executive producers are Me, Katie Kuric, and Courtney Ltz. Our supervising producer is Ryan Martz, and our producers are Adriana Fazzio and Meredith Barnes. Julian Weller composed our theme music. For more information about today's episode, or to sign up for my newsletter wake Up Call, go to the description in the podcast app or visit us at Katiecuric dot com. You can also find me on Instagram and all my social media channels. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.