Family, in its many forms, looms enormous for Kate Hudson these days. When she looks back on the influences that shaped her career, her mother, Goldi
Family, in its many forms, looms enormous for Kate Hudson these days. When she looks back on the influences that shaped her career, her mother, Goldie Hawn, and stepfather, Kurt Russell, are of course at the forefront. Her brothers, Oliver Hudson and Wyatt Russell, also became actors. She is, essentially, in a family business.
No wonder she related to her character in Netflix’s Running Point. Hudson’s Isla Gordon is suddenly put in charge of her family’s pro basketball team. She has to turn the team around while also managing the egos of the players and her three brothers, who all feel she’s unqualified for the job.
But as Hudson points out on Little Gold Men, it’s a little different to inherit a basketball team than to follow your parents into acting. “The arts is a totally weird, different world. We’re like circus folk,” she says. “Whereas if you have this enormous franchise with a father who kind of built this huge sports team and you have to live up to that, it is very different than anything I could relate to.”
Created by Mindy Kaling, Ike Barinholtz, and David Stassen, the series allows Hudson to deliver scene-stealing work. Hudson spoke about why she finally decided to lead a TV series after decades of a fruitful movie career, what it was like to grow up with Hawn as a role model, and why she relates to her costar Chet Hanks. (Listen or read on below.)
Little Gold Men: Were you looking for a comedy series at the time this came along?
Kate Hudson: I was always looking for a good series. I think that there was a certain point in my life where I got really scared to do comedy, because I sometimes feel like you’re promised one thing and then the outcome is something else. A lot of times, you read a script and it’s got a little bit more risk in it, and then you start the process of doing it and it starts to get watered down. I’ve had a couple experiences that made me very timid to sign onto something. But when Mindy [Kaling] came and I saw just the logline, I immediately knew I was going to do it. It was loosely based on Jeanie Buss, the woman who ends up becoming the president of a basketball team. And then I read the script, and it was so great. When I sat down with Mindy, I was like, “is this pilot what you want to make, or is this gonna change? Is Netflix going to change it? Is Warner Bros. going to change it?” And she goes, “No.” I got just so excited because I just knew I was in the best hands.
You’re so great at this sort of comedy. Where does your comedy inspiration come from? Is it actors you watched growing up?
Like this woman I know named Goldie Hawn?
Maybe that.
The great master class of my life. My mother is one of the great physical comedians of all time. It’s so subtle, but her physicality is so insanely amusing. I mean, even in life, how her body manifests – her comedy is so hilarious. Same with my brother Oliver. We have a very silly family. It might be a DNA thing – my daughter is so physical, her physicality is so profoundly amusing, and she’s only six. I think from Judy Holiday to Lucille Ball, to my mother, to Carol Burnett. Jim Carrey is one of the greats. Steve Martin, Martin Short. Kristen Wiig – her physicality is insane.
But also my physical comedy, even though I can go kind of broad and a little bit more silly, I feel like my physical comedy comes out of things that are more rooted. It feels more like stunt work. Even the drug drawer, like, I had a welt on my knee for months because every time I got up, I was hitting that drug drawer. It’s so much fun. It’s just commitment.
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