This week, actress Kate
Hudson returns to the big screen, taking on the supernatural thriller genre with
THE
SKELETON KEY.
Since bursting onto the scene with her Oscar-nominated performance in ALMOST
FAMOUS, the actress has played it relatively safe, opting mainly for
lighthearted comedies like HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS and LE DIVORCE.
Not so with THE SKELETON KEY. Set
in modern day
New Orleans
(where approximately 20% of the population still actively practices Voodoo),
the film delves deeply into a creepy world of magic and superstition, where
rituals and spells are used to enlist the aid of those who dwell on the other
side. It’s the scariest film Kate’s
done since ALEX & EMMA.
The good people at
Universal invited me down to
New Orleans
to talk with Kate about her experience making THE SKELETON KEY, opening
everywhere this Friday.
Kate
Hudson
With
this project, were you consciously trying to break away from the “good girl”
roles that you’ve become known for?
Not initially. I wasn’t
looking for a thriller or something. I
was definitely looking to work with…I wanted to work with interesting people.
That’s always my hope and desire. But this came and I read it and I loved the
script so much. It was actually one of those experiences where I was shooting
Raising Helen when I read the script. I kind of picked it up.
It was sent to me saying, “You have to read this and read it fast.” I
said okay and I picked it up at a lunch break and skimmed the first page.
Before I knew it, I was
done. I’d finished the script in probably 45 minutes and I thought to
myself…I was shocked at the idea that it’s basically a four hander picture.
There’s five people in the whole movie and it’s a character driven thriller
that ends unexpectedly and boldly, and a Hollywood studio is going to actually
make it. And I thought it was just so refreshing to me. So and then after the
initial response to the script, I went, “I have never done a thriller and it
will just be really fun for me to heave and pant and run and climb and break
windows and scream every once in a while.” And also it lends itself to a lot
of heavier work. The scene where I run into the house and I’m tied up, it was
a lot of character work that was really fun for me to be able to do. It was a
real change; it’s very different.
Your
director, Iain Softley, said that this character more closely resembles your
personality than others you’ve played.
I guess I approach all work
no matter what type of movie or character the same way. Then there are just some
times you have to reach into places that are a little less familiar on a day to
day basis in certain characters and others. For this character, it was actually
quite accessible to play her. (It was) very accessible to tap into my fears,
very accessible to understand why somebody would move to a city because of music
or because of a passion. And she’s strong minded and a little tough and I feel
like she’s the kind of girl who’s okay being alone even though it might be a
little lonely. She’s okay with that and I’m like that. So there’s a lot of
things that I really could relate to.
It didn’t because I’ve
always believed in spirits and supernatural and ghosts. I’ve always believed
in that stuff.
There was always a camera
broken which was really weird. And the cinematographer would just be like,
“This is the weirdest.” We had three cameras and different ones usually
wouldn’t work, pretty much every day.
The only time I felt any
kind of vibe was when we were doing the spell scene with John (Hurt). I kind of
felt a little bit, especially when we were doing the master shot, the whole
scene. There was a moment when he finally said “Cut” it was kind like wow,
that was weird. It felt like we were calling on some kind of weird energy. When
you’re making a movie…if you ever see those documentaries on pornography and
they’re just like, “Do you want me to stick my butt in the air?” It’s
like professional and you go, “This is weird.” It’s a similar process.
You’re really not paying attention.
Mirrors always kind of
freak me out when it’s dark. I don’t like sleeping with a mirror in front of
me. It’s a little weird. I can sleep with a mirror on the ceiling. That was
just too funny. Now I’m just being silly.
I don’t know if I find it
difficult, but it is definitely a challenge. You have to be constantly conscious
of it I think. It’s so easy to just when you have any time just to go right
into your child. That’s your primary focus is baby every day, morning, noon
and night. And then I don’t know, it’s a constant guilty feeling when you do
anything for yourself, when you do anything for your career, when you do
anything for your husband, when you do anything with your girlfriends because
it’s taking you away from time with your baby. But I just have to keep
reiterating to myself that it’s important for me to make sure that my son
knows that we all have lives and everybody’s lives are important and
everybody’s individuality is important. Hopefully they’ll grow up like I did
realizing that we’re never the center of anybody’s attention all the time or
the center of the universe or all of that.
It’s just exhausting. You
just go home and you’re just really tired. You do have moments where you have
to have that release, whether it’s having to punch a bag, go do a boxing class
or whether it’s just to cry. It’s not of any sadness. It’s just a release
of pure exhaustion because women especially know when they’re mothers, even
when they don’t have careers, they made the career of being a mom. Your
energy, you’re always on. It’s the same thing as the first time I went away
from Ryder was a week ago. I’m in Europe and I wake up in the morning, or I
come home that night after having dinner with everybody and I’m having a drink
and I came home and I’m like, “I’ve got to get to sleep. I have to wake up
in the morning and I’ve got to get Ryder.” And I just went, “Ryder.
Ryder’s not here.” And I had that first initial moment of saying wow,
that’s always on your mind. So the only time you can really realize how
exhausted you are is when you’re actually away from it.
I don’t know if what kind
of movie or what kind of character, if being a mother will affect that. But what
does affect it for me is time away absolutely, and location. But as I’ve said,
I grew up with very, very work oriented parents and it was really admirable to
know that my parents worked so hard. And at the same time, they were always
present in our lives, they were always available to us at all times and yet they
worked so hard. We got to really see them have their own life and strength. It
was a really important lesson.
Are
you inquisitive, like your character? Do you want to know what’s behind the
secret door?
No. I wouldn’t even set
foot probably in the attic stairwell. I probably would have seen that stairway
and gone, “Hahaha, somebody else can do this because you can go get your own
trillians or whatever.” But no, I’m kind of a nosey person. If I could look
into nooks and crannies of people’s lives and find out more about them, just
because I like to observe people and their weird secrets and tendencies. So if
it opened some kind of little box, I’d probably snoop around in the box. But
not something like a door in a dark room.
To work with people like
Gena is one of those experiences where you basically say this is everything you
ever want to be able to experience when you’re young and you’re in the
beginning phases of your career. And then you get to experience people like Gena
who teach you so much about how…here’s a woman who’s delivered some of the
most amazing performances of all time. And then to work with her and to see her
availability and her generosity, I keep saying the same words but it is what it
is. At the end of the day, the two actors who are just really enjoying some
really fun scenes that we get to play with each other.
And for her to have this
incredible career and to be doing it as long as she’s done this and then to
still come to work and enjoy it is just amazing. And it just goes to show that
when people really love what they do, it’s usually why they’re so talented
is they really, really love it. And always discovering new things about
themselves, new things about human behavior. So Gena was just a billboard for
that for me. You work with a lot of people, some people who are very difficult
and very self-oriented. I’m not like that, and then when you work with
somebody like Gena who’s not like that, it made me say, “Yeah, you know, I
think I’m doing okay.” I want to be like that because that to me is so
honorable and respectable.
It’s always been
important for me to do that. It’s funny because I guess from an outside
perspective is very different from being in my perspective which is I’m 26. I
really haven’t done very many films. Since Almost Famous, I’ve done five?
Six? So I don’t feel like..I feel like my age, the roles…I don’t get to
walk up to a big bin of amazingly dimensional fascinating characters. I get the
young girl who’s starting out her life and is cute and perky and falls in love
for the first time. And that’s great and some of them are really good and some
of them are better than others. But for me, I kind of looked at it like that’s
why I’ve taken three years off in my career so far. I don’t want to rush
anything.
I don’t want to feel like
I have to work all the time. I want to wait until I get to an age where I can
play more dimensional roles and hopefully…I still feel young so I don’t feel
like I’ve…making comedies are so much fun. Hands down, fun. You laugh.
It takes a lot of energy and boy, you’re almost even more exhausted
doing that than when you’re running through forests all day, because you have
to be so energetic. But I feel like I’d be bored if I always did comedies and
I feel like I’d be bored if I was always a dramatic actor. I just want to
continually find things about the craft and find things about new characters,
discover new things about myself and through them or in my life bring them to
characters. It’s just the funnest business to be in. It’s the funnest job.
When I get to wake up every day and I get to go on set, I have so much fun. It
feels like man, how lucky is that? I just love it.
What’s
next?
The next movie I’m doing
is [with] Owen Wilson – You Me and Dupree. It’s me, Owen Wilson and Matt
Dillon. It’s a real comedy. It’s not really a romantic comedy. It’s a
comedy-comedy.
It kind of has a feeling of
a Meet the Fockers type of comedy. It’s not about romance.
The Russo brothers are directing it, the Arrested Development guys, so
it’s got that kind of far out but at the same time totally accessible, like
somebody everybody knows. You know that guy, and that’s Dupree. I’m kind of
the one who’s stuck in the middle of everything and having to deal with him
all the time.
That’s still in
development. Yes, with Linda Obst. That’s more in the development, still being
written.