Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
I fear I’m losing you right off the bat, but stick with me on this. Yes, I’m talking about the same Kate Hudson who is currently starring in the most offensive quadrant of Mother’s Day, where her character hides her Indian-American husband (and child!) from her racist mother. The same Kate Hudson who is trying to sell you on the utility of a sweater dress with her Fabletics line. Kate Hudson from Bride Wars. Her name has come to be synonymous with the kind of middlebrow, studio-produced, romantic comedy claptrap that does a disservice to romance, comedy, and claptrap. That the culture has more or less shed her from the ranks of A-List leading ladies is largely seen as a blessing.
What my theory presupposes is: what if it’s not?
Think about it: most of the enmity towards Kate Hudson stems from the roughly five-year period starting in 2003 when she made a near-uninterrupted string of terrible, bland-to-obnoxious rom-coms, culminating in Bride Wars in January of 2009. Hudson starred opposite Matthew McConaughey for two of those films, 2003’s How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days and 2008’s Fool’s Gold. McConaughey managed to turn his career around from that particular nadir, rehabbed a reputation as a fairly poor actor, and rode the McConaissance all the way to a Best Actor Oscar in 2013. Why him and not her? What’s preventing Kate Hudson from following a similar trajectory, other than the fact that he’s a man and thus has a LOT more good roles out there to take advantage of than she does? Maybe it’s time to forgive Kate for the exact same sins we all seemed so happy to forgive Matthew for.
Speaking of forgiveness: Bride Wars. A terrible movie! Bad jokes, unlikeable performances, a retrograde attitude towards female friendships, and worst of all, TV spot after TV spot of Kate Hudson screeching about getting sabotaged at the salon with blue hair dye. Bride Wars is maybe the one thing we can all agree on: it’s the worst. And yet we’ve forgiven almost everyone involved! Co-writers Casey Wilson and June Diane Raphael have become beloved sitcom players (Happy Endings and Grace and Frankie, respectively) and podcastresses. Chris Pratt has become an A-List box-office bonanza and one fourth of the Hollywood Chrisses. Anne Hathaway won a galldarned Academy Award in 2012! Even Hudson’s character’s clichéd gay bestie is now a Tony-nominated Broadway director. Only Kate remains in the doghouse.
Besides the above notion of simple fairness, though, there’s also the fact that Hudson may very well be a good actress who’s been thus far underserved by her material. Four performances in particular tell me she’s capable of better — and weirder — work. And that’s not even counting the Fabletics commercials, which suggest the kind of domestic desperation that Todd Haynes would kill to develop.
Almost Famous
Obviously. This was the movie that made everybody think Kate Hudson was going to be the next big thing. After every one of those romantic comedy failures, this was the reason she kept getting to make more. (Nepotism, schmepotism; it’s not like Oliver Hudson got A-list roles out of being Goldie Hawn’s kid.) She gives a luminous, haunted, deeply magnetic performance that the rest of the film revolves around. She acts opposite a newbie like Patrick Fuguit as if she were a 20-year veteran and opposite Billy Crudup like a 4th of July sparkler. I LOVE Marcia Gay Harden, but that Oscar was Hudson’s that year. Every bit of potential she has as an actress is on the screen in this movie.
[Where to stream Almost Famous]
Nine
Not a good movie! Rob Marshall’s adaptation of the stage musical is moody, snoozy, and generally uninteresting. It’s also bizarrely cast, with Hudson being perhaps the most out of place of any actor in the production. (And don’t say Fergie; anyone who’s actually watched the movie knows that Fergie is the best part.) And yet, with this frankly terrible song, playing an American reporter who is at best on the periphery of the story, Hudson throws herself into her big musical number, “Cinema Italiano.” It’s hard to say that a scene like this serves her well, but I can’t say I don’t find her efforts endearing. There’s nothing lazy about her. Give her a challenge and she’ll throw herself into it.
Something Borrowed
The most underrated and easily the best of Hudson’s rom-coms is less a story about romance and more a story of best friends in a toxic relationship. Once again showing a lack of vanity that could serve her so well if given the opportunity, Hudson delivers a character who’s completely unsympathetic, but she makes you care about her anyway, as if against your will.
[Where to stream Something Borrowed]
Glee
Half the Glee audience had fled by the time that Rachel Berry made it to New York, but those who did missed Hudson as a monster of a dance instructor. Whether or not you want to chalk it up to the unearned self-confidence of a daughter of Hollywood privilege (I might), the fact is that Hudson dives head-first into Ryan Murphy’s surreal landscape (and into Lady Gaga’s “Americano”) with the kind of zeal that is undeniably compelling. She’s a star who knows how to give a star performance no matter the level of the material.
Once again, Hudson’s willingness to get weird is something that surely some enterprising filmmaker could take advantage of. Certainly she deserves better than Garry Marshall’s feeble attempts at multi-cultural sermonizing. Certainly a universe that looks at Matthew McConaughey’s career and says “Let’s win that man an Oscar” owes Kate Hudson a resurgence of her own. Give her something good — something weird; just not Mother’s Day weird — and see what happens.
