Kate Hudson’s Star
Shines Brighter Than Ever
Oscar Nominee to Be Honored As
SBIFF Arlington Artist of the Year
By Leslie Dinaberg | February 12, 2026
Shining brightly after an Oscar nomination for one of the most challenging and memorable roles of her career, Kate Hudson captures the real-life subject Claire Sardina’s spirit in Song Sung Blue. Hudson plays the complicated role with sparkling brilliance, both on and off the stage (as part of a Neil Diamond tribute band with her husband, played by Hugh Jackman) and also leans far into the darkness that Sardina ultimately falls into.
Hudson will bring some of her own fiery magnetism to the stage of the Arlington Theatre on Friday, February 13, when she’s honored with the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s Arlington Artist of the Year Award. We chatted about her role in the film, her career, and life as a working mom and artist.
Tell me a little bit about how you got involved with Song Sung Blue. There was a script floating around that my agent had read … I had known [writer-director] Craig Brewer for many years, and I just didn’t know if it was something that they would be interested in me doing, but I felt like I would have loved the opportunity to do that.
And then when it became a real project, when Hugh [Jackman] had time to do it, Hugh actually saw me on a show talking about my album, and he was the one who was like, “You know, what about Kate?” And so, it kind of became this full-circle moment, and I got very excited. And when they called us, they wanted me to do the movie.
That’s great. When I got to see the documentary, I was sort of blown away by a couple of things. One, how wonderful Craig’s script was, how he was able to sort of translate all of that into his story, into one movie, but also just everything that happened to this couple and their life. And I was like, wow, what an epic wild ride they had, and how much perseverance and belief in each other. I just love their story, their love story.
Does that add additional pressure that this is a real person? I think I feel that for Claire, for wanting to get it right for her. What I think is something that so many people love about this story is that these aren’t people that we really know. You know, maybe people who lived in Wisconsin during that time, or Chicago … but they’re not sort of the iconic, typical biopic.
People aren’t weighing if you’re doing a good job playing, you know, Bob Dylan. I think it allows you to sort of fall into a new story that you haven’t seen and experience something completely new and without any judgment. But then there’s the personal side of it, which is, obviously, this is a woman’s real-life story, so it mattered a lot to me to get her right and honor her experiences.
One of the things that struck me so much about the film is that you’re a musician [See story about Hudson’s show at Mattei’s Tavern] playing a singer whose physicality is so different from your own. Did your experience play into that? I think it’s more about there’s a comfort on stage that you understand, and it’s also just the dynamics of not having to learn what it’s like to be a live performer. … I watched that documentary, and when Claire is in her happiest state, she sort of exudes joy with her whole body. Just as the way she moves is joyful, and her smile and her eyes sparkle when she looks at Mike, and she just feels so much. She feels it with her whole body. When I saw that, I was like, “I can’t wait to get into that, because I can feel that too.”
It’s not a role with room for vanity at all. Was there any fear around that? No, that’s the best part of what we do. We get to transform no matter what it is, what it asks of us, right? That’s the thing that you long to be asked to do is that you transform into all different kinds of things. They all require a different kind of discipline. It’s also sort of like a question of, “What is one version of beauty or vanity?” … That’s part of what’s wonderful to be able to be an artist, is that it poses that question. … I think anybody who loves to act is like, ready, super game to do things that require something really different. And so, I feel like I’m always ready to take on whatever it requires, if it means that I get to stretch, do new things, then no, I don’t have fear of that.
There’s always the, I wouldn’t call it fear, I would call it the challenge, the collaborative effort of putting a lot into a character that you have to transform into. And it can either go really right or it could go really horribly wrong based on who you’re collaborating with. … When you walk away from a project and you’ve left everything on the table, it’s sort of out of your hands, you know?
And then you have to wait to see the movie. The first time you see a movie where you know that you really kind of leaned in and had to lean in for it to work, you always have those good, anxious butterflies. And this film was that. When I went to see it for the first time, I didn’t know what to expect. … I was just so blown away by Craig’s film. I felt so honored to be in it and to have worked with him, and to have him trust me with this.
To top it off, you’ve been nominated for Best Actress. It’s very exciting, but it kind of highlights that this experience is sort of like an ongoing celebration of a movie that is being celebrated, and the performance is just such a nice feeling. Then I think about the day that the Oscars are going to happen, and I know the saddest part of that day is it is our final goodbye to the movie.
You’re so busy — you’re a mom with your TV show, your podcast, some entrepreneurial stuff, and you’re singing. What does it take for you to want to do a movie? I grew up with a dad [Kurt Russell] who always said, “You have to love something just as much as this business. Or else it can be very disappointing. And if you get too wrapped up in it and relying on it, it’s very unpredictable.” So, I grew up saying, “I’m going to be an actor.” I want to do it because I love it, not because I have to pay bills, which means I will always diversify.
When I had my second child — and my priority has always been my children — it made it harder for me to go away. Making films, they take you away from your family. As a mom, that’s really challenging. It means that I had to look in other directions to do different things that creatively inspired me. But I never lost sight of my desire to perform and make movies, and it just sort of changed the way I had to look at them. Like, how long are they going to take me away?
Song Sung Blue was the first movie, honestly, that I have ever made in my adult life — I’ve been a mom since I was 23 — and I realized that I’ve connected with my kids, but I get to go home and be alone, download my day, and I actually focus on my character, and not be distracted. I’d have these two-week chunks where I was really locked in creatively, and it was so wonderful, and I didn’t feel guilty. … I’m sort of in a different phase of my life.
Has it been a game-changer for opening up opportunities for different roles? I hope so. I really do. Because this is what I love to do. … I believe in the cinematic experience. I want to make big movies, and not just the ones that we make sometimes for ourselves and we make for a certain type of audience. I also want to make movies for everybody. Because I believe in the collective experience of the theater and what that brings to people, and I don’t want to lose that.
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