Kate Hudson
:
Kate Garry Hudson["Kate", not "Katherine", is her birth name, according to the State of California. California Birth Index, 1905-1995. Center for Health Statistics, California Department of Health Services, Sacramento, California. At Ancestry.com] (born
April 19,
1979 in
Los Angeles, California) is an
American film actress. She came to fame in 2000, after an
Oscar-nominated role in the drama
Almost Famous, and has since established herself as a
Hollywood lead actress, starring in several successful films, including
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and
The Skeleton Key.
Early life
Hudson was born in
Los Angeles to
Bill Hudson (a singer, comedian and member of the
Hudson Brothers) and
Goldie Hawn (a well-known film actress). Her mother has
Hungarian Jewish ancestry while her paternal grandmother was of
Italian descent
and her paternal grandfather's ancestry traces to 15th-century
England.
Hudson was raised in the
Jewish religion,
though her family also practiced
Buddhism.
Hudson's parents divorced eighteen months after her birth, and she and her brother, actor
Oliver Hudson, were raised in
Colorado by her mother and her mother's long-time boyfriend, actor
Kurt Russell.
Because Hudson's biological father was absent during most of her childhood, the two are estranged from each other. Hudson has stated that her biological father "doesn't know me from a hole in the wall", and that she considers her mother's partner,
Kurt Russell, to be her father.
Hudson has described her mother as "the woman that I've learned the most from, and who I look up to, who has conducted her life in a way that I can look up to".
She has three half-siblings, Emily and Zachary Hudson, from her biological father's subsequent marriage to actress
Cindy Williams, and Wyatt, from her mother's relationship with Kurt Russell. Her cousin is singer
Sarah Hudson.
Hudson graduated from
Crossroads, a performing school in
Santa Monica, in 1997. She was accepted to
New York University, but chose to pursue an acting career instead of attending.
Career
Hudson's breakthrough role was as Penny Lane in
Cameron Crowe's
Almost Famous (2000), for which she was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
She had previously appeared in the lesser-known films
Gossip, a teenage drama, and
200 Cigarettes, a
New Year's-set comedy with a large cast of actors. Regarding her early career and succees, Hudson has noted that she is a "hard worker", and did not want to be associated with her well-known parents, wishing to avoid the perception that she "rode on somebody's coattails".
Hudson turned down the part of
Mary Jane Watson in the 2002 film version of
Spider-Man, and instead starred in remake of the historical romance
The Four Feathers, a film which was not well received by critics or audiences. Her next film,
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, a romantic comedy, became a big success at the box office, grossing over $100 million after its February 2003 release. Hudson subsequently appeared in several romantic comedies, including
Alex and Emma and
Raising Helen; the films were met with varying degrees of success.
Hudson headlined a thriller called
The Skeleton Key in 2005. The film, which had a production budget of $43 million, enjoyed box office success, grossing over $91.9 million worldwide ($47.9 million in the US alone).
Her latest film, a comedy titled
You, Me and Dupree and co-starring
Owen Wilson and Matt Dillon, grossed $21.5 million on its opening weekend of
14 July 2006, within industry expectations.
Hudson has long expressed an interest in producing films,
and is currently finalizing a deal to produce and star in the film
A Dream of Red Mansions, opposite
Ken Watanabe, in which she will play Diana Mellors, a real-life photojournalist who moved to
China and became a
Communist; filming will begin in the fall of 2006.
Two projects in which Hudson was previously scheduled to star in, the comedy
Can You Keep a Secret? and the drama
Sleight of Mind, are still in development.
Personal life
In 2000, Hudson married
Chris Robinson, a frontman for
The Black Crowes. She gave birth to their son, Ryder Russell Robinson, on
January 7,
2004. The couple live in a house that was once owned by director
James Whale and travel together during Hudson's film shoots or Robinson's music tours.
Hudson has noted that she is currently "not very religious",
although she still describes herself as "Jewish".
Hudson has said that she does not enjoy watching herself on screen, specifying that she "get[s] cold... shake[s] and... sweat[s]" when watching her performances for the first time.
Hudson has sued the British version of
the National Enquirer after they had stated that she has an
eating disorder and described her as "painfully thin". Hudson has noted that the tabloid's actions were "completely inappropriate" and a "blatant lie", and specified her concern relating the impressions about weight that she feels the tabloid could have on young girls.
Footnotes
Interviews
*
yourMovies.com.au interview (July 25, 2006)
*
MQ7.net interview (August 13, 2005)
*
LA Family interview (2005)
*
Style.com interview (June, 2003)
Web sites
*
Kate Hudson NET
