Kate Hudson: Who Gets to Be Taken Seriously?
The Sam Sanders Show
KCRW & Sam Sanders
4.9 • 709 Ratings
🗓️ 27 February 2026
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Kate Hudson has always loved acting, but she feels the most like herself when she’s singing.
It’s how she landed her role in the musical drama ‘Song Sung Blue.’ She stars alongside Hugh Jackman as performers in a Neil Diamond tribute band. She’s now nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance. Kate tells Sam about how Quincy Jones encouraged her to sing as a kid and how she finally found the courage to share her voice.
Kate also gets real about growing up in a famous family and the difficulties of working in Hollywood. Plus, she explains why she will always be grateful for the romantic comedies of her past.
“I walk down the street and I connect with girls from 13 years old right now to 70 years old. And I did that because I made movies that might not have necessarily got me nominated, but it's made people feel happy.”
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey y'all, Sam Sanders here. |
| 0:08.2 | Thank you for checking out the show. |
| 0:10.3 | Have you seen Song Song Blue? |
| 0:13.5 | It is a movie that I loved last year. |
| 0:15.9 | That's a little hard to explain. |
| 0:17.8 | It's a Neil Diamond musical, but also not quite because it's actually a biopic |
| 0:22.6 | about a Neil Diamond tribute band starring both Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson. |
| 0:28.6 | I'm never going to be the real McCoy. |
| 0:30.6 | I mean, I don't really look like Neil. |
| 0:32.6 | I don't even really sound like Neil. |
| 0:34.6 | I've got to be Neil, but I've just got to be me, too. Yeah, you don't want to be a Neil Diamond |
| 0:41.3 | impersonator. You want to be a Neil Diamond interpreter. |
| 0:45.3 | I was looking for the right way to say it, and you just came right out and said |
| 0:49.3 | a Neil Diamond interpreter. But maybe at its core it's just a really good |
| 0:54.8 | family drama. |
| 0:56.4 | However you describe this film, |
| 0:58.4 | Song Song Blue made me laugh |
| 1:00.2 | and cry |
| 1:01.1 | and pump my fist in the air |
| 1:03.0 | at all the right times. |
| 1:05.0 | Kate Hudson is truly |
| 1:06.4 | the star of this movie |
... |
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