How Kate Hudson Knew Kathryn Hahn Was ‘a Comedic Star’ During Her ‘How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days’ Audition
Almost 20 years after How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Kate Hudson and Kathryn Hahn still have plenty of chemistry. The actors even had so much fun reuniting for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery that they reduced Daniel Craig to hysterics while turning their hotel into an ad-hoc comedy club.
Although the two haven’t seen much of each other since 2003, Hudson considers Hahn a “soul sister” and says she pegged Hahn as a star from the moment they auditioned together.
Kate Hudson instantly connected with Kathryn Hahn during ‘How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days’
A phone going off during an audition or interview isn’t supposed to be a good thing. But not everyone has the comedic ability of Hahn. Just as Hahn was about to run through her lines for How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, her phone went off. Instead of ignoring it, Hahn answered the phone mid-audition and made Hudson believe in her comedic gifts.
While relaying the story to Extra, Hudson recalls saying to producer Lynda Obst, “‘She’s a comedic star and she doesn’t even realize what she is.'” Hahn nailed the rest of the audition and became one of the bright spots of the romantic comedy, one of the biggest comedy hits of 2003 (per Box Office Mojo).
In the years that followed, Hudson and Hahn kept in touch but hadn’t seen each other in years when they were both cast in Glass Onion. Hudson told The Hollywood Reporter that “…it was like we never left. I feel like we are soul sisters. It’s the best.”
Hahn and Hudson’s chemistry was critical in ‘How to Lose a Guy…’
As Glamour reports, many film writers grew up believing in the friendship of Andie (Hudson) and Michelle (Hahn) from How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. It was Matthew McConaughey and Hudson on the movie poster. But Hahn’s role as Andi’s best friend helps to set the entire plot into motion.
In a part originally meant for Gwyneth Paltrow (per EW), Hudson plays a frustrated columnist who thinks she has more to contribute. Meanwhile, Hahn plays a coworker and friend who is an unmitigated disaster with relationships.
Andie can coax Michelle out of bed. But she’s having a harder time explaining why Michelle needs a change of pace to keep a guy longer than a week.
Recognizing the opportunity, Andie realizes Michelle’s tactics are the perfect example of what not to do with a guy, and a new column is born. While Hudson is the old-fashioned love interest, Hahn proves to be an excellent comedic punching bag in her first Hollywood role.
Producers agreed with Hudson after seeing Hahn onscreen, leading to Hahn being cast in other popular comedies like Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Step Brothers in the years that followed.
Due to the ongoing popularity of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Hudson has even talked about the real possibility that a sequel could happen one day. After saying on The Jonathan Ross Show that she and McConaughey “have the same feeling” about a potential sequel, Hudson joked that maybe the title should be “How to Lose a Husband in 20 Years.”
There were plenty of off-camera antics while filming ‘Glass Onion’ during Covid
Hudson and Hahn hadn’t seen each other much in the last few years. But they quickly picked up where they had left off. Off-camera chemistry was especially helpful when they had to go into a Covid lockdown while filming. Speaking to Sky News, Hudson said, “It was COVID, so it kind of forced us to have to play with each other for three months, so we ended up getting really close and it was really fun.”
One story that made the rounds had Hudson and Hahn at the center of a wild game of Mafia in their hotel during lockdown. Director Rian Johnson told a panel at the Saturday’s Contenders event that they kept it loose while filming in Belgrade, Serbia by playing party games (via Deadline).
Johnson said, “We would rent out the hotel bar up top, get very drunk together and play Mafia,” he told the panel. “Kate [Hudson] takes her mafia very, very seriously.”
Mafia is a role-playing game with a detective element for those unfamiliar. This makes it a perfect fit behind the scenes of a murder mystery like Glass Onion. In Hudson’s version of the story, Hahn was right at the center of the hilarity. Craig laughed hysterically at one point. Hudson said in her interview with Extra, “I actually have the footage of me rolling Kathryn around on a tray cart.”
The off-camera playfulness seemed to positively affect the movie itself, which has been praised for its deep cast and hilarious twists. In the Netflix movie, Hudson and Hahn play characters lured to an exotic island by a billionaire (Ed Norton) under the guise of a murder mystery party.
After the warm welcome for the second of a planned Knives Out trilogy, Johnson told Deadline that he expects to begin plotting the third installment before taking on any other projects.
