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Kate Hudson recently revealed the best part of her nearly 30 years in Hollywood.
Hudson caught up with PEOPLE at the world premiere of her upcoming biopic Song Sung Blue at AFI Fest in Hollywood, Calif., on Oct. 26. During the conversation, the actress reflected on the “biggest gifts” of her career.
“I think the first thing that comes to mind is the people that I’ve met, the connections, they always feel like my biggest gifts,” Hudson, 46, said.
“I feel so lucky to be involved in a world of people that are just so endlessly fascinating and intelligent and wild and live outside of — even if they [only] strive — to live outside of the norm,” she added.
The Almost Famous actress made her big-screen debut in 1998 in the indie flick Desert Blue, in which she played the daughter of a Hollywood star who gets temporarily stranded in small-town America. The movie also starred Christina Ricci and Casey Affleck.
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Hudson’s most recent project, the upcoming Song Sung Blue — which is based on the 2008 documentary of the same name — follows the lives of Mike Sardina (Hugh Jackman) and Claire Sardina (Hudson), a married couple who who performed as the Neil Diamond tribute band Lightning & Thunder.
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Hudson said the movie is the culmination of “everything” she’s done and worked towards in her career while speaking to PEOPLE at the L.A. premiere.
“[…] All I ever wanted to do was do musicals. This obviously isn’t [a musical], but […] this movie in particular [is] everything that I’ve studied throughout my life or my career. I get to do [it all] in one film, and that doesn’t happen very often,” she said.
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She added, “I’m just so happy that [writer and director] Craig Brewer — that he wanted me to do it.”
As for how the Running Point star got into character to play Claire?
“I think it was the hair,” she revealed. “The second my hot rollers went in and they came out, I was just like .. I just felt like a completely different person.”
Hudson went on to say that she deeply appreciated her character’s outlook on life, especially her ability to find the light even when things looked bleak.
“There’s something about Claire, she has this love for life. Even in the darkest moments, when you get to know her, she just powers through with this light and joy, and wants to make everything […] happy. And there’s something about that energy that I just tapped into a little bit,” she explained.
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Hudson also said that she got to know the real Neil Diamond during the filming process, and that the experience gave her a whole new appreciation for both Diamond and his music.
“Getting to know him was also just a real dream. He’s so wonderful and kind and loving and his family is great. But Neil has this thing — he brings people together. It’s this kind of music. It’s so American, and then at the same time, it like just makes people happy. There’s something about the songs that he writes. It makes people want to put their arms around each other and sing it,” she said.
Song Sung Blue hits theaters nationwide on Dec. 25.
