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Kate doesn't mind a five-minute role in Kapur's film
Almost Famous Kate Hudson has a dazzling role in The Four Feathers
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Arthur J Pais
Kate Hudson, Oscar nominee for Almost Famous, seems a little tired of being asked why she took up a small part in The Four Feathers.
"I wanted to be in a film by Shekhar," she says, looking at Shekhar Kapur with pride. She is in Toronto, along with Kapur, her costar Heath Ledger, to promote the film, which could fetch many Oscar nominations.
"I would even take up a five-minute role in his film," she continues. She has admired his previous films Bandit Queen and Elizabeth immensely, she says. "I wanted to give him my very best in this film and I think I have done it," she says. Kapur had signed her before Almost Famous had gone to become a critical success (and a box-office dud).
Hudson has more than five minutes in The Four Feathers.
As a young woman conscious of status and duty in late 19th century Britain who is shocked when her fiance, Harry Feversham, refuses to fight a British war in Sudan she is seen in the beginning of the film in several crucial scenes. She too sends Harry a white feather to symbolise what she and his friends think is his cowardice.
Then, for a long time, she is gone. We see Harry secretly getting into Sudan to save his friends after having heard the war has gone against the British. When Hudson returns to the screen, she plans to marry Harry's best friend. But then Harry, who was presumed dead, suddenly appears in England.
Her dazzling performance as a confused, but ultimately loyal, young woman could get her yet another Oscar nomination, as per the buzz at the festival. Or at least a better pay cheque for her next project.
Kapur says he knows Hudson does not like to be known as a star, but she is destined to be one. "I hope people will notice that even when she is not onscreen, the impact she has created lingers," Kapur says. "She is that powerful."
Hudson, daughter of veteran actress Goldie Hawn, is famous in Hollywood for her independent thinking and resistance to stereotyped material. The Four Feathers, which cost about $80 million, is her biggest movie yet in terms of budget. Hudson, who made her debut about four years ago in the little seen Desert Blue, has acted in half dozen films.
On September 20, the day The Four Feathers will float into hundreds of movie houses in America, a smaller film called Banger Sisters would also be released. It stars Kate's mother along with Susan Sarandon. It is a comedy about two best friends and former rock groupies reuniting after two decades find that one of them is still rocking out while the other has "grown up" and become "traditional."
"When was the last time such a thing happened?” Hudson asks. "Mother and daughter in two films opening the same day. Has there ever been a film about a son and a mother or a daughter and father opening the same day?"
The talk about competition between the two movies is rubbish, she says. They are very different from each other, she asserts, adding that there is plenty of room in the market for varieties of movies. "I don't like the business of discussing what film is among the top five
or ten," she says. "There are so many good films out there that never make the top 10 lists."
She discusses her film roles with her mother but the best advice Goldie Hawn has ever given to her is about being a good wife, Kate Hudson who recently married a musician, says. "I would love to stay at home from time to time and cook some wonderful meals," she says with a radiant smile. However busy one is, it is important in a marriage to have meaningful time
at home, she adds.
What drew Kapur to her? "I was looking for an American actress of exceptional grace and intelligence to play this part," says Kapur. "Many British actresses have an exaggerated and unreal picture of what is expected of someone living in a Victorian age."
"I was so convinced that Kate would do a wonderful job," he says. "Even if I had put her in a corset, she would have jumped out of it in a minute."
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