Kate Hudson is currently starring in a Netflix series called Running Point. Kate plays Isla Gordon, a reformed party girl in her 30s who has to prove herself when she gets put in charge of her family’s professional basketball team, the Los Angeles Waves. It’s a Mindy Kaling series (she’s one of three co-creators) that was inspired by the LA Lakers president and controlling owner, Janie Buss. Brenda Song, Chet Hanks, Justin Theroux, Max Greenfield, and Jay Ellis are also in it.
Kate recently sat down with Bustle to talk about Running Point, family, her life philosophy and more. Now 45, Kate is such a free spirit that she’ll flirt with anyone. Thankfully, her fiancé, Danny Fujikawa, is A-OK with it! It’s a lengthy interview and you can check out the full piece here. Here are some of the highlights:
Running Point is full of hotties: [W]orking on Running Point was like feasting at a heartthrob buffet. There was Max Greenfield at peak Nice Jewish Boy, Jay Ellis still sporting his Top Gun: Maverick abs, and Justin Theroux doing his best Hunter Biden (complimentary) as a dirtbag scion. “I was like, ‘What a dream! We have so many beautiful men to work with every day!’” Hudson tells me so enthusiastically it sounds like she might drop a hubba hubba. A relative newcomer, actor Toby Sandeman, made her full-on weak in the knees. “I remember there’s a scene where he comes in in this white suit, and he actually took my breath away. I literally was like, ‘Hi.’”
She’ll flirt with anybody: “I’m the biggest flirt on the planet. So I think anybody who’s ever been with me is very aware that I flirt with everybody — girls, boys,” she says matter of factly. Her fiancé, musician Danny Fujikawa, with whom she has daughter Rani, has learned to roll with it since they first met decades ago as friends. (Hudson also has a son with The Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson and another son with Muse frontman Matt Bellamy.) “Thank God Danny is my partner. He can handle this. I met the right guy.”
Covid made her realize her need to be creative: “In COVID, I realized that my creativity had been shut off for a long time. In those moments of fear, I was like, ‘I’m not putting out what I want to be totally putting out right now.’ Music was the big flashing red light for me,” she says of her debut pop-rock album, Glorious, which dropped last spring. (Entering the music industry in your 40s? That also takes guts.) “I’m very clear about the things that I really want to be doing now in my life. Whether it’s good, whether it’s bad, I know how my machine wants to function.”
On parenting: “As a parent, you want your kids to love themselves. You want them to know what the core of who they are is and to honor it, to love it, and to love themselves.” Sometimes parenting, however, means tough love. For example, she’s made sure her son Ryder is well aware of what will be required of him if he moves home after college. “He’s like, ‘I got to figure out what my life is going to look like and how I’m going to achieve the things that I want to achieve and how I can live. I think you should be teaching your kids those things way earlier on so that when they get to that point, they’re not like, ‘Oh my God, how do I afford my life and not lean on my family?’”
On sex in your 40s: “The best part about sex in your 40s, honestly, is the freedom. Sex isn’t supposed to be pretty. When you get older you kind of have more fun with that.”
She faces discomfort head-on: “God, you’d be a sociopath if you just had the confidence to walk into anything or be fearless in everything,” she says. It’s just that, in those moments, she doesn’t try to shy away from discomfort. Hudson’s super power lies in her ability to take everything life throws her way in stride. “Everybody’s different in what your challenges are,” she says, shaking her head playfully. “We say challenges, not weaknesses — even though they feel like weakness sometimes.”
Aries just wanna have fun: “Let’s be honest, I’m a star sign person. I’m an Aries, and we’re the people that if you want to go have a good time, you’re like, ‘Hey, are you down?’ We’re like, ‘Yes,’” Hudson says, grinning. Especially if, say, a locker room’s worth of men and their bulging biceps are what’s on the menu. “I mean, on this set I was like, ‘How lucky am I? This is not difficult.’”
The whole interview is a vibe. Kate definitely gives off that force-of-nature energy. She’s so outgoing and seems like she’d be a fun person to hang out with. I have no trouble believing that she’s the kind of person who laughs in the face of discomfort and takes things in stride. I love what she has to say about realizing during Covid that her creativity had been shut off. I think that a lot of people used that time to explore personal or creative projects.
I also have no trouble believing that Kate’s a naturally flirty person who flirts with everyone she meets. It’s probably part of her rizz. I like that she put it out there about having more “fun” with sex as you get older, I think that applies to so many things! I wish that someone had told me in my mid-20s not to worry so much about certain things because they don’t “have” to be a certain way. It really is quite freeing.
Kate and Janie Buss:
Photos credit: Katrina Marcinowski/Netflix 2024, Getty images for Netflix and via Instagram/Bustle