There are no better actors for making beautiful music together than Kate Hudson and Jeremy Allen White. Hudson stormed Hollywood at 20 as the hippie muse of Cameron Crowe’s “Almost Famous.” And this year, she delivers a career-best turn in “Song Sung Blue” as one-half of a Neil Diamond tribute band whose true story is as uplifting as it is heartbreaking. White, out of his chef ’s apron from “The Bear,” takes on the formidable task of portraying Bruce Springsteen at his most emotionally vulnerable and artistically free in “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere.” Here they talk tight denim, classic guitars and the rules of romantic comedy.
Kate Hudson: Jeremy, I want to talk to you about wearing those Bruce Springsteen jeans.
Jeremy Allen White: Very snug.
Hudson: Oh yeah. What did it feel like when you first put them on?
White: I felt like I had to stop eating. It was all really helpful – the boots, the jeans, the jackets. It was tight and really informed the physicality. It messed with my posture. Bruce also gave us clothing he wore as a young man, some of his actual pieces.
Hudson: Did you keep any of it?
White: No. I haven’t’ talked about this yet because it feels so precious, but he did give me his St. Christopher medal that he had for a very long time. And he gave me a guitar to learn to play, a 1955 Gibson J 200.
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Hudson: That’s my favorite. I have the same guitar. We both have music films this year, with some pretty iconic names.
White: Giants.
Hudson: I did not go deep into Neil Diamond’s catalogue until I did this movie. But Springsteen?
White: Similar for me. I was really familiar with Bruce, like everybody, but I hadn’t heard “Nebraska.”
Hudson: You didn’t? “Nebraska” was really personal one for me.
White: That was the same for a lot of musicians I spoke to when I started prep. Many had that album in their top five.
Hudson: What did it feel like to take on Bruce’s most artistic album?
White: From a technical standpoint I was in luck, because there were very few chords used on “Nebraska.” But also, in the sense that he’s so honest in all of his music. There’s so much specificity in his writing. The canvas of “Nebraska” is so rich with himself and his experience. It was like I had a map.
Hudson: How involved was Bruce in this film?
White: Bruce gave the go-ahead for our director, Scott Cooper, to do this movie but was hands-off during the writing process. I got together with him first in London, at Wembley, I got invited to soundcheck. He brought me up on stage prior to everybody coming in. We spent a few weeks together and then he was on set all the time, which was not something that we knew going into it.
Hudson: The pressure.
White: Yeah. I’ve gone back and forth about this a lot: I made all my [character] choices prior to showing up, and then I felt like I had to hang on tight once I got there. I find that I’m not super flexible when I’m on set, are you?
Hudson: On the day? I’m probably the opposite. I do a ton of work at the beginning, and I’ve learned that I have to let it all go and be available and flexible.
White: I should probably try that.
Hudson: I don’t know. You’re doing pretty good, Jeremy. Stick with what you’re doing. What you did in this movie was wonderful, as someone who has been writing songs my whole life. It made me emotional because the process of songwriting can be torturous. You internalized it all.
White: You’re so excellent in “Song Sung Blue.” You’re charismatic in everything you do, but there’s such a joy here. Even in the moments where it’s difficult to find, there’s always like some optimism within you. On the other end of the spectrum, I was so internal. My head is down and you’re this beaming light on set. Are you moving with that energy all the time?
Hudson: I think in life, I choose to like tackle it with energy and optimism every day. I try to bring that to set. Maybe it has to do with how I grew up. I really like being in the circus. I’m not an actor that goes into a hole in my trailer. Even if I’m having a tough day, you become razor sharp in moments where you have to feel or channel something.
White: Has your process changed a lot over time?
Hudson: It changes for every job. When I was younger, I was incredibly spontaneous. I work well with people throwing shit at me. I also love comedy. That side of me likes to have fresh ideas all the time and not be too rehearsed. But as I started working with different actors I learned from and admire, you steal stuff. Do you do that?
White: I try to, yeah.
Hudson: I’ll never forget looking at Naomi Watts’ script [for “Le Divorce”]. I saw her notes and was like, “Well, I’m really underperforming.”
White: You should see Jeremy Strong’s script.
Hudson: You have to get that highlighter out. Figure out, “Who is this person to me?” But Naomi was so committed to her craft. I was like, “Let’s get wine and smoke cigarettes and party on location in Paris.” She’d sit at home and know her lines.
White: But would you have done it differently? Or did you feel like that fed you in the way that you needed to finish?
Hudson: What I learned from Naomi is that it’s okay to take risks in your choices. I have a friend who worked with Cate Blanchett who had a similar experience.
White: I want to ask about your music, which is obviously a huge component of “Song Sung Blue,” but does music always play a part in a job for you?
Hudson: Huge. Certain songs evoke certain emotions for me. I’m pretty good at accessing emotion, I’m not going to lie. I can cry all the time. But when I can’t get there, there are songs. Actually, “My Father’s House” from “Nebraska” is one of those songs.
White: That was my north star. If I was ever feeling lost or unstable, or I didn’t know what a certain scene was or where Bruce was at, that grounded me. When I recorded that song [for the film], it was the first time I felt really close to Bruce.
Hudson: Sometimes, I’ll get an earwig. If there’s a scene I’m doing that needs energy, I’ll ask for one and just have sound blasting.
White: That’s so nice.
Hudson: Try that one. Since you weren’t so knowledgeable about “Nebraska,” did you listen to the whole album through? On Spotify or ever on vinyl?
White: I listened to it on vinyl once. I was in Chicago. Scott told me to turn out the lights, lay down and let it go. This was before I even read the script. I’d met with Scott and spoke about working together, but he didn’t mention Springsteen at all. He told me to listen to the record before I got a script.
Hudson: What was the first song?
White: The title track is the first song, and it’s wonderful. I don’t want to sell any of the songs short. “Highway Patrolman,” the storytelling is so great. The last track stuck with me the longest. That’s “Reason to Believe.” I love singing that song the most. I see a real romance in that.
Hudson: Did it make you want to write music?
White: No.
Hudson: Come on.
White: No, not at all. If anything, it made me realize that the writing on that record is so good it was intimidating. I remember, in prep, writing his lyrics over and over again. Not for memorization, but for a shared experience [with the character].
Hudson: It’s so funny how life works. Just yesterday, I was with Cameron Crowe. He has this book out called “The Uncool,” and I went and did a Q&A with him. He was telling this story randomly, about David Bowie. He was interviewing Bowie once, and he kept talking about this artist, this young kid from Jersey who he though was going to be great. He loved his lyrics. How cool is it that we get to be connected to these amazing people in music and then portray certain things on screen?
White: Did you spend time with Claire Sardina?
Hudson: Not really. Our director Craig Brewer was precious about me not spending too much time with Claire. He wanted me to do my own thing and stick to the character as he wrote it.
White: It’s devastating. This is one of the movies where you go into your phone after and search, like, “Surely, this isn’t how this happened.” But at the core of it, it’s such a hopeful movie. You look at all this tragedy and then you are somehow inspired by the grit of these people.
Hudson: The power of escape and the joy of music. Our films are different but they’re stories about music saving people. In our film’s case, it was about a tip jar musician who didn’t get the opportunity to see stardom. They did it because they love it.
White: Because they had to do it. They’re not thinking about what they’re going to get back.
White: What about “Almost Famous”? That experience is not just a little connected to music.
Hudson: I got the part when I was 19. It was a dream. I had already started writing music at 18 years old, but to have someone like Cameron be this wellspring of musical information? It blew my mind, and it blew my life open. I have to ask, would you ever consider doing a rom-com?
White: I’d love to. I’ve never done one before but they seem so fun.
Hudson: They’re harder than you think. The rules are different. You want to make it for the people showing up to see it. They want something out of it, too. They want to feel, to laugh.
White: I worry about finding the right character, because I’d want it to be a classic rom-com. Not a flash in the pan, but “When Harry Met Sally.”
Hudson: One of the greats. It’s one of the hardest genres to get right. But it’s a game-changer for your life. You can’t imagine how many people you help feel good.
Production: Emily Ullrich; Agency: Nevermind Agency