Kate Hudson talks 'Deepwater Horizon' and her favorite Philly cheesesteak

TORONTO - On screen, Kate Hudson may always be an ingenue looking for romance, or the adorable groupie of Almost Famous, but in real life, she's 37, a successful businesswoman, an author, and a mother of two.

And she has mom issues.

At the Toronto International Film Festival this month, she had to keep her phone nearby during an interview because her older son, Ryder, 12, was starting school in Los Angeles. "But these aren't problems," Hudson said with her happy laugh. "It's just the joy of life."

More than most movie stars met in hotel rooms, Hudson seems rather joyful. Why not? In order to accommodate her growing children and a transition away from chick-flick dating roles, she has developed a popular activewear clothing line, Fabletics - she loves hot yoga and Pilates - and written a book, the aptly named Pretty Happy: Healthy Ways to Love Your Body.

"It's been a real blessing for me to have had success with Fabletics," Hudson said. "It makes the choices that I make and the movies that I want to do more meaningful, because I'm doing them because I really love being a part of them. I'm not working just for the sake of working any longer. Which is really nice, especially since I'm still young. It's awesome."

So you're not merely sitting at home knitting and watching TV?

"Oh, I do that, too," she said, laughing again. It's a hearty laugh.

"My favorite thing on the planet is watching football and knitting," said the Broncos fan - she grew up in Colorado - who's now excited about the Rams coming to L.A. "All day. I'll knit. I'll watch football. Have a couple Bloody Marys."

Hudson was in Toronto to promote her new movie, Deepwater Horizon, the true story of the 2010 BP drilling-rig fire in the Gulf of Mexico. For Hudson, it's the first testosterone-heavy movie in her 20-year career.

"I've never been in a disaster movie ... [which] my father's done a lot in his career," she said of her dad, Kurt Russell, who also stars in the film with Mark Wahlberg. "It's funny, because the people who know me best have always asked why. But that's the way the industry works. You get successful in one thing, and that's what everybody wants to see you in. I think every actor struggles with that."

Except for one brief scene at the end of Horizon, Hudson and Russell are never on screen at the same time. "I'm still waiting for my On Golden Pond with Dad," she said.

You may have to produce that one yourself, I counter.

"We are," she said, brightening. "We're actually developing something right now with Mel Gibson. Barbary Coast. I'm very excited about that. I think it's going to be really great."

The TV series, which Gibson will direct and costar in, was inspired by Herbert Asbury's book The Barbary Coast: An Informal History of the San Francisco Underworld.

Asked what drew her to Deepwater Horizon, Hudson said it was director Peter Berg's personal angle on a story with which she was partly familiar.

"I really commend Pete for focusing on the human element because it was sort of forgotten," she said. "That isn't to say that the environmental disaster shouldn't have had the attention on it that it did, but there was also this whole other aspect of it."

Hudson plays Wahlberg's wife; he's working on the rig when it blows up.

"People need jobs," she said, referencing the risks that such work entails. "People need to take care of their families. And I think this is a very nice homage to these families .... From my perspective of the movie, it's kind of like being an Army wife. You say goodbye to your husband all the time."

Up next for Hudson are more movies in which she'll play real people, something else new to her career.

In the true story Marshall, Hudson plays Eleanor Strubing, who, in 1940, accused her African American chauffeur/butler, Joseph Spell, of rape. Spell was represented by a young Thurgood Marshall (Chadwick Boseman).

In the not-yet-shot Richard Pryor: Is It Something I Said? Hudson will play Pryor's wife Jennifer Lee, who was married to the comedian in the early 1980s and then again at the time of his death in 2005. The on-and-off production is on at the moment and set to star Mike Epps as Pryor. Philadelphia native Lee Daniels will direct.

Speaking of Philadelphia, Hudson is a fan.

"When I was pregnant with Ryder, I went to Philly - my ex [Black Crowes front man Chris Robinson] was playing there - and I ate three full Philly cheesesteaks in one sitting. Hands down, and I'm not just saying this to be nice, I think it's my favorite sandwich.

"If I had a desert island sandwich, it would be a Philly cheesesteak. For some it would be pastrami, for some a French dip. I'm a Philly cheesesteak."

Pat's or Geno's?

"They're right across from each other, right? I went to Pat's."

gensleh@phillynews.com

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