It’s been five years since audiences have seen Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson together and now the dynamic onscreen couple has reunited in Warner Bros.’ new romantic comedy Fool’s Gold, in which the two play a combative married couple searching for a lost treasure. After chatting with the two actors, it’s easy to see why their natural and playful chemistry works so well. Their charm and relaxed vibe puts you at ease within seconds and watching their lively and humorous interaction was anything but dull.
ComingSoon.net: Can I ask about working together again? Were you a little cautious about doing it?
Kate Hudson: We had been. We had gotten quite a few opportunities to do it before and the things that kind of came, were sort of like, “Ahhh.” We both sort of agreed
Matthew McConaughey: That would be a repeat of “How to Lose a Guy” and don’t want to do that and do that and then
Hudson: This came. And it just felt like the relationship because it was kind of an extension of what worked with “How To Lose a Guy” but at the same time it was completely different two totally different characters.
McConaughey: It sounded like a lot of fun.
Hudson: Yeah, and we did. We had a blast.
CS: Glamour magazine said, “We are the perfect pain in each other’s asses.”
Hudson: He said that!
CS: Can you elaborate on that?
McConaughey: That’s a fact. Yeah. She can be a real pain in the ass (laughs).
Hudson: I’m not that bad.
McConaughey: No! Just sometimes.
Hudson: I think it’s just a personal thing. Our relationship. We can drive each other crazy. But, what I was saying in the other room, is that there is like a real honest love for each other that is just because we love each other.
McConaughey: A real honest and respect. But it’s really easy when you get on screen when it’s a scene about, “give me a break.” You don’t have to go mining for that (laughs).
Hudson: It’s also one of those things where it is like where you start knowing someone so well that you love them like my brothers or even in relationship. The things that drive you crazy — you love even the things that drive you crazy about them.
CS: How did you work on that tan and how long did it last after filming?
Hudson: We followed summer for a year. Yeah, a year of summer for us. I was really tan which is why I am pale right now, which is great!
McConaughey: We went summer in Malibu. Then we go to Australia for six months. And then we came straight back to another summer.
Hudson: I actually came back and went straight to New York, because I live half the time in New York and I was like, “I just want to wear a scarf. I want to cover my body and wear cold.” Chris used to say that I’d sit and he’d watch me get tan over lunch. Because I could just sit there, because I’m Italian and so, I have that olive. Actually, you’re a little redder.
McConaughey: I don’t know where it comes from.
Hudson: Yeah, so, I could put on 40 sun block and we’d be loading on the sun block just getting
McConaughey: Torched.
Hudson: Oh yeah, it was crazy. And it lasted for a whole year.
CS: How hard was all the underwater stuff you had to do?
Hudson: We had to know our emergency procedures. Basically, the last month of shooting in the tank was all emergency procedures. But they became so second nature through doing them so much, that it became easy. The only thing is, when you are underwater, you really have to be sharp. There is no laziness when you are working in water.
McConaughey: You don’t really fool around. Behind the camera down there, it’s almost as large of a crew as you have on land. Because every single person, she has her girl who is a great diver who is behind the camera who has an extra tank in case the signal comes up. And I’ve got my guy and everyone has their person.
Hudson: I was doing a lot of free diving
McConaughey: And then you get in an action sequence and the bubbles are going up around you and you can’t see. And you don’t have any visuals. You don’t know if you are up or down or if you’ve gotten inverted or what.
Hudson: It looks a lot easier
McConaughey: You learn to hold your breath a little longer than you thought you could.
Hudson: I got 45 seconds which was pretty good, but I had to do that whole blow hole sequence and the thing is that they cut it and it looks like we weren’t doing it all in one take, but we were doing all that stuff in one take where I had to wrap myself around the cannon and hold myself against the cannon and the air, the bubbles would come they actually had this mechanism in the water that created the wave. That was actually the scariest moment, because I could not see. I couldn’t see anything and I was holding on, so I was a little nervous. You had to trust that the people that were there. A lot of fun though.
McConaughey: Lot of buddy breathing.
Hudson: Lot of buddy breathing.
McConaughey: Do you know what that is?
CS: No.
McConaughey: Somebody with a tank on will go down and slowly submerge and get to the bottom and pull out, give you a share, pull out, give you a share. Share the air. That also helps comfort that you know, that you are in trouble someone’s got it. There is a hand signal. Someone comes.
Hudson: Do you remember my hand signal when I saw the manatee. When I was getting certified? (laughs)
McConaughey: I remember this one. Thumbs up.
Hudson: I was so scared. I was in the ocean. Because, I was getting certified and behind me was a manatee. And it’s like the size of this table.
McConaughey: It’s like the size of a cow.
Hudson: And I’m in the ocean and there is this like, I didn’t know really what it was. It was murky. It looked like a whale (laughs). And then even when I told my diving instructor Michelle, I told Michelle I turned she was like, “Calm down, calm down.” And then she kind of went back and was like, “Whoa.” And then we went up. And I think the exact words out of my mouth was: “What the f**k was that?” (laughs) And then of course everyone was just so excited to see a manatee.
McConaughey: I turned out to be [something good]. Because you don’t see those. There are very few in the water.
CS: Risking embarrassing your co-star, what kind of daddy do you think Matthew will make?
Hudson: Oh, there is nothing embarrassing about that. I think he will be an incredible dad. People see Matthew out always doing something whether it be out dancing at a bar or beaching around or taking a hike with some crazy bandana on that was a good one (laughs). I think that, like anything, people take their image and what they want someone else to be and that just, people just run with it. And when you really know the person and really love the person you recognize that that person is like nothing. It’s not real. It’s just not. And Matthew just happens to be one of the most loving and loyal people I know. And his family is important to him, I think it’s one thing that we connect on. He’s great with kids and I think he’ll be a very responsible and absolutely blast of a dad.
McConaughey: And make no doubt about it. My kids will dance. He will be on the beach and he will be taking wild hikes (laughs).
Hudson: Yeah, this is where I get to teach Matthew. You think that now. And then you have your child and then you realize they are nothing like you expect them to be.
McConaughey: He may not dance like I do.
Hudson: Ryder doesn’t sing. He doesn’t like to sing. And you’d think, I sing, Chris sings, we’re singing, his mother sings. His grandfather, everybody in the family sings. Ryder doesn’t want to sing. He doesn’t want everyone to hear him sing. We’ve caught him a couple of times, but you realize that they really are who they are. I mean, you could literally give birth to a conservative Republican who is like a brainiac with math and you could go “I don’t know where he came from” (laughs).
McConaughey: He or she is still gonna have a little rhythm.
CS: Matt, do you anticipate making any changes to your lifestyle?
McConaughey: My instincts will take over when the young one greets the world. One thing I’ve heard that’s consistent and I have a lot of great mom and dads around me from my own to elders to peers of mine and one thing that is consistent that I’ve heard is that all the grand plans you want to make you might as well throw them out buddy, because it doesn’t happen like that. So, nothing in particular. I wouldn’t dare do that now.
CS: What are you most looking forward to about being a dad?
McConaughey: Everyday. I’ll find out about that
We all have projects you know, we go make movies, we have goals, we achieve and we build something up we are architects of things. Well, the greatest architect I can be, the one I have always looked forward to is the architect of raising a child of mine. And that’s gonna be brand new, it’s never going to repeat itself and to bring in a healthy child and to raise him the right way and then to a certain point and then let him go, and then to still see him afar? He’ll come back and come back together and see how they grow in to a young man or young woman? Hopefully, an old man or old woman, that’s the greatest miracle in the world.
Hudson: It’s also one of those things where like for everybody you have kids and you do the best you can and everybody goes through difficulties with parenting. You go through the joys of it, they go through the difficulties of it and it’s the greatest journey of all, which is such a cliché, but it is. And then at the same time, everyone raises their kids differently. Everyone has their own ideas of what is right and what is wrong. At the end of the day, you just hope they are happy. And when you see your kids happy, that’s the moment when you realize, “Ah! There is nothing else on the planet I would rather be doing than watch my child be this happy at this moment.” And when you see them when they are not happy, which you do, it’s the most devastating. You just want to take it away. It becomes all-consuming and there are no answers. There is nothing. Nobody can tell you to do things a way you don’t to them. Nobody can say really what is right or what is wrong. It’s like some people don’t feed their children meat. Some people do. Crazy world.
CS: How are you enjoying single life right now?
Hudson: I like it. I like it. I mean, my single life is me, Ryder and Chris (laughs). It doesn’t change. Chris and I were over Christmas we were in Aspen and we were like, “Should we go to like a bar?” (laughs) Really my main focus is Ryder and staying with Chris and we are just I just feel like just personally I’m in a really nice place because I’m so happy being alone with our son. And Chris is too. It’s kind of a really nice place to be in. I’m not really interested in a relationship right now. I’m interested in my son.
CS: Anything going on with j.k. living?
McConaughey: Yeah, I’ll touch on those with j.k. living. First thing we did was over the past two years is we finally got a real Matthew McConaughey website, and I’m really proud of that because the only way you can share information is through your art. So, getting online into that world is something I’m excited about. So, we got that going and it took two years to do. I’m real proud of that site. It’s real personal. It’s finally my official one. Two, we just finished production on “Surfer Dude,” which is a j.k. living production and we’ve been in development of that for seven years and we’ve been shooting and are in post production now and that’s the first really home grown from the beginning through the film that we’ve done
Hudson: I’m excited about that, ’cause Robb, the director is really wonderful.
McConaughey: The third thing is we just finished producing my first music album, Mishka. And that album will be out sometime in February and he’s on tour right now. Xavier Rudd, who is doing the score for “Surfer Dude,” and they are hitting Canada here in the next couple of days. So far, so good.
Fool’s Gold hits theaters on Friday, February 8.
