It’s a real-life story of a couple who never let the dream die, as the two actors tapped into their musical sides.

Hudson praised her partner Jackman: “It’s hard not to feel magic with Hugh; he’s magical, sparkly man. He’s got this youthful spirit, and his generosity of spirit is wide and large. I feel like it’s hard not to fall in love with him; he’s really wonderful.”

Recalling when they sang together for the first time, Hudson said, “We got in there and I think it was like finding the vibe because it’s one thing to record for a recording, it’s another thing to record for live, which is what we were doing.

It was kind of fun to find the imperfections and what we were going to be doing on the day. It was a great way to get to know each other for us too because we’re in the studio for hours — before we got to go on set and play this very intimate married couple, we got to spend good time together working on the music.”

Writer-director Craig Brewer recalls: “That was magical, it really was. Getting them into the studio for the first time, watching them sing harmony for each other, it was just beautiful.”

When they got to shooting the film, “the whole crew just said the same thing — they were like, ‘This is what we wanted, we just didn’t know we wanted it.’ It was infectious; everybody on the set every day would just gather around the screens and just see this chemistry between the two of them.”

Oscar Context

My Oscar Book

Kate Hudson, who is the daughter of Goldie Hawn, had been Oscar nominated just once for the Best Supporting Actress in Almost Famous, back in 2001.

For his portrayal of Jean Valjean in the musical Les Miserables (2012), Hugh received his first and only Best Actor Oscar nomination.

Song Sung Blue hits theaters December 25.