Billy Crudup's On-Screen Kissing Skills Got Big Praise From Kate Hudson
Kate Hudson has been on the giving and receiving end of kissing critiques, with her co-stars Billy Crudup and Matthew McConaughey being among those she has kissed and told about. Just don't ask her to dish about what it was like to lock lips with her on-screen love interest in the 2008 rom-com "My Best Friend's Girl," comedian Dane Cook.
In 2022, Janelle Monáe grilled Hudson about some of her most memorable movie make-out moments for the Vanity Fair lie detector test. Hudson was shown photos of a few of her past co-stars and asked to share her honest opinions of their kissing capabilities. When Monáe slid a photo of Cook in front of Hudson, she grimaced and said, "No. Canceled." Cook previously complained about the "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery" star having extreme halitosis when they filmed their kissing scene. "I think she purposely ate like a feast of onions before our scene," Cook said in a 2014 "Watch What Happens Live" interview, according to ABC News. So, you can see why Hudson would want him canceled.
Hudson had a lot more to say about her "Almost Famous" co-star Crudup. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, she revealed that she viewed their scripted lip lock as a big perk of landing the role of Penny Lane in the 2000 coming-of-age classic. "You show up to set and you're like, 'I get to, like, snog Billy Crudup,'" Hudson said. And the actor lived up to her high expectations.
The kissing scene Kate Hudson loved filming got cut
While taking her Vanity Fair lie detector test, Kate Hudson compared kissing Billy Crudup to making out with Matthew McConaughey, whom she appeared alongside in "Fool's Gold and "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days." She didn't outright say that it sucked sucking face with McConaughey, but did opine, "I think Billy is a gentler kisser." Hudson elaborated by comparing the two men to a Russian stage star who developed techniques to help actors appear more natural onstage — and a bovine native to McConaughey's home state. "It's a more sophisticated version of a kiss. It's like theater, Stanislavski," she said, "and like, Longhorns."
Hudson also praised Crudup's snogging skills on the "Goop" podcast, but noted their steamy kissing scene wasn't included in the final cut of "Almost Famous." In it, Crudup's rocker character, Russell Hammond, talks his best band aid out of going into early retirement with flattery and a long, passionate lip lock.
As for how Crudup felt about Hudson's flattery, it didn't have him climbing on a roof and proclaiming, "I am a golden god!" Being far humbler than Hammond, he tried to work out why Hudson felt his kiss was softer than McConaughey's. The answer? '70s-era facial hair. "I think she was thinking the character Russell was gentler. I don't have a mustache now," he told Entertainment Tonight. So maybe McConaughey's issue was some stubble that made his upper lip have the sandpaper texture of a longhorn's tongue?
Billy Crudup dated multiple co-stars he kissed for work
When Billy Crudup and Kate Hudson were photographed at an NYC party together in 2007, it sparked rumors that there was possibly something romantic going on between the former co-stars, per Lainey Gossip. No love connection was ever confirmed, but Crudup does have a habit of dating his leading ladies. In 1996, he and Mary-Louise Parker fell in love while playing love interests in the Broadway play "Bus Stop." Then, Crudup filmed the 2004 romantic drama "Stage Beauty" with Claire Danes. The pair closed the film with a passionate kiss and would later get caught canoodling after the cameras stopped rolling, per People. But to be with Danes, Crudup had to dump Parker — who was seven months pregnant with their child at the time.
In a February 2023 interview with The Irish Times, Crudup explained why he refuses to talk about his messy romantic history. "That's a lifelong pursuit — constantly trying to manage how people think about me as opposed to thinking about my work," he said. Still, "The Morning Show" star didn't give up on finding love at work after he and Danes split in 2006. He and Naomi Watts started dating after they played husband and wife in the 2017 Netflix series "Gypsy," which called for the actors to shoot some fiery intimate scenes. "When you're working with somebody who's so good, you want to try and be as good," Crudup said of Watts in a featurette.