press archive :: Fool's Gold - swapping stories

With Fool's Gold about to hit theaters on February 8 to set the proper cinematic tone for Valentine's Day, we were on hand for the film's press conference in Santa Monica where Kate Hudson and soon-to-be-father Matthew McConaughey swapped stories about tropical diving, the magic of their chemistry, their relationship in the movie, and the strangest place where they've been recognized by fans.

Hudson and McConaughey on their stunt work in Fool's Gold:

HUDSON: I held my breath, in one take, for 45 seconds because I had to go down and wrap the rope around, which when you see it, you’re like, ‘God, they make it look so easy.’ But in fact, you’re going...

MCCONAUGHEY: Yeah, it’s onscreen for five seconds.

HUDSON: That was a real - I was really proud of myself for that stunt because I had been doing lung exercises to be able to get myself however far I needed to get to. And then... it was wild. The thing about working in water, period, is that it’s so sensitive. You really have to be very careful, and everybody has to be very on - it’s very serious. So there’s not really much goofing around when you're working underwater.

MCCONAUGHEY: And Kate came a long way. From the day you went out to get certified until the end, you came a long way with your comfort with the diving stuff and just being in the natural water.

HUDSON: Oh, I was terrified. I was so scared. I would sit on the edge of the boat and I’d be like, ‘I don’t know why I’m doing this. I don’t know why I’m doing this. I don’t want to get in the water.’ And then I’d look down and I’d see a three-and-a-half-foot angelfish and I’m like, ‘I’m not supposed to know about this. I don’t care about it. I don’t want to know.’ And then the second I got underwater it was like, ‘Oh, wait a minute. I want to know about all of this stuff.’

McConaughey on the most beautiful dive he's ever been on:

"While I was there in Australia, I went over to Papua, New Guinea, and dove and visited a lot of -- did some wreck dives with some World War II planes and stuff. That was one of the cooler dives I’ve done, about 35, 40 meters. That was really cool. You’d either have a nature dive or a wreck dive. And I’ve done nature dives, but that wreck dive was really pretty special... There are planes, there are Japanese planes down there. And you can still see the full-on red dot. It’s crystal clear, as if it was painted yesterday. But I was taken to spots where we knew we were going to go see some things, or hopefully, and we had good, clear water. So the visual was good."

Hudson and McConaughey on whether their chemistry happens naturally:

MCCONAUGHEY: I think so. I think that’s just something that is good with Kate and I.

HUDSON: I think it just kind of happened when we - the first meeting we ever had before we [made a movie together], like when we were going to shoot How To Lose A Guy, I think everybody in the room was like, "Oh, this is going to be really fun and easy," because we just got along really well.

MCCONAUGHEY: And we surprised each other on the screen. And I think one of the things that’s cool with Kate and I is that if one of us does surprise the other, the other one doesn’t pop up and yell, "Cut!" You kind of roll with it.

On their relationship in the movie:

MCCONAUGHEY: She didn’t want to hang out with me, but I still didn’t understand that, but I was going to get the gold. And I was going to get my girl, and I loved them both. And I was going to work it out with my wife and get the gold. She got a little sidetracked for a while, but I was on it.

HUDSON: For me, it was real similar to how I feel about Matthew in real life, which is sometimes I can’t stand him because I love him so much. You know what I mean? It drives me crazy. I love you so much, and you drive me crazy [laughs]. So it came [down to] those feelings of him off doing his thing and being all crazy and me going, "How do I reel him in and keep him here and focused?"

Hudson on whether she changes the way she approaches life because of being a parent:

"I think it’s so funny because, when you become a parent, it’s one of those things where you think that sometimes things change when in fact Chris [Robinson] and I still say that we integrate - you integrate your children into your life. And what you are is what you teach your children. And some - a lot of stunt people have kids, and they don’t quit their job. They just - they teach their children that this is what they do, and a part of what makes them happy is living their life and thrill-seek. Me, [laughs] I went the opposite. I had Ryder and I was like - I never wanted to do anything. I got terrified of everything. And then the process of being on this movie and what I was going through at that time was really getting over a lot of my phobias, because you realize that you don’t want your children to think that there are things to be fearful of. I don’t want Ryder to grow up thinking, ‘Don’t go in the water. Mom’s afraid to go in the ocean. Mom’s afraid to go in a helicopter.’ I want him to grow up going, ‘Oh, Mom scuba dives, and she skis, and she’s active, and she’s not afraid.'"

Hudson and McConaughey on the strangest place where they've been recognized by fans:

MCCONAUGHEY: I had one kid-- I was hiking through Africa, in Mali, and I was, I don’t know, a hundred miles away from the nearest town. And we were out in the middle of the bush with people that had never been in a car, people that still thought the world was flat, people that I thought had never even seen or been around electricity. And this one kid comes up and he looks at me, and he’s like, ‘Van Zan.’ And I go, ‘What?’ He goes, ‘Van Zan, you killed dragon.’ And he was talking about Reign of Fire. And I was like, ‘Yeah!’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, Van Zan.’ We high fived and sat there and went through charades and reenacted the movie for about two hours in the middle of the dirt out there. And then we laughed and went on.

HUDSON: That’s actually funny that you say Africa because I had an experience in Africa. I was just in Africa and I got this horrible, strange, bizarre-like, hive outbreak, which was very weird. And I was a little nervous about it and I was in the middle of nowhere, like near the Botswana border. And I had to go to this doctor out at a clinic, and he hardly spoke English. And I walk in and I’m in a little bit of a panic mode. I’m a little bit like, ‘You know, I didn’t really want to have something that has never happened to me before while I was out here.’ And it wasn’t like normal hives. It was very bizarre. And then I’m kind of looking at it, and he kind of looked at it and went, ‘Hmm,’ like, ‘I’ve never seen that before,’ which is not what you want to hear... And then he kind of tells me what it is, gives me something or gives me some cream to put on it and then asks to take a picture. He totally knew who I was. I was like in panic mode, and he completely recognized - he knew that I was coming in. And I was out in the middle of nowhere. That was kind of weird.

Kate Hudson on becoming a director on her 2007 film Cutlass:

"That was great. The one thing that really changed for me was I sat at -- the night, when they all premiered and something that Matthew always talked to me about, which was -- I said, 'I’ll never be late to a movie set again,' because it really makes you go -- actually, the first day I was waiting on my dad because he was having an issue with his moustache. And we’re on time constraints, and we only had ten-hour days because we had kids in it. And I’m waiting on my father. I’m just sitting there, waiting. 20 minutes go by, 30 minutes. I’m like, ‘Oh, man. I will never, ever be late to a movie set again.’ [laughs]

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