Hugh Jackman by no means thought he’d be a karaoke man. However then Neil Diamond occurred.
Starring reverse Kate Hudson within the Christmas Day launch “Track Sung Blue,” the 57-year-old Australian actor portrays not the legendary Grammy winner and shaggy-haired intercourse image, however somewhat a Neil Diamond “interpreter,” the real-life Mike Sardina, who, along with his spouse and stage associate, Claire (Hudson), discovered sudden success with a tribute band in mid-Nineties Milwaukee.
It was this movie that not too long ago introduced the “Biggest Showman” star to Diamond’s Colorado ranch, the place the 2 participated in a singing session that satisfied Jackman to purchase his personal karaoke machine.
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“Usually, I’m like, ‘I don’t need to try this,’” says Jackman, over Zoom from a New York resort room, as if he’s confessing a mortal sin. “However I did karaoke with Neil, and I’m like, ‘All proper, now I’m in.’”
What did they sing? Diamond soloed on “I Dreamed a Dream” from “Les Misérables,” paying tribute to Jackman’s musical theater bona fides, earlier than the 2 duetted on Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Assist Falling in Love” and, in fact, Diamond’s personal “Candy Caroline.” The nice instances by no means appeared so good.
It was a grasp session so epic that Hudson, becoming a member of the decision, appears inexperienced with an envy that matches her sweater. “I can’t consider I missed this karaoke celebration,” she says. “I’ve an entire karaoke setup at my home with a microphone and every thing. I really feel very disregarded.”
Fortunately, when it got here to creating “Track Sung Blue,” it didn’t appear so lonely for her. Based mostly on Greg Kohs’ 2008 documentary of the identical title, the movie is as a lot Claire’s story as it’s Mike’s, following the true couple’s love story set to the tune of Diamond’s in depth songbook. On the peak of their success, which included enjoying with Pearl Jam at Eddie Vedder’s request, the Sardinas grew to become native celebrities, billed because the duo “Lightning & Thunder.”
Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson within the film “Track Sung Blue.”
(Focus Options)
A Vietnam vet and mechanic with a dream of entertaining, Sardina appears a job tailored for Jackman, who can go from Wolverine to Broadway in a single season. “Track Sung Blue” writer-director Craig Brewer, who first noticed the documentary at a small movie pageant in Memphis, Tenn., by no means envisioned anybody however Jackman because the insatiable Wisconsinite.
“It was at all times Hugh as a result of there’s not anyone else on the market who might perceive the wild showmanship that Mike Sardina had,” says Brewer, calling from his Memphis house. “He’s doing two layers of a personality. He’s enjoying this working-class man that likes to entertain any means he can. If he’s acquired to put on sequined shirts, he’s going to. He’s going to present you every thing he has.”
The position offered a puzzle for Jackman, regardless of having performed profession impresarios like pop idol Peter Allen and P.T. Barnum. “I needed to lose Hugh Jackman to be Mike,” says the actor, relaxed in an umber-colored button-down shirt. “How does Mike discover himself inside his love of Neil? It took me a second to seek out him and lose my shtick, as a result of I’m a performer too.”
In the end, the answer wasn’t his Neil Diamond impersonation, although Brewer inspired Jackman to make a meal of that. “You possibly can lay a bit bit extra butter on it,” the director remembers telling him.
As a substitute, Jackman’s breakthrough got here through deep self-identification.
“His dream was at all times large however this was not how he thought it was going to go,” Jackman says. “It was that ‘one plus one equals three’ factor the place, swiftly, they discovered themselves being the subsequent large factor.” Equally, Jackman by no means supposed to change into a film star synonymous with musical theater. He’d by no means even sung earlier than a post-university audition modified the course of his life.
“One of many hardest issues to do is pretend chemistry,” Kate Hudson says. “You possibly can’t try this. It’s a must to really fall in love with one another and discover the chemical connection.”
(Victoria Will / For The Instances)
Hudson is a less-obvious casting selection. Although she’s made a profession enjoying rom-com heroines, with “Track Sung Blue,” she’s already producing awards buzz for her flip as a guileless Midwestern mother miles away from the glittering girls Hudson usually portrays, and one together with her justifiable share of trauma. She has to go to some darkish locations, channeling Claire’s despair, habit to painkillers and extra — however regardless of her penchant for enjoying extra carefree girls, Hudson says she wasn’t intimidated by the position’s meatier elements.
“Once you develop up with storytellers,” she says, referencing her actor dad and mom Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, “you neglect the digicam’s there. You’re not serious about something glamorous. You’re wanting on the position and what it wants. It’s what you lengthy for as a performer. It lets you virtually depart your physique.”
For Hudson, the chance additionally dovetailed with a brand new act in her personal life as a recording artist. Though she launched her debut album “Wonderful” solely final yr, Hudson has lengthy recognized as a singer-songwriter. “I used to be at all times so frightened of it,” she confesses of her worry of going public about her songwriting. “However the studio is the place I’m very completely satisfied. I’ve been within the studio since I used to be 19, however I simply by no means shared my music as a result of I used to be too scared to place it out.”
It was a discovery Jackman made whereas they have been recording their vocal tracks for the movie. “I mentioned, ‘You’re a musician,’” he recollects, Hudson beaming at him. “You have been so relaxed and in your house.”
“I’ve at all times had a whole lot of cheerleaders for me to do music,” Hudson replies, sheepishly.
Some may see it as a full circle second for Hudson, who obtained an Oscar nomination for her efficiency because the groupie Penny Lane in Cameron Crowe’s 2000 rock memoir “Virtually Well-known.” It was such a formative expertise that Hudson nonetheless stays shut with Crowe. She tells me she’s studying his new e-book, “The Uncool,” to organize to interview him on his tour.
However irrespective of how a lot Penny Lane has formed her life, Hudson doesn’t see a by means of line from her to Claire. As a substitute, she attracts a line between fandom and musicianship, particularly the excellence between those that chase the excessive of being within the room or backstage dwelling the approach to life, and those that have a tune they’ve a visceral have to share.
“With Claire, it wants to return out,” she continues. “It doesn’t matter the place or what we’re doing or how we’re doing it — we simply have to do it. That can also be how I really feel about music.”
The true-life Claire Sardina and her two kids (performed by Ella Anderson and Hudson Hensley on-screen) threw their full assist behind “Track Sung Blue.” However Hudson’s intuition was to construct her personal model of Claire with out an excessive amount of exterior affect. “You need to choose in a movie as a result of it’s the fitting selection for the character, not since you’re making an attempt to imitate one thing,” says Hudson.
Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson within the film “Track Sung Blue.”
(Focus Options)
That have to keep away from mimicry and really feel the second was significantly essential for the movie’s heartbreaking second act, through which Claire is hit by a automobile in her entrance yard and loses a leg, plunging into self-loathing, despair, physique dysmorphia and habit. Hudson needed to do in depth bodily work to organize to authentically signify Claire’s lived expertise. “Motion is a large a part of what actors do,” she says. “There’s the emotional half however the physicality is like rebalancing your mind.”
Along with watching YouTube movies of amputees and talking with these within the disabled neighborhood, Hudson acquired helpful recommendation from one other display screen legend — her dad.
“Kurt mentioned that Claire is like Rocky,” she says, referring to the long-lasting character’s grit and dedication to go the space. “The half that basically acquired my dad emotional was that she simply needed to determine find out how to get on her ft.”
Jackman marvels on the bravery and ability of Hudson’s efficiency, noting that she even captured one thing the true Claire instructed him off-camera.
“Claire mentioned, ‘The factor is Mike was a leg man,’” he remembers. “Kate performed that so nicely. That feeling of disgrace about: Is my associate drawn to me anymore? I discovered that extremely transferring.”
Hudson welcomed the problem, however she did fear about one factor exterior her management. For “Track Sung Blue” to work, the actors enjoying Claire and Mike have to be in excellent alignment: one the phrases, the opposite the tune.
“One of many hardest issues to do is pretend chemistry,” Hudson says. “You possibly can’t try this. It’s a must to really fall in love with one another and discover the chemical connection. That was my largest nervousness.”
Jackman shared this concern. “I bear in mind the primary day after our desk studying, you mentioned, ‘This film works if we work,’” he reminds her.
They needn’t have anxious. “They have been a internet for one another as the opposite one was up on a tightrope,” Brewer says. “It was extremely inspiring for the crew to see that kinship and respect.”
Their mutual generosity is clear in the best way Jackman checks in with Hudson after every anecdote throughout our interview, confirming she has nothing so as to add or appropriate. Although that is their first movie collectively, their repartee is really easy and heat it’s arduous to consider they haven’t co-starred in at the very least a dozen motion pictures.
“It felt straightforward to only inhabit these characters,” Jackman says. “The phrase that involves me is belief. The entire scenes, significantly in that darker interval, we might simply reside in that — the frustration, the paranoia, the anger, the loss, the worry. Each take felt actually very completely different. I felt very free.”
Hudson agrees, including with a giggle, “I instructed Hugh, ‘I’m actually tactile. Simply inform me if I make you uncomfortable. I’m going to kiss you on a regular basis.’”
It helps that Hudson and Jackman are naturally sunny, curious individuals, celebrities who’ve by no means cared for the sound of being alone. “We like to attach with individuals,” Hudson says. “There’s no inside course of that removes us. We’re each neighborhood individuals. We wish to be within the circus. After we’re on set, we sit on set. There’s no separation of crew and forged. It’s very uncommon that you just work with somebody who’s like that.”
In the end, that openness allowed Hudson and Jackman to method Claire and Mike with honesty, important for a movie that’s a fullhearted paean to dreamers at their highest and lowest.
“Eddie Vedder instructed me one thing that moved me a lot,” Jackman says, a word of emotion in his voice. “He goes, ‘Some may say these individuals led small lives. Their goals have been so large and maybe, naive. However goals are so highly effective that 30 years later, it’s come true.’”
From enjoying Milwaukee dive bars to turning into the topics of a serious movement image, the Sardinas have far exceeded even their very own expectations. To cite one other beloved Diamond tune, it’s sufficient to make anybody a believer.
