Kate Hudson Reveals How 'Almost Famous' Changed Her Life — and Which Costar She Wants to Reunite with (Exclusive)

Kate Hudson reflects on it Almost famous.

The star got her big break as an actress – and earned an Oscar nomination – playing thug Penny Lane in writer-director Cameron Crowe’s 2000 drama.

“I think [he] related to the fact that I loved music and saw it in myself, but he really opened the door to so much music for me. I was 19, and he just filled me with all this great music that I’d never heard,” Hudson, 45, says in this week’s PEOPLE cover story. “That was the beginning of everything for me.”

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Patrick Fugit and Kate Hudson in ‘Almost Famous’ (2000).

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Now, more than two decades after the film’s release, Hudson is enjoying a full-circle moment: She’s released her debut album, famously, on Friday, May 17.

“I see everyone’s reaction on Instagram, and there were a few things that just pissed me off. People are so funny,” says Hudson. “Someone said something like, ‘It was Penny Lane all along.’ I said, ‘Oh, that’s so funny.’ I’m glad people connect with it and then enjoy making music. It’s so nice.”

And Hudson’s Almost famous The character actually served as the North Star while she was working on her album.

“Kate should have led with the music — she’s such a rock star,” legendary songwriter Linda Perry — who collaborated on the album — says of Hudson, who “reminds me of old rock and roll. We talked about making a record that Penny Lane would do. I believe he was caught.”

And as she performs music live, Hudson would like to reunite with her Almost famous costar Billy Crudup, 55, who played up-and-coming rocker Russell Hammond in the film.

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Kate Hudson for PEOPLE.

Michael Schwartz

‘That film is one of the best musical films of all time and everyone in that film loved the music. I was just thinking, Billy still plays the guitar. I said, ‘I’m going to bring him on stage. I’m going to make him do it,’ says Hudson. “I was thinking, wouldn’t it be fun for Billy to play the guitar? I feel like the audience would love it, go crazy.”

Hudson decided to pursue her musical dreams amid the coronavirus crisis.

“I thought, ‘If I don’t do it, it’s going to be a big regret,'” she says of the protest she experienced during the COVID quarantine. “Holding the status quo is not the way I’ve ever lived. I’ve always been fearless in the decisions I’ve made, be it relationships or career, but this was the one thing I was so afraid of. It was like I changed something in my brain, and I said, ‘I’m just going to do it. F— that.’”

The glass bow the actress also worked on the album with her fiance, musician Danny Fujikawa (37). The couple share daughter Rani, 5, and Hudson is also mom to Ryder, 20, and Bingham, 12.

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Kate Hudson on the May 27, 2024 cover of PEOPLE.

Michael Schwartz

“I thought, ‘This is just life being loved,'” she says of the album. “Through all the ups and downs, then all the things that come with what it means to love your partner, your friends, your children… . . What a glorious thing to have so much love.”

For more on Kate Hudson, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere now.

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Source: HIS Education