Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey are well aware of their onscreen chemistry.
The two stars chatted on Instagram Live Monday about the 20-year anniversary of their 2003 rom-com How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. Answering fan questions, Hudson said she gets asked “all the time” what it’s like to kiss McConaughey, with whom she also made 2008’s Fool’s Gold.
“My whole thing is like, we’re always in weird environments [when we kiss in movies]. It’s never like… there was only one time when we kissed that was like so nice and gentle, in the bathroom,” Hudson, 43, said with a laugh.
McConaughey, 53, added, “Yeah, everything else has not been climate-controlled. Everything else was like ‘Swim up to the top, the sharks almost ate you, you just fell from a plane from 300 feet, tread water and before you catch you breath, kiss.’ “
Hudson added that “when you’re kissing anyone in a movie, it’s professional; we’re actually trying to create something that evokes something in a certain way that might not exactly be the way you would necessarily do it in real life.”
She then confessed, “But, in respect to our now partners, we do kiss nicely. It was always a very nice kiss.” Said McConaughey, “I would have to agree with you. Absolutely.” (Hudson is engaged to Danny Fujikawa, and McConaughey married wife Camila Alves in 2012.)
The two costars then tried to pinpoint what makes their onscreen chemistry work so well. McConaughey guessed it was their shared sense of humor and ability to improvise with each other and “take this a few more steps.” They agreed that when they team up, it’s not “work” but rather “play” time.
“We enjoy going toe to toe,” he said.
Added Hudson, “We are sensitive people but we don’t take things personally. We’re tough-skinned.”
“I think maybe it has something to do with our freedom. I feel like we’re both very free,” said Hudson. “We don’t constrict ourselves to an idea of what we’re ‘supposed’ to be doing. There’s something spontaneous about the way we were able to work together. When you went one direction, I went with you — but then I would be like, ‘I’m gonna throw him off a little bit. Let’s see what happens if I do a sharp right.’ [You’re] like, ‘Okay, I’m coming sharp right!’ “
McConaughey recalled, “We were constantly jousting.”
“We have a thing!” Hudson added.