Mom Doesn’t Always Know Best! Goldie Hawn Suggested Kate Hudson Turn Down ’10 Things I Hate About You’

Hollywood is filled with stories of actors who have been wanted for a certain role, but turned it down or were forced to (for instance, did you know that Tom Selleck was up for Indiana Jones?). The reasons for doing so are varied, but in the case of Kate Hudson, one such situation came down to a simple fact: Her mom, Goldie Hawn, didn’t like the script.

The script in question was Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith’s 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), which is described by Wikipedia as a modern take on William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew: “In the story, new student Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is smitten with Bianca Stratford (Larisa Oleynik) and, in order to get around her father’s strict rules on dating, attempts to get bad boy Patrick (Heath Ledger) to date Bianca’s ill-tempered sister, Kat Stratford (Julia Stiles).” Kate was actually up for Julia’s role.

As reported by People, casting director Marcia Cross notes that although Julia Stiles landed the role of Kat — due largely to the chemistry she had with Heath Ledger during the audition process — there were other actresses being considered. “I loved Katie Holmes,” she explains, “but she was about to get Dawson’s Creek and we just had to make a decision really fast. The other person I loved was Kate Hudson, but her mom, Goldie Hawn, didn’t like the script for her, so she passed.”

Not that anyone should be shedding tears for Kate Hudson, who has enjoyed a fruitful career that has included such films as Almost Famous (2000), How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003), My Best Friend’s Girl (2008), A Little Bit of Heaven (2011), and Deepwater Horizon (2016).

Interestingly, last year PopSugar conducted an interview with Kate, during which they asked the actress for the best career advice given by her mother.  “It’s funny, because everyone asks about my mom,” Kate explained, “but my dad, Kurt Russell, is also in the entertainment business. I always find that interesting that my dad is never included in that question. But the reality is that my mom and I talk about different things, like relationships, friendships, and everything, really. The last thing we talk about is business. We talk a lot about balance and the importance of connection. The last thing on our list to ever talk about, even when I was younger, was career advice. People talk all the time about how we are close. One of the reasons I am so close to my mom is that she gave me the freedom to let me be who I am, and giving ‘advice’ is far from how she parented. Same with Kurt, for that matter.”

Hmmm. Maybe 10 Things I Hate About You was the exception to the rule or why it was invented in the first place.