Goldie Hawn is famous for her acting as well as for being a mom who trusted her children to explore who they are.
At 79, Hawn admitted that a parenting move she made—that might have pushed Kate Hudson’s acting career back—actually played a big role in her daughter’s character.
During a screening of The Sugarland Express in Los Angeles on May 29, Hawn paused to look back at her time as a mother and her decisions with raising her three kids, Kate Hudson, Oliver Hudson and Wyatt Russell, who were part of the entertainment scene.
Although both Hawn and her partner Russell have Hollywood backgrounds, she was keen to give her kids something different from a life of celebrity.
Katie was in high school and someone from a show wanted to cast her, according to Hawn. I did not let her go through with it.
She said that many wanted her to put Kate in front of the camera when she was young, but she did not want that for her teenage daughter.
I hoped she would be able to graduate and live a usual life. You figure it out sometime along the line. She advised not to start dating too early.
The decision came from her personal background. Goldie Hawn became famous around the world when she joined the cast of Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In at age 22. She was aware of both the excitement and the difficulties that can be part of early fame.
Hawn’s decision to not put Kate in the public eye as a teenager might have appeared like a pause in her career at the time, but now it might look like a blessing.
Once Kate Hudson graduated high school, she quickly started building her own path. In 1998, she started acting with Desert Blue and the next year she played in 200 Cigarettes.
However, her breakthrough role came in 2000, when she was cast as Penny Lane in Almost Famous which was meant for someone else.
How she got the role of Dorothy is famous in Hollywood circles. Director Cameron Crowe chose Canadian actress Sarah Polley for the role in the first place.
Polley rejected the role, so Hudson changed her mind and wanted to play Penny Lane, who was first meant to be her sister in the story.
She did a perfect job. She was brilliant as the passionate and unrestrained groupie which led to her receiving a Golden Globe and an Academy Award nomination.
Overall, Hudson feels happy with what happened in her career.
Once, to Entertainment Weekly, she said, “I couldn’t have had a better way to introduce myself to the world.”
Some people believe it’s hard for the children of famous figures, but Kate, Oliver and Wyatt have each found their place in the entertainment world which Goldie is very proud of.
“They are choosing to do it by themselves,” she explained. “Parents’ advice is generally not welcome to them. Who does?”
I’m not saying Hawn and Russell didn’t help me a lot. Their children were advised early on to discover themselves before anything else, not only what they could do as performers.
It involved graduating, learning to be self-reliant and creating a sense of who they were beyond their celebrity.
Mindset obviously played a big part in their success. Today, Kate Hudson is known as an actress, businesswoman and the mother of three children.
Oliver Hudson is well known from his roles in TV and podcasts and his brother Wyatt Russell now has success in both acting and sports.
Goldie Hawn focused on raising her children to be stable people instead of helping them become famous quickly.
Given how fast and viral fame can happen in this industry, Hawn’s method stands out by being traditional and mature. She wanted to avoid raising people who would become famous.
She hoped to create people with strong character.
Looking at the success and personal growth of her children, it looks like she may have given them everything they needed.