Hudson and Hathaway Engage in Bride Wars

Don’t mess with a girl on her wedding day. Just ask Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway what can happen.

The two battle it out and fight down right dirty on the big screen in Bride Wars, but are actually the greatest of friends in real life and could not have been happier to see each other at the 20th Century Fox press conference that took place in Beverly Hills just a short time before the holidays.

In the comedy, Liv (Hudson) and Emma (Hathaway) are childhood best friends who have had every detail of their weddings planned out for years. They both want to get married at the Plaza Hotel in NYC and won’t settle for less. When they get engaged, virtually at the same time, they are so happy for each other until an unforeseeable mistake happens and the weddings are scheduled on the same day. The Plaza cannot accommodate for the mishap and the longtime friends instantly become rivals trying to make the other one change their date.

ComingSoon.net chatted with the girls about weddings, girlfriends, relationships and of course their new film:

Q: What did you guys do physically to prepare for the movie?

Kate Hudson: Do you mean in terms of the comedy or in terms of getting in shape?

Anne Hathaway: I didn’t eat for weeks [laughs].

Hudson: Workout, you mean? Well, I’m always doing something. I’m either dancing or doing Pilates or biking or running. I’m quite active.

Hathaway: Yes, you are.

Hudson: So, for this movie, we were actually doing a lot of drinking [laughs].

Hathaway: Yes, that might develop your biceps.

Q: Tequila?

Hathaway: You. Forever and always.

Hudson: I’m a tequila girl. We like our champagne though too.

Hathaway: Oh, we do. Someone asked me the other day, my friend asked what my drink was and I said, “Well, when I’m with Kate…” but Kate’s amazing. Kate’s inspiring in terms of all the physical activity that she engages in. We would have script meetings and she would be stretching. I’d be like, “Yeah, I’m going to touch my toes next year.” I work out with a trainer in New York and so I worked out with him leading up to it.

Q: You worked out pretty hard though.

Hathaway: I did. Well, I really wanted Emma to appear kind of like an ex-ballerina and have everything kind of tight and proper and sinewy. So I really watched what I ate and I hit the elliptical, just the usual stuff. But whatever the character needs, that’s what we did.

Q: The guys in the movie are gung-ho in the wedding to say, “Lets just have a double wedding.” Then of course you wouldn’t have had a movie. But in your real lives, if the situation were similar would you just get married together?

Hudson: Yeah. I would’ve been like, “The more fun we’ll have, the bigger the party, the bigger the ballroom…” yeah. In real life I probably would have been like, “I don’t even know if I want to get married. Go ahead.” But then again there’s that little part of you, like you said, where it’s like, “No, no, no. It’s my one day.”

Hathaway: I think that you want your friend to have that day. You also want it for yourself, but it’s just like, “I don’t want to be diluted in my joy for you.” I wouldn’t have a double wedding. Economically it’s fantastic. I totally agree with you, but psychologically I think you’d always kind of pissed.

Hudson: It’d be kind of weird if one of the groom’s vows were better too. Lets say that Fletcher’s vows were better than Daniel’s vows…

Hathaway: But Fletcher’s vows would never be better than Daniel’s vows.

Hudson: But let’s just say they were I’d feel weird.

Hathaway: Yeah, I think that maybe you’d read too much into it. I think a double wedding would cause you to analyze it too closely, read too much into it. You’d have an immediate comparison. That being said, if anyone here has had a double wedding I’m sure it was lovely [laughs].

Q: Anne, earlier this year you jokingly referred to this film as “Estrogen Land” with “Get Smart” being “Testosterone-ville.” How did that vibe on-set inform the characters for you?

Hathaway: The weather in estrogen land usually inspires a very cozy feel. Precipitation is unexpected, but constant. I’m not going anywhere with that one. It’s delightful. It was really funny. I’ve always been a girl, or well, I’m actually not a girlie girl in the slightest. I found my best girlfriends a little bit later on in life and my best friends growing up were my brothers. I always had a lot of guy friends, particularly gay men. So for me to actually be around women all the time and kind of give in to the shoe love, I would always kind of… I don’t know… judge myself for it. I’d be like, “Oh, that’s frivolous.” So I went, “No, there’s nothing wrong with it.” So it was great to kind of realize that I can still be myself, but I can be girlie as well. So it’s been a nice little change.

Hudson: You didn’t learn that in “Princess Diaries”?

Hathaway: No. I brought it all the way.

Hudson: The girliest movie of all time. Every little girl wants to be a girl because of that movie.

Hathaway: I never wanted to be a princess and so I was just focused on my character’s psychological torture, the fact that she had to accept an identity that she wasn’t ready for. I kind of missed the point [laughs]. So it’s actually been really nice to be in this movie and to be around such strong female energy and to find that so liberating. Whereas when I grew up I always had this idea that I would be defined by a way that would make me uncomfortable and I’ve actually been made much better because of it, much stronger, more open, more loving and more compassionate. This movie was really good for me in that way.

Hudson: It was an interesting time for all of us because especially at the age we’re both in, you’re going through so many transitions and for some reason being around women–which is kind of what the movie is about, having those friendships–you become empowered by your girlfriends and by other women that you learn from. Poor Gary. Gary Winick was the one man and it was all girl producers, executives, all females, the stars. He was just surrounded by the ladies and when you get a lot of girls in a room it’s like, “Watch out.” It’s a powerful energy. This movie felt really good for that. We were all going through these sort of amazing coming out parties which was really interesting.

Q: Can you girls talk about the bachelorette party dance scene and the dance off that you had?

Hudson: You go. You’re the one that went for it.

Hathaway: Because the script told me to. As all good comedy is painful and horrifying to actually do, I felt very protected by my character’s drunkenness. So I knew that if it didn’t quite turn out the way that I’d hoped, because I did attach a little bit of something, I projected onto it, I really wanted to be a good dance, but I’m not a good dancer and so watching the movie is hard for me. I’m like, “I’m trying really hard and I just look silly and drunk.” So it’s kind of hard that way. But on the day it was just hysterical.

Hudson: It was so fun!

Hathaway: It was fun and the fact of the matter is that we had a great cast that we were worked with on that day, we had a lot of background artists in that scene and everyone was really into it and was giving so much. So it just felt fun and at the end, unfortunately, my favorite part of the scene got cut out of the movie. At the end of it I run up to Officer Not Your Husband and I did a handstand at his feet and wrapped my legs around his head and pulled myself up and then he grabbed my butt. I opened my legs wide into a V and I say, ‘F**k me!’ Doing that take after take after take…

Hudson: It was so funny.

Hathaway: It felt so good, yeah.

Hudson: I was so scared when you were doing that. I was so scared that you were going to go right over his head.

Hathaway: And I made it every time.

Hudson: I was sitting there like, “Oh, she’s going to wipeout. I can’t watch this!” But you did it and you did it every time.

Hathaway: Kate has great faith in my physical abilities.

Q: Will you put that on the DVD, Kate?

Hudson: There’s a lot that should be on this DVD because there’s some really good stuff. We got a lot of really good outtakes on this movie. We also have some behind-the-scenes footage that we did that’s kind of funny. I have a feeling that this DVD might be interesting. The DVD extras should be rated R.

Hathaway: When we made the movie we never kind of knew where we wanted the humor to be. So we did raunchy versions of jokes and I think that very little of the raunchiness wound up in the movie and probably for the best, but the DVD is… yeah.

Q: I know a lot of people will enjoy this movie, but there will be a minority who find it perpetuates the Bridezilla stereotype. What would you say to them?

Hathaway: Actually, when I got the script that’s what I was anticipating and I was really sensitive to that and I just thought there wasn’t a point to making a movie that is reductive to women and the whole process. So I was so happy when I read the script that the movie kind of takes the tack that the Bridezilla doesn’t have a lot to do actually in our movie with getting what you want and being the center of attention. That’s the myth that plays into at least my character’s consciousness. But what it actually does is that it brings you to a new place of freedom where she’s admitting to herself that she wants more for herself. She wants better for herself and that leads her to make an incredibly difficult, but ultimately wonderful decision to take control of her life and to be more present in it and to be more demanding and to set boundaries with people, be stronger and more confident. So to those people that believe we’ve perpetuated the stereotype I say come to see the film. If you disagree with us I will answer the strongly written letter that I’m sure you will write. But we were super sensitive to that in the beginning. Kate and I are both strong women that want to do everything we can to make sure that every woman feels strong. So we would never do anything that would set women back.

Hudson: The funny thing was that when it came as a pitch it was like, “Oh, wow. I can’t believe this movie hasn’t really been made.” The more that I thought about it I realized why. It’s because it’s so easy to pit women against each other and it’s so easy to sort of get carried away with the cattiness and the pettiness and stereotypes of women of how women handle a lot of situations. For me I looked at this as a challenge. I thought, “Well, wait a minute. This is such a great thing for women to be able to make fun of themselves.” We are a little guilty of going a little crazy sometimes and getting stressed out. I think that at least for me women are great at being self-deprecating and making fun of themselves and we don’t get the opportunities as actors, as a female comedienne, to do that that often because there aren’t really that many female driven comedies. So in developing it I felt that there was a way to try to make a movie that’s appealing to all ages of women that doesn’t leave anyone out, that at the end of the sort of wild and funny thing that we can all kind of relate to a little bit or feel is a little bit accessible that it’s about friendship and honoring your friends and the importance of having those people in your life. None of these things matter if you don’t have your girls. That was the trick and that was really hard. We really worked hard on that, especially Gary who I have to say did such a great job of making this movie have that sort of real emotional undertone that took me by surprise when I first saw the first cut of it. Really, that was the only thing that I was most concerned about. It really did make me go, “I can’t wait to call my girlfriends.”

Hathaway: It does that, right?

Hudson: Yeah, and that’s why we made the movie. So I think that women will appreciate that, I hope.

Q: What makes Daniel a keeper in the film and what’s the perfect guy for you?

Hudson: I don’t know yet. I don’t know what the perfect guy is yet. I do know that I like honest guys. That always gets me going. I like guys who are really up front and just are who they are. They’re hard to find.

Hathaway: Yes, they are [referring to her ex-boyfriend].

Hudson: I think that Daniel, or what I liked about the guys in this movie and where I liked the relationships that we both have, they’re so different, is that I would be the expected one to be divorced in like two years where she would probably be the one that people would think would have a long and lasting relationship and go through the worst possible times and still be married. So we liked sort of playing that. Liv actually found someone who could deal with her and knew how to handle her. She needed the person in her life who allowed her to look at herself and go, “You know what, I need something else and something different.”

Hathaway: I think that because Liv knows exactly what she wants and who she is she needed to find someone who found her adorable, who finds her messiness and her being stressed out [cute]. Maybe he probably prefers her when she’s being herself and happy, but also finds that other part of her great and gets it and accepts it. The thing about Emma is that she’s in some way having a latent rebellion. She needed someone who is going to want her to be happy above all and want her to explore every part of herself and is willing to accept whatever she finds. They each do find that in a real way. I loved that. I think it’s something you said about Emma is that the sad thing about her, and it goes back to your attitude about marriage, is that Emma is that person that marries for keeps. When she got married she would’ve stayed married through anything and I think she would’ve really been unhappy with Fletcher. I don’t know, but I was thinking about that when you talked about that.

Hudson: It’s so funny when we’re talking about this as in success, if this movie was successful and we thought about doing another one how much fun we would have thinking about where our characters would go.

Q: Do you think there’s too much emphasis on a girl getting married?

Hudson: Personally, we love relationships and I would never be cynical about people wanting that day and getting excited about that day. I think there’s a reason for it. I always say that it’s your day to sort of present yourself to your man, to throw this party that’s about wanting to spend the rest of your life with somebody and bringing everyone together. The idea of the ceremony is great. The reality of the ceremony becomes stressful, but I think the emphasis on marriage will always be important for people no matter what kind of marriage they chose, whether that’s getting hitched at the top of the Himalayas, just the two of them, or having a three hundred person wedding. I think that people will always want that ceremony. When we all sit around and have coffee or drinks, the first thing you talk about are your kids and then you talk about your relationship and love and loss and drama in love. It’s such a big topic for us. So I think celebrating it will always be something that people emphasize.

Hathaway: To be perfectly honest I don’t know. It’s true. I don’t know because I don’t personally feel any pressure to get married. I don’t feel it from my family. I don’t feel it from my friends. I don’t feel it from within. So I don’t really know how to answer that question, but I’m not everyone. I don’t know if there’s pressure on women to get married or if it’s something that women put on themselves, if it’s the way that things have been done and we’re not yet in a new moment where things have transitioned into people accepting that anything goes, that you can do whatever you want. I think there’s something to be said about living the happiest life possible, but the only way that you can live a happy life specific to yourself is if you are yourself. If you’re the sort of person that never wants to get married then never get married. Who cares? And if you’re the sort of person who really loves the idea of being committed to someone and having that piece of paper that says you’re committed to someone and celebrate it with a huge party or a quiet party, like Kate was saying, go for it. Just be yourself. I think the important thing to note though is more so than whether or not women feel pressure to get married I think that we need to work on making it possible for everyone in America to get married.

Q: When crossed, are women meaner to each other than men?

Hathaway: I love that everyone thinks we have all these answers.

Hudson: I think that we can be more, yeah. I think so. I think that because women are a little bit more complicated…

Q: A little?

Hudson: [laughs] Listen, we talk about guys and you guys are complicated too. I think that women can really hit you where it hurts.

Q: With a knife or a gun?

Hudson: That’s men. Men go right for the shins whereas I think women can kind of be a little bit more hurtful because we’re more emotional. But I don’t know. I just feel like being mean is…

Hathaway: Awful.

Hudson: Yeah.

Hathaway: Is the question about whether female friends can be meaner or women in general? The fact of the matter is that female friends I do believe can be worse to each other than male friends simply because I think our, for whatever reason women have a stronger emotional language. Even if we don’t have a stronger one we’re encouraged more to use it. So, Kate and I know things about each other that I don’t know about my male costars and if Kate and I were to turn each other, because I also know how to celebrate her I would also know how to bring her down. And she would know the same for me because when you give that trust to someone that’s what you’re doing.

Hudson: It’s so true because we talk.

Hathaway: Girls talk about things. We talk about what we’re feeling, deep things. Deep things in the moment. Maybe they’re not even particularly deep in the grand scheme of things, but things that matter to us so when you give someone that power you’re showing them where your buttons are. So if you pick wrong and someone turns around and can short circuit those buttons I think it hurts more personally.

Hudson: I always think that when you go through relationships and stuff and then all of a sudden you realize, “God, boys don’t have anybody to talk to.” That must be really horrible.

Hathaway: I don’t know. Do boys just not talk about that stuff?

Hudson: They don’t. Boys just don’t talk about their feelings.

Hathaway: I know boys that talk about their feelings.

Hudson: They talk to their girlfriends. I have my guy friends who call me and they’re like girls. They call me and they’re like, “Hey, can you talk?” I’m like, “Yeah, sure.” And they’re like, “So, I broke up with my girlfriend.” They talk to their girls. They don’t talk to their boys about it. They really don’t. I know my brothers, they talk to me. They don’t talk to their friends.

Q: Because they’ll get the worst advice.

Hudson: Yeah, totally. They’re just excited that you’re now single. “Come on, man.” That’s so funny.

Q: Can you talk about working with Candice Bergen?

Hathaway: I think I can speak for both of us when I saw that we were totally just in awe of her. She would come on and I would look at her and get emotional. I kept just wanting to thank her for so much. She’s still so fabulous and she’s so quick and it’s just lovely to kind of be around her. I get shy around people, especially people that I deeply respect like Candice and some other actresses that I’ve been privileged enough to work with. My instinct is to just kind of hang back and observe them. So just watching the way that she takes in the environment, the way that she plays with the lines. She could clearly just sort of relax and enjoy the ride and be herself, but she really cares and she’d really show up everyday and be exploring. To see that kind of passion in someone of any age is inspiring. Particularly though to see someone like Candice Bergen who’s such a powerful woman and means so much to so many women like us was really cool.

Q: When you first read the script for this what did you relate to in the other character?

Hathaway: I’ve never really thought about my wedding and so I think that part of the reason why I was drawn to the script was because here was a girl who I had no internal relationship to and I didn’t understand that concept of identifying with yourself as a bride before it had occurred to identify with yourself as a woman – the bride specific thing. But I did know what it was like because I thought of myself as an actress. I really wanted that when I was a kid and I kind of developed that and assumed that I would develop as a person aside from that. That didn’t happen and it’s taken a lot of work to kind of figure out who I am and what I want aside from what it is that I kind of put in my head and be here in reality and live in the dream that I wanted and accepting that things are different and far more interesting than they were when I thought of them when I was eight. It was just accepting that and it was wonderful, but I identified with that kind of desire in the character, that process and the hunger for that process. Then the female friendship. How beautiful, powerful and scary it is to mean so much to someone. How fun it is, but also how much responsibility in the best possible way. I was so happy because in the script, and I hope that I’m not speaking out of turn by revealing this, but at the ending of it, we hadn’t figured out that ending until just before. We always knew that there was a piece missing and we just couldn’t figure it out. In a way, we were just sort of talking about it and Kate told a story and we all burst into tears because the point of the story was that as much fun as marriage hopefully is and as much as we all want to find that one person that fulfills us and not exactly have the fairy tale, but to be able to rely on that person you can’t. You cannot. It’s a sad, sad, sad fact, but whatever happens in your life, in the great moments, the bad moments, the unexpected moments, there’s always going to be someone there refilling your wine glass, giving you a shoulder to cry on, picking you up, celebrating with you, they’re with you and that’s your girlfriend. We didn’t find that message in the movie until much, much later and then as soon as we did it all made sense and suddenly that’s what I related to in the movie fully. That’s when I fully gave into it.

Q: Kate, what did you relate to or not relate to with these girls?

Hudson: I feel like creatively I’m constantly watching other people and I have so many friends that are all so different and all things are different to other people. So I can relate to a lot whether it’s me that’s like that or my best girlfriend. I’m so not like Liv in terms of how my girlfriend is and who I sort of based the whole hair thing after. She’s in the hair salon like two times a week. She won’t dip her foot in water because her hair might get frizzy. That to me is Liv. I can’t relate to that, but I can because I know someone who’s like that and it cracks me up. But in terms of weddings and stuff I can relate to it because I like to dress up. I like to dress up and I like to have a party. I like to throw parties. I like to bring people together. So I can relate to that. Look, everyone has their own opinion about the sanctity of marriage or what it is that they believe. I come from two parents that aren’t married. Well, I come from one parent who ended up not marrying my other parent. It’s sort of a complicated household. So it’s a little unconventional how I see it, but I can relate to it. And I got married and it was great and it was a blast. Everyone should do it.

Q: Would you do it again?

Hudson: Possibly. I don’t know. If it’s right. If it’s important to everybody. But I don’t know who the guy would be yet so it would all kind of depend on what kind of relationship that is.

Q: How do you feel about the best actress, Anne, for “Rachel Getting Married”? Is the Oscar coming?

Hathaway: No, but I’m sure as you can imagine it’s hugely overwhelming. I’m delighted, but absolutely it doesn’t seem real and it seems to be an embarrassment of riches that I suppose I have to learn to get comfortable with.

Q: Can you talk about your role in “Alice In Wonderland”?

Hathaway: I play the White Queen in it and I think that’s all I need to say.

Bride Wars opens in theaters on Friday, January 9.

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