SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC4) — “Song Sung Blue” works because it understands intimacy, between partners, between performers, and between music and memory. That idea shaped Rotten Tomatometer-approved film critic Patrick Beatty’s conversation with Hugh Jackman, Jim Belushi, Kate Hudson, & director Craig Brewer. Jackman and Hudson spoke candidly about building that connection, finding chemistry through music, and why the heart of the film lives in quiet moments rather than big notes.
Patrick B: It is such a pleasure to meet both of you. I love the film, and I saw the documentary it’s based on.
Hugh Jackman+Jim Belushi: You did? It’s an incredible documentary, right?
Patrick B: Yes, it is, and you were perfect for it, both of you. I loved the dynamic between a positive manager and talent relationship where he’s not looking to try to take advantage of you[Hugh]. How was it finding that dynamic with each other?
Jim Belushi: It was easy. I mean, this guy was about love and passion, and he recognized him immediately because he’d seen them in the bar before, and he wanted this guy who’s got it, and, you know, my character was the general manager for Kmart for 35 years. He was a nice Midwest man, a good leader, and he could recognize beauty and passion.
Hugh Jackman: Can we talk about Jim Belushi’s acting? Because this man has the heart the size of a raisin. And it’s a cold, black heart.
Jim Belushi: Cold black heart.
Hugh Jackman: And how did he play Someone Full of Love?
Jim Belushi: You know that transformation was hard. It was a study for joy, which was all over.
Patrick B: Well, how do you have a cool black heart when you hear Hugh singing?
Jim Belushi: I adore this guy, but, you know, in “Les Misérables, “I was crying. That was one of the most beautiful performances. That’s a different movie. I’m so sorry. But he brings that same love from that performance into this with Kate Hudson. The two of them have a chemistry that I haven’t seen on film for a long time.
Hugh Jackman: You know, it was cool? I’m thinking about it. Everyone on that set, in a way, was a musician and a performer. Michael Imperioli and Princess Landis, it’s cool.
Patrick B: Can I ask you about projecting your voice? I used to perform in musicals and stuff back in high school, but I never quite got it. Doing interviews with amazing people like you, it gets even worse. It’s harder to project your voice. But what is the process? What does your body do when you have to switch up between like doing a “Wolverine” scream or like really projecting for a song?
Hugh Jackman: When I went to drama school, we had to do ten hours of voice, had to protect it. Boy, it was like a classical training. I’m so glad I did it. Although honestly, when I’m doing Wolverine, it all goes out the window. Yeah, I try, but it just doesn’t work.
Jim Belushi: Talking about in the morning, you wake up, you go.
Hugh Jackman: Yep. It’s gone. It’s gone. I’ll never be able to do this again. And then comes back by the afternoon as I go. That panic. Yeah, totally.
Patrick B: There’s really something close and connected to music. And how did you find that with you while you were exploring these two and finding that they’re just best friends?
Kate Hudson: I think Craig had a great idea, which was, let’s get them in the recording studio, sitting next to each other on a sofa. Instead of isolating us in booths. And so our first experience together, Hugh and I, was actually becoming friends and getting vulnerable with each other and trying things out and being bad together at times. Hugh is so wonderful. And I think immediately, because we knew how important it was for Mike and Claire, like that love story, if that didn’t work at that connection for me, with me, Hugh didn’t work, then really, the movie wouldn’t work, you know? That was so important to me. And it was just so easy, and the love of music, like you’re saying, you know? When you love music, when it moves you to the point where it can get you through anything, when it becomes the companion in your life, the great companion, you can’t really explain it unless someone else you know understands that too. And when you find and you meet people who have and speak that same language, it sort of enhances that intimacy, I think.
Patrick B: There’s a scene in the movie that I really loved that I’d love to know more about behind the scenes, and how you guys were doing it. When the families first meet.
Craig Brewer: You know what was really special about that for me, at least, is that I really know how I want to build a music sequence. And I was talking to my director of photography about how I wanted to do it, and she said, “Just hold on one second. Gather up the cast, gather up the crew, play the music, and just describe the whole scene to them.” And then we’re going to go out and do it. And it was really great. I don’t know if you remember that.
Kate Hudson: Yeah
Craig Brewer: They were all in the garage, and everybody, the whole crew, was in there as we were playing “Crunchy Granola, Sweet” and during the chorus, we’re gonna have the girls in the back on the swings during this moment, you know, we’re going to have like the dressers coming in and trying have all the different outfits. And for a moment there, it’s like you were seeing this energy of everybody coming together to make this part in the movie. But it was also what was happening in the scene. Everybody was coming together to make this band, “Lightning and Thunder.”
Patrick B: One of my favorite parts of the whole thing. Final question: if Lightning and Thunder were still doing music right now, what platform are they going to be doing?
Kate Hudson: That is so great. What a great question.
Craig Brewer: I hadn’t thought about it until you just said it, but I think that’s really where they would live. They would probably have shimmer curtains behind them, Christmas lights, and anything cheap and beautiful.
Kate Hudson: So, so many TikToks.
Patrick B. Yeah, they’d be viral immediately.
Kate Hudson: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
“Song Sung Blue” opens exclusively in theaters on Christmas Day. For the full review and more conversations like this, watch “See It or Skip It,” where we break down what’s worth your time and what hits the right note.
See It or Skip It 