Kate Hudson was incandescent as Penny Lane in “Almost Famous” (2000)

Crudup looked good with long hair.

Can't stand her

If you were a teenager in the late mid to late 70s, this movie is a time capsule.

The music is perfection. Love the Rod Stewart and the Faces song they used. Rod Stewart, for a brief brilliant moment, made some of the best rock and roll in the 70s, long ago forgotten.

Loved Kate Hudson performance too and Patrick Fugit was adorable.

Wasn’t this Cameron Crowe’s love letter to this time in history?

I love this movie; but I get melancholy when I watch it.

R3 Russel Crowe lived this movie. Look it up! It’s based on his own experience.

Oh forgot to mention Lester Bangs! He OD long ago.

Back in the 90s, In a fit of nostalgia for my youth, i bought his book. It was unreadable and I end up throwing it away

I'm usually not a fan of nepotism babies but she never bothered me. She could carry the weight of leading roles. Almost Famous is an obvious example but she was also good in Skeleton Key (even though the movie was completely average).

R3 from IMDB

The film is director Cameron Crowe's semi-autobiographical account of life as a young Rolling Stone reporter. The actual group Crowe first toured with was The Allman Brothers Band. Gregg Allman distrusted him, and kept asking if he was a narc. Crowe was in a near-fatal plane crash while traveling with The Who. The character of Russell Hammond is partially based on Glenn Frey of Eagles.

She was a great supporting character in this.

Love her!

Thanks r7 for the info. I vaguely knew it was based on his experiences, but didn’t know the details

OP I love this movie. It’s one that makes me smile from start to finish, minus it’s sadder moments. But in the end it all works out for everyone.

Also, Sarah Polley was supposed to play Penny Lane. She was cast, and Brad Pitt was cast as Russell Hammond. Kate Hudson was cast as William’s sister originally.

Sarah Polley dropped out to work on some Canadian movie she was producing herself so they started to find someone else to cast as Penny Lane. Kate Hudson begged Cameron Crowe to allow her to audition for Penny but he wouldn’t because he saw her as “the sister” aka his sister in real life and felt she wasn’t Penny. He finally let her audition as Penny and ate his words. She got the part, and then Zooey Deschanel was cast as the sister.

Brad Pitt worked with Crowe for months on the movie before dropping out shortly before filming started. Crudup was cast last minute.

Kind of a dick move on Brad's part

[quote][R3] Russel Crowe lived this movie. Look it up! It’s based on his own experie

Russell Crowe and Cameron Crowe are not the same person.

Incandescent? Well, she was well illuminated in the film.

R13 oh shit, sorry. Crudup’s character in the film is named Russell. I didn’t even realize I typed Russell 💀

R14 look up the word incandescent buddy. Grow your vocabulary a bit. It has more than one definition.

“full of strong emotion; passionate.”

Kate has quite small tits

Here she is explaining how she got the part

She also speaks about it here in a more recent interview she did for BAFTA 8 months ago.

[quote] Kate Hudson begged Cameron Crowe to allow her to audition for Penny but he wouldn’t because he saw her as “the sister” aka his sister in real life and felt she wasn’t Penny. He finally let her audition as Penny and ate his words. She got the part…

In other words, they fucked and she got the job.

She was very charming and charismatic in this movie. It’s a shame she never lived up to this again as far as quality.

R19 no. She probably had her mom or Kurt call him and she got the part.

Kate Hudson was wonderful in this movie, it's the only time she ever acted!!

She became the "biggest whore" west of the Mississippi. Total slut!!

I am a Golden God!!

Duh. The one and only part she was made for.

The only thing that I liked her in was THE SKEL KEY. Her role in it, how, could have been played by anyone.

OP = Goldie Hawn.

SKELETON…

I really like this movie, too, OP.

The scene at the card table where Penny is bet against a case of beer was (allegedly) Peter Frampton’s doing (based on his experiences).

Frampton plays the case of beer bettor.

I agree that Hudson was incandescent in "Almost Famous." But I question to what extent she was acting, now that she's had kids by three different musicians.

I’ve never seen her in anything else. It would be interesting to have Cameron Crowe direct her in something else. Or have they both retired?

Kate Hudson is the "biggest female whore" west of Chicago!!

Total tramp, and I know tramps.

OP I agree, I can watch this movie over and over. She’s spectacular in it. The soundtrack is awesome too.

Never understood what all the fuss surrounding her performance was about. Penny Lane wasn't really that interesting of a character and that role could have easily been played by a number of other starlets.

I feel like she's just doing a watered down imitation of her mom. Just like Jennifer Anniston is doing Teri Garr

She was good in 200 cigarettes as well. I had such a crush on Casey Affleck after watching that.

The incandescent Patrick Vaughn

R32 that’s a cheap comment. I’m tired of the “that role could have been played by anyone” comments. Almost every actors role could be played by another actor. That doesn’t mean the actor cast in the part didn’t do a great job. And most would agree with your claim that Penny wasn’t an interesting character. She was probably the films most interesting character.

Kate added an element of charm, youthful naivety and vulnerability to a role that could have easily been a character most just rolled their eyes at. Instead most fans of the film name her as a highlight.

Most wouldn’t* agree

Has anyone here watched the Bootleg Cut? It’s like 40 minutes longer.

R38 I’ve seen the bootleg version and it’s terrible. It’s a completely different movie, it’s more about the boy reporter than the band, which makes it boring.

Also, in the bootleg version, the band is fawning all over the reporter which makes no sense. Why would a famous rock band care about some 15-year-old kid?

Whoever edited the movie deserves an Oscar.

I mean, William was always the center of the entire film. But the fawning is strange r39

Joe Hutshing and Saar Klein both received Oscar nods for their editing. They didn’t win though.

This is my favorite movie of all time. It’s funny but also sad. The perfect mix of comedy and drama. You really feel like the characters are real people from the era. They don’t make movies like this anymore!

Kate did a great job in Almost Famous. I wish she would have gone down the indie movie route. I think she would have been phenomenal working with someone like Sophia Coppola. Instead, she went down the romantic comedy route.

I did like her musical performance in Nine, though. She did a better job in that movie than the other professional singers and dancers.

She was pretty good in the Knives Out sequel? Which was campy AF.

Possibly my favorite movie. I always feel she is wrong for the part. Every guy is in love with her and she isn't even pretty.

No. Russell isn’t in love with her. She’s his Groupie who he fucks and keeps around but he doesn’t love or care about her. She’s only 16. William, who is 15, does love her though.

The other guys are fucking all the other groupies.

Did you actually watch the movie? Also, yes, she’s pretty.

I LOVE how she tricked Russell at the end. You go Penny! I've appreciated Hudson's performance more over time; she nailed the smoke-and-mirrors dream girl trope very well here.

R45 No, that is not a pretty face. Yes, Russell was in love with her. He tried to go back to her in the end.

This movie is so good, it makes you forget that Jimmy Fallon has a cameo role in it.

R47 ok. That doesn’t mean he was in love with her. He felt bad. And yes. She’s pretty.

Now I’m convinced the loser r47 didn’t watch it.

Incandescent.

Yeah. A cheap, outmoded, ineffective source of light.

[quote] Just like Jennifer Anniston is doing Teri Garr

Lisa Kudrow is doing Teri Garr

R52 thank you.

Why do I have to agree with you R47 ? Then you call me a loser because I don't agree with you? Grow up.

She should have quit acting after the film though. How did the academy foresee that she would never do anything worthwhile again.

Another great move, in the same vein, is Dazed and Confused. This movie also captures the 70s teen years perfectly

I admit, it's been several years since I've seen the film, and the main thing I remember about the movie is the Zoe Deschanel character, the sister of the protagonist. The one who was treated badly by their mother, and who noped away from an unhappy situation and made a new life for herself. Which was painfully similar to how I myself spent my late teens, so of course that's what I remember.

I'd just like to put in a good word for Deschanel, who was never a fave of mine, but I think she did a great job with that small role. Most actors would have decided the role was a great chance to show how vulnerable they could be, but she played the role without self-pity, as someone who found she could deal with bad situation with good grace. Any angst would have dragged down the film, but she gave her scenes a light touch.

My husband doesn’t like Kate Hudson. He kept getting out of bed when we watched Almost Famous… getting snacks, brushing teeth, tidying bathroom. I asked why he wasn’t watching the movie and he told me his mother had always tried to set him up with female Russian immigrants and he couldn’t stand their accents. They reminded him of his grandmother who was in a nursing home, even if they were 21 years old. “That accent. It kind of physically repulses me.”

Then he said, “She looks to Russian to me.”

Now I can’t I unsee it. She does look Russian …at least in this movie, before she had more work done.

R57 the mother wasn’t bad to the sister, she was just very strict and the sister hated it. She was not mean or cruel to her though. She couldn’t wait to escape because her mother was very strict and religious, even calling her music collection satanic and not wanting it in her house.

By the time the son became 15 the mother finally loosened up a bit and allowed him to have his music and go to concerts etc. I guess she saw times were changing for good and decided to loosen up a bit.

When the daughter comes back later in the movie her and the mom actually bond very much and laugh. There isn’t any resentment there.

R56 I get what you’re saying but want to point out that this movie is nothing like Dazed outside of truly capturing the time period they’re set in.

Agree 100% r60

Dazed and Confused is a snapshot of a small Texas town in 1976. Complete with more U.S. rock and roll and small town characters.

Almost Famous is the opposite.

Both are pretty accurate portrayal of the 1970s, made decades later.

"[R57] the mother wasn’t bad to the sister, she was just very strict and the sister hated it. She was not mean or cruel to her though."

As I said, it's been years since I've seen the movie, but I do remember the mother telling the son that he's a genius and she adores him, and the older daughter that she's a bad, ungrateful etc. child. While the mother wasn't a monster, it was clear that she treated the son with a hell of a lot of favoritism, and that the daughter had some damn good reasons for wanting out of there.

It makes me sad for kids today, with the cost of living and low wages being what they are, it's not insanely difficult for them to leave unhappy homes. They're stuck with their dysfunctional families far too long.

I loved the stewardess uniforms.