Kate Hudson believes completely in the supernatural, so filming the creepy thriller The Skeleton Key was an eerie though exhilarating experience, she tells Steve Pratt.

RETURNING to work so soon after having her first baby was hard and tiring, but Kate Hudson had a good time making the supernatural thriller The Skeleton Key.

"It was one of those experiences that I will, years and years from now, look back on and go, 'that was just a life-changing experience, you know'," says the actress daughter of Hollywood star Goldie Hawn.

"I had a great time and was so happy to get back to work too because I hadn't worked in a while."

The makers of The Skeleton Key postponed filming once Hudson, who's married to Black Crowes singer Chris Robinson, found she was pregnant and waited until she'd given birth to son Ryder, now 18-months-old.

Having a baby altered Hudson's attitude to making movies and being on a film set. "For the first time in my life I had really understood what it was like to be totally present in something, with my baby, because they demand you're present completely," she explains.

"Granted, I like to have a good time on set - to be funny and hang out - but it did allow me to be more present in my work as well. A funny thing happened to me after I had Ryder. I didn't care any more about anything that would ever really hold me back.

"When something happens in your life that's just so much more important than anything you've ever experienced and way more important than yourself, there's a fearlessness that starts to come out, especially in working life. It just felt like nothing matters. I'm a happy, happy woman. I'm very happy in my life and I can allow myself to let go."

Hudson's father was singer/comedian Bill Hudson but she was raised by Hawn and her long-term partner, actor Kurt Russell. Growing up in an acting household, it's hardly surprising that she decided to follow in their footsteps. Her performance as groupie Penny Lane in Almost Famous brought her to the public attention, winning her a Golden Globe and Oscar nomination. Roles in movies such as The Four Feathers, How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days and Raising Helen have followed.

In The Skeleton Key, she plays a woman mixed up with witchcraft and black magic in the Deep South after taking a job as a carer to a sick man in a dark and dingy mansion. John Hurt, Gena Rowlands and Peter Sarsgaard also star under the direction of Brit Iain Softley.

"It takes me forever to read scripts, but this one I read in an hour. I was so excited. I was filming a movie at the time but immediately wanted to start filming this," says Hudson.

Despite the recent birth of her son, she threw herself into filming and did most of her own stunts. No special work was required as she was already on an exercise routine to recover her shape after giving birth. "The training came with just having to lose weight, because I had gained so much. I was in a very demanding workout regime, which was good for everything - good for my mind, for my focus, for myself," she says.

"I've always been athletic. The stunt guys were surprised when they didn't have to teach me too much, just show me the ropes."

The film deals with a kind of magic called hoodoo, which is used in areas of the Deep South for healing, control and good or bad luck. Hudson isn't sceptical about such things. "I believe completely in the supernatural. I believe in spirit. I believe that energy exists in all forms and levels, and that those things are easily manipulated," she says.

She wouldn't react like her screen character Caroline, who fearlessly investigates the mysterious room at the top of the house. "You wouldn't catch me going into that attic at all," she confesses.

"I wouldn't even walk up the stairs to the attic because I believe in all those things. If I sensed any kind of energy that might be negative, I'd just smile and turn and walk in the other direction."

She experimented with spells as a teenager. "You know, when you have little love spells like how to make a new boyfriend. When I was in high school, I put pictures of boys in my underwear drawer and stuff, to try and bring my energy to them or whatever."

She reads tarot cards in real life, with some success. "The best prediction was that I saw in somebody's cards that their father was sick and her sister was taking money from her father," she says. "I just came out and said this whole thing about the father and the sister. I was like crazy, on a roll, and I was right. I just couldn't believe it."

Mum Goldie turned up at the London premiere of The Skeleton Key and her daughter has called her "my best friend", just don't expect them to talk about movies all the time. "It's so crazy to think I would sit with my parents and talk about things like, 'I really want you to read this script' and 'do you think it's the right career move?'. That's what I have an agent and manager for. We're just not like that. We don't read the trade papers at the dinner table."

* The Skeleton Key (15) is in cinemas now.

Published: 01/08/2005