Nicole Kidman, Rob Marshall, Penélope Cruz and Kate Hudson at the London premiere of “Nine”

What do you get when you cross an international cast of stars (most of whom are Oscar winners), a story about an Italian filmmaker who’s in a creative rut, and the women who’ve had the most influence his life? You get the movie musical “Nine,” one of the most star-studded musicals to come along in years. “Nine” is based on the stage musical of the same title, which was inspired by Federico Fellini’s 1963 movie “8 1/2.”

The all-star lineup for “Nine” the movie includes Daniel Day-Lewis, Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson, Penélope Cruz, Sophia Loren, Fergie, Marion Cotillard and Judi Dench. In “Nine.” Day-Lewis is Guido Contini, a celebrated Italian filmmaker who’s under pressure to deliver his next movie. The problem is that he has writer’s block and doesn’t hae a script, even though he’s soon expected to start his next film.

Guido is also having issues in his personal life, as he deals with conflicting emotions about women from his past and present: his long-suffering wife, Luisa (played by Cotillard); his demanding mistress Carla (played by Cruz); his costume designer/longtime confidante, Lilli (played by Dench); his actress muse Claudia Jenssen (played by Kidman); a star-struck Vogue magazine writer named Stephanie (played by Hudson); a prostitute from his childhood named Saraghina (played by Fergie); and his late mother (played by Loren). Kidman, Hudson, Cruz and Loren recently gathered for a press conference in New York City, where they talked about what it was like working with Method actor Day-Lewis, the fabulous fashion in “Nine,” and why “Nine” director Rob Marshall is a rarity in filmmaking.

Kate Hudson at the London premiere of “Nine,” December 2009

Hudson: For me, I look at everything on a project-to-project basis. For this film, for me, it was more about just basically, “I would just like to sing for Rob Marshall.” So that’s the first thing for me for this: “Please get me in the room, and I can just hit one note and see if he bites.” [She laughs.]

I’m a spontaneous person, so when I approach anything, I try not to think too much. There are days where I feel like I have to get a little more in it, more heady, but for me, I am an instinctual being, so I approach things with my instincts.

Nicole Kidman at the London premiere of “Nine,” December 2009

Kidman: Most of the time, the roles are better for men. But I also think the way [Guido] describes it to be specific in that scene, that role [for a man] sounds more riveting than all of the other things he’s presenting to me, which sound waffly. And as we know, he has no idea anyway. He’s sort of clutching at straws. And I think that says very much about the character of Claudia, in the sense of being, even though she’s his actress, she knows him in a way where she can speak a truth to him as well and she’s not frightened to do that.

But in terms of Hollywood? Yes. I think a lot of the time, they rewrote a role for a woman, for Angelina [Jolie]. I think it was “Wanted.” That was originally a man’s role, and the rewrote it and made it a woman’s role. I think that sometimes that can be great. I wish they’d do that more often. [She laughs.] But I’m also about to play a man [in the 2010 film "The Danish Girl"], so strangely enough, that does ring true for me. It’s a man that obviously goes through a sex change.

How do you know you didn’t take that role away from a man?

Kidman: I’ll be answering that at the next press conference. [Laughter]

Penélope Cruz, Nicole Kidman and Fergie at the Los Angeles premiere of “Nine,” December 2009

Cruz: Wow, that would be tough, especially with this group of ladies. I wouldn’t want to see myself in that situation!

Hudson: I’d rather hang with the ladies. I’d rather be like, “Uh, OK, Guido, whatever! You guys want to go to lunch?” That’s just me. Nicole said once about Daniel through this process that I thought was so wonderful. You were saying that his dedication and passion for what he does reminds you of who luck and blessed we are to be able to do this. It puts you back in that place were we recognize why we love what we do so much. Daniel’s ability, it’s inspiring. It’s truly inspiring to watch his process. It makes you really love it.

Kidman: And it hasn’t waned. He’s been doing it for a long time, and it hasn’t waned, his commitment to what he does. As you all know, he’s won two Academy Awards, and he so deserves it. He’s the true actor’s actor.

The female stars of “Nine”

Pictured clockwise from top left: Judi Dench, Marion Cotillard, Sophia Loren, Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson, Fergie and Penélope Cruz

Kidman: We can’t say that about ourselves [or we’d look arrogant]. But honestly, it was interesting being around this cast. People ask us about the egos and everything, and I think when you’re working, the egos are not a part of it, because when you love what you do you’re just so glad to be around other people who love what they do. I came into the rehearsal room and saw Kate dancing up a storm … And I went, “Wow! That’s amazing!”

I can’t wait for people to see that part of her, and maybe she’ll get a Broadway show out of this because she so deserves the lead in a show, whether she’d want to do it or not. I think that’s what it is. And you see that with our director, he’s just in the trenches, working everyday, and he still does not want to give the film up. That’s what you need to be around to do good work, because it’s contagious and it’s also inspiring.

Sophia Loren in “Nine”

Loren: The story of Fellini is a magical story in the movie that Italy has done. So I was very happy when Rob Marshall called me up and said, “We are going to do this play about the story of Fellini and I would like you to be in it.” I was very proud of it because I was the only Italian in the film, to be able to say that Italian movies are still wonderful all over the world. I accepted in a very nice way. Rob told me that he was not going to do the film if I was not going to be in it. So for the sake of his career, I said, “It’s OK, I’m going to be in it. So don’t you worry.” And I did, and here I am.

Sophia, Nicole and Penélope, where you do you keep your Academy Awards?

Loren: In the library.

Kidman: My mom has it on her mantle at her house in Sydney.

Cruz: I have it in my house in Spain, and I still haven’t found the right place for it. But for the first month when I won, I was so excited about it, that I took it everywhere with me. I even took it to the beach one day. I put it on the towel.

Daniel Day-Lewis (second from left) and Sophia Loren (third from left) in “Nine”

Loren: I love Daniel, very much indeed. And I really admire the kind of work he does when he starts to make a film. He’s completely concentrated in what he has to do, and his mind is a constant thought about what he has to do next. He’s very, for an actress, very intimidating, because he was somebody who was not reachable sometimes, and then at the same time, he was with you all the time. He’s strange, and I love him a lot.

Cruz: I have to say, I was a little bit nervous about meeting him, because he’s really one of my favorite actors and I think he’s one of the masters of acting of all time. I’ve heard all these stories about the way he works, and I tried not to listen to any of those stories, to see for myself. I arrived and I went into the stage and they were rehearsing a number and he was not part of that number. I saw this man dressed in a suit in a corner just watching. For two hours I was there and I did not recognize him, and they said, “No, that’s Daniel. He’s always here watching the others. He’s always on the set.”

I went and said hello, and he was really one of the greatest partners to work with, really kind, really generous. I tried to make him part of my game of self-criticism after a take. “Daniel! I think I was terrible, what do you think?” He said, “I will never engage in that game with you. Let’s go and do the next take.” That was a huge lesson for me: someone who never looks at the monitor, is always in the present. “What’s next?” It’s a huge lesson for acting, about not engaging into your own [self-criticism]. In that way, Daniel has no ego, he’s always moving forward. Huge lesson for me abut acting.

Nicole Kidman and Daniel Day-Lewis in “Nine”

The way Daniel does that work is also because of the directors that he chooses, because it’s very important that that [Method acting] is not ridiculed, it’s not made fun of, it’s no t analyzed too much. And Ro is amazing like that, because he allows the process of each actor to blossom and exist. And so he creates a space for everybody to do their work. That sounds easy, and it’s very hard. And he molds us.

Hudson: When I first met Daniel, I was rehearsing. He was watching and I was like, “What’s Daniel doing here?” I had a very similar experience as Penélope [did]. He’s, like Penélope said, so kind and generous. I had a scene [with Daniel] where we got to get drunk at a bar. And we had a blast! The Guido I got was the one who wanted t come out of himself. So we were laughing, stools were flying everywhere. I didn’t get the agonized Guido. But all in all, as a man in-character off-set, he’s present and sees you. He’s not lost. You never feel like it’s only his; you feel like a part of it. He brings you into it, writing notes to you as his character. It’s not coming from a place of ego; it’s just his process.

Kate Hudson and Daniel Day-Lewis in “Nine”

Hudson: It was just after the number or something, he would write, “Oh, the number was great. Love, Guido.” As you would write anybody a note, he would just write it to you as Guido. And it was great. What a keepsake. I still have it.

Sophia, what does it take to be Italian right now compared to 40 years ago?

Loren: Why should Italians not be the same since 40 years ago? Italians will be the same always, all the time. Italians are people that have a lot of heart, a lot to say in every field, and we will be always be successful all over the world. I’m very proud of being Italian.

Kate Hudson and Goldie Hawn at the New York City premiere of “Nine,”  December 2009

Hudson: Yes! It was great! I have written down here how to pronounce Swarovski, because I always say it wrong. I’m a huge clothes fanatic — I’m wearing Bottega Veneta — and working with Colleen [Atwood, the costume designer for "Nine"], was like … this is going to sound really bad, but I’m going t say it anyway. When I was growing up, I’d watch Bob Mackie make my mother [Goldie Hawn] these phenomenal costumes — I mean, dresses and gowns and couture beads everywhere. And as a little girl, your eyes are sparkling going, “Wow, this amazing to look at.”

And then as I started becoming a woman and the way clothes and fashion and costuming changed in my generation, working with Colleen was like a throwback to me being a little girl with these beads and real hook-and-eyes — the real deal, you know? And I remember putting on the Swarovski crystal number and it weighed 15 pounds. And I thought to myself, “This is awesome! This is what costuming is about!” And that’s Colleen and that’s Rob. And everything is authentic. And for somebody who loves clothes, you can’t help but feel great in them, and it sort of transforms the energy when they’re that specific.

Kidman: It’s just great when you work with people who are able to help the characters be made. We would come out and each one of us was very, very different and very distinctive. And I think Colleen and Rob and ["Nine" producer/choreographer] John [DeLuca] worked very, very hard in giving us each a very detailed, specific character, because film is about what you see. It’s not just what you hear. So it has to impinge. Colleen had very limited time to do it as well, because we were in and out and rehearsing, so she had to really work fast and furious ad have the things be able to hold up for big dance numbers, which is tough.

Penélope Cruz in “Nine”

It was great to see that Rob really spent so much time in every department. The head of every department is amazing, but Rob is one of those directors who takes the time to choose every single thing that you see on every frame. That always makes you feel very confident.

Loren: I cannot say much because I was a spirit in the film. I shouldn’t have worn any clothes. Rob was always there watching. “What are you going to wear, Sophia, for this scene?” And we were always fighting because I wanted to wear something nice. What I wore in the film is something that is very good for the character I’m playing anyway. And the shoes were not very slippery for me. And everything went OK.

“Nine” producer/choreographer John DeLuca, Penélope Cruz, “Nine” director/producer/choreographer Rob Marshall and Fergie at the Los Angeles premiere of “Nine,” December 2009

Hudson: As a fan of musical theater and musicals — because I was obsessed with them as a kid — there are very few people who can put that on film and make it seamless. And at the same time, you have that feeling when you’re watching a number on screen, when you’re seeing it live, you get that energy. And when you put it on screen, you’re missing a dimension and it’s very difficult to bring it to life. And Rob has this incredible ability to take that feeling and you can feel it in a movie theater. And I’ve never had a feeling in a [movie] musical except when I watch Rob’s musicals on screen.

Cruz: That’s what makes him so unique. He can be extremely picky. He can see everything. You can never fool him. He can really, really work you hard — and of course, we want that as actors — but he can do that being the nicest man in the world. And when I met him the first day, I felt like he’s one of the kindest, nicest people I ever met but I wondered how he would be in a situation under pressure.

One month goes by, two months go by, and he’s always like this to everybody. He’s always kind to everybody. He never loses his temper. He never treats anybody without respect. And you don’t see a lot of people who can handle this huge, enormous amount of pressure that he had in this movie with such manners. He’s just such a beautiful person … You really don’t see a lot of people who has the talent that he has but then also put that much love into what they do, that much respect into what they do. If he could’ve given his life for this movie, he would. He worked so hard. He treated every single person in the group in such a nice way. [SOURCE]

Improbably, she was Kate Hudson, the Academy Award-nominated actress, daughter of Goldie Hawn, and one of the stars of the dazzling Rob Marshall-directed musical Nine (in wide release on Christmas Day). “I’m having a good time right now,” Kate says over a glass of champagne at the Odeon in New York’s TriBeCa. “It’s really fun. It’s a blast.”

Spotted all over the country together in the last few months — strolling with their kids in Seattle (Rodriguez has Natasha, five, and Ella, 20 months, from his marriage to Cynthia Rodriguez, while Kate has Ryder, five, with her ex-husband, Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson), kissing at a Yankees family picnic, and dining out in Westchester County — Kate and A-Rod seem to be getting pretty serious.

“I’m not pregnant,” she says. “I can’t go two months without being” — according to the tabloids, that is — “pregnant, engaged, or breaking up because I’m too needy, which is always the one they love. I’m not needy. You kind of have to laugh it off, but it can kind of screw up other things around it.

“I have a child, and there are people involved, and it’s unfair to talk about somebody else, especially when you’re not in that place yet to be discussing those things,” Kate goes on. “If I was sitting here with a belly out to here, I’d be talking about what the relationship is and how important that is in my life right now.”

So does that mean she isn’t sure of Rodriguez yet? “You’re horrible, so horrible,” she says, deflecting the question with a big, infectious laugh. Isn’t she moving fast? “People don’t know where I’m moving,” she counters good-naturedly. “They’re just reading psychobabble in these [tabloid] magazines.” Even when confronted with the evidence — a picture of her kissing A-Rod — she gamely holds her ground. “There’s a guy that’s shooting probably 60 frames a minute. That was a sideswipe on the cheek. That wasn’t even a kiss.” So she’s not in love with this guy? “I quickly kissed the cheek,” she maintains. “And I remember one of the headlines the next day said, MAKEOUT SESSION. What is wrong with people?

“If I walk out on the street with any man, I’m dating him. I’ve been dating two of my best friends from high school who are like girls to me,” she says incredulously. “I’m not going to hide going to breakfast.”

And it’s not likely the gossip will subside anytime soon. At her Bazaar shoot a few days earlier, Kate was photographed in a white Marchesa dress that resembled a wedding gown, leading to the inevitable speculation that she and Rodriguez are engaged. “No one knows what I’m doing,” says Kate. She isn’t wearing the diamond ring she’s been seen sporting lately, although she does have an antique black-enamel snake ring by Codognato, an Italian jeweler. “My bauble,” she says, fishing it out of her roomy bag to spruce up her current ensemble of an Under Armour vest and Adidas sweatpants and running shoes. “There,” she says, grinning. “Now I feel better.”

Even in gym clothes without any makeup on, her streaked blonde hair pulled back in a tossed-off bun, Kate glows. And she can certainly turn it out on the red carpet. She’s been seen in everything from leather by Chrome Hearts to gowns by Versace and Chanel, recently turning heads at a Cartier event in a black Rachel Roy gown with a down-to-there neckline. A longtime friend of power stylist Rachel Zoe — “We have a funny relationship,” Kate says with a mischievous smile — she reveals that she’s been considering doing her own clothing line.

“At heart, I’m such a hippie,” she says. “I don’t like structured things. I’ll put on a tight, sexy little thing that I can’t walk in, and that’s fun. But I like the flowy and comfortable. I just want to make really beautiful clothes that I want to put on every day.”

But on the night of November 14, 2008, she was dressed to the nines. Sporting a little cobalt-blue Alexander Wang dress with an almost-bare back, Kate, 30, reportedly met A-Rod, 34, at the reopening of the Fontainebleau hotel in Miami. It would come as no surprise if those close to her had warned her to be cautious, but “I don’t really have friends like that,” Kate says.

According to Cynthia Rodriguez, Rodriguez’s wife of five years (she filed for divorce in July 2008, citing “extramarital affairs and other martial misconduct”), he had strayed. And prior to the split, he’d been spotted dining and working out with Madonna. Then, in the darkest moment of his career, in February 2009, A-Rod admitted to testing positive for steroids in 2003.

Kate, ever the optimistic California girl, was not deterred. “My mother never shook anybody’s hand. She has kissed and hugged her way throughout her life,” Kate says proudly. And growing up, her family had a “no-judgment open-door policy. We were never afraid to bring the wrong person home. They were always open to our failures. And no matter how many times my heart breaks, I’ll never be any different.

“I’d rather hang out with the person who’s done everything than who’s done nothing,” she continues. “It would suck to die and not have experienced my life, really. I mean, I think you should keep your eyes open. Blinders are fun for a second, but they have to come off eventually. And I believe it’s important to get to know people, to really get to know them.”

Today, though, the most important man in Kate’s life is Ryder, whom she nicknames Buddy. She and her ex maintain a close friendship. “Chris is a great dad,” she says. “I feel really lucky. When we first met, it was so immediate. I had no question in my mind I was supposed to marry him and have children with him.”

As for her divorce, she says, “It just wasn’t working. It was that simple. I loved him like crazy.” And there was no infidelity involved in their decision to separate, she says, despite gossip to the contrary: “That’s not what happened.”

Regardless of their split, Robinson and Kate amicably share in the parenting of their son. “I’m a pretty strict mom, which is funny,” she continues. “I didn’t think I’d be so strict. I feel like he is so great, he’s such a good kid, people really connect with him, they want to give him things and do things for him, and I’m like, no. The next thing you know, you have the kid who’s being cute in order to get something.”

In proud-mom mode, she pulls out of her bag a special notebook she’s kept since forever in which she has written down pages of Ryderisms. “When he first started talking, he said, ‘Mommy, let’s get on parachutes and eat the candy-cane sky.’ I was like, ‘Okay, Sergeant Pepper!’”

She has found that single motherhood “can be okay. I feel like I’ve learned so much. The routine [of marriage] can kill me. That becomes a difficult balance, too, because I feel like my son needs his routine, but for me I need to step out of my routine. I haven’t figured it all out yet.”

A close-knit circle of girlfriends, including 90210 star Sara Foster and video producer Juliana Roberts, helps keep Kate grounded. “I don’t know what I’d do without my girlfriends,” she says. “Let’s be honest, I don’t care how much you’re in love with any man, you need to have your girlfriends to talk to. Without them, we’re alone. I don’t want to talk to a man about some of the things I feel.”

Her thoughts on plastic surgery likely fall into that girls-only category. “If I need to go under the knife,” Kate says, “I’m the first one to say I should. But nowadays when you go into a dermatologist’s office, they have so many things. What else are they going to come up with? We’re gonna end up going into a tank one day and coming out with, like, the perfect face,” she says, laughing.

Meanwhile, her career has continued to flourish. And now Nine (which stars a powerhouse of talents, including Daniel Day-Lewis, Penélope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Sophia Loren, and Judi Dench), which casts Kate as Stephanie Necrophuros, a magazine editor and sexpot, promises to show audiences a whole new side to her. “Kate’s a life force,” Kidman says. “I think what’s compelling about her is that she truly sparkles.”

Kate sings and dances in the film — a first for her. “I love it,” she says. Asked to show off her skills, she laughs and then breaks out into a few bars of the Aretha Franklin classic “Ain’t No Way.” Her voice is melodic and sure. “I’d like to do more musical theater,” she says. “Nine was so much more rewarding to me personally than other things I’ve done — it was really emotional for me to do the number I do in the film ['Cinema Italiano'] — because I realized I haven’t been utilizing some things that I love to do.”

Penélope Cruz, for one, was happy to have a coconspirator. “We both studied dance growing up,” says Cruz, “so we were happy to be able to do it professionally. Also, we both love food so much. I had to gain some weight for the part, so we would get high from Chinese food. We would go to a Chinese restaurant and eat everything on the menu. We were so hungry from exercising so many hours a day, rehearsing our musical numbers.”

“My parents,” Kate says, referring to her mom and stepdad Kurt Russell, “always said, ‘You came out singing and dancing.’ I would take any microphone. I was always talking to myself in mirrors, dancing in mirrors.”

Hawn, her daughter notes, was a dancer before she became an actress. “We’re like circus folk,” Kate jokes. “My mother was a trained ballerina. She was a showgirl in Vegas” — and famously a go-go dancer on Laugh-In — “so I was raised in this community of dancers. When you really love to dance and you’re on a stage and you hit something, there’s this howl of energy. There’s nothing like it,” she says with a huge smile. [Source]

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