Crafting Claire Stengl: Kate Hudson on Her Character’s Emotional Duality in Song Sung Blue
National, 5th January, 2026: Universal Pictures India (distributed by Warner Bros. Discovery) brings Song Sung Blue to Indian theatres on 9th January, 2026. Inspired by a true story, the musical drama pairs Golden Globe Award Recipients Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson as two performers who find connection – and survival – through music in the middle of life’s constant noise.
Jackman stars as Mike Sardina, a Vietnam veteran and recovering alcoholic scraping by on the gigging circuit, fixing cars by day and playing wherever he can by night. His journey intersects with that of Claire Stengl, portrayed by Hudson, whose story becomes the emotional backbone of the film.
When the audience meets Claire, she is a struggling single mother of two, balancing long days as a hairdresser with late nights singing as a Patsy Cline impersonator. Her life is full of responsibility, fatigue, and compromise – yet she keeps moving forward, driven by a passion that refuses to be sidelined. Music, for Claire, is not an escape from real life; it is what allows her to survive it.
“It’s like she powers over how hard her life is and is constantly moving forward with spirit,” notes Hudson, who plays Claire in a performance as daringly electric as it is emotionally raw. “There are people that you meet like that: their circumstance isn’t necessarily how they live. They live with this fire and this vibrancy, and the belief that everything’s going to get better, and that’s Claire. But then she also has this other side she’s in that high and has all that vibrancy, but then can go quite low.”
Director Craig Brewer understood early on that casting Claire would determine the film’s emotional authenticity. As he developed the script for Song Sung Blue, he knew the character required more than just musical talent.
“There was a real, unavoidable component to this, which was that this person has to be able to sing. We weren’t going to cast somebody and hope they can sing,” Brewer says. “And then there’s another part of it too: she has to really be believable as a mom to women watching this movie. We have to believe that she’s trying to go after her dream, but also making lunches and picking up the kids after school.”
The clarity came unexpectedly while Brewer was watching a CBS Sunday Morning segment featuring Hudson.
“She was saying, ‘I’m done with waiting around on roles. I’m going to go sing,’” Brewer recalls. “I was looking at her thinking, oh my God, there she is! And then she starts saying that her son had graduated high school and started to tear up. And I was like, that’s right, she’s a mom! It was just so clear that it was her.”
Through Claire Stengl, Song Sung Blue presents a grounded portrait of ambition, motherhood, and perseverance – in theat