Kate Hudson just revealed the unexpected reason she bonded so deeply with Hugh Jackman while filming Song Sung Blue — and it happened before the cameras ever rolled. At the film’s London premiere, Kate shared that their connection began inside a recording studio. Quiet. Exposed. No acting. No defenses. Just two people and the music. “After that moment,” she admitted, “we didn’t have to manufacture emotion anymore.” That rare starting point followed them onto the screen — and explains why certain scenes feel uncomfortably real.

Kate Hudson and Hugh Jackman are receiving rave reviews for their new film Song Sung Blue, based on the true story of Mike and Claire Sardina, who performed as the Neil Diamond tribute band Lightning & Thunder in the 1980s. Kate and Hugh have been touring the world to premiere the film, and in London on November 21, Kate spoke of the “vulnerable” position she found herself in while connecting with her co-star.

“Craig [Brewer, the director] wanted to start in the recording studio, that was really the first time Hugh and I connected which was really nice because it’s very quiet, and you’re quite vulnerable when you’re in a recording studio,” Kate told the audience, which included HELLO! “You make a lot of mistakes and so it was great to break the ice that way,” she said, which you can watch in the video above.

©Jeff Spicer/WireImage

Mom-of-three Kate went on to share that, aside from finding the voices of Mike and Clare, working in the studio also helped her and Hugh to find their own voices together as actors.

“Craig gave me great freedom for my harmonies and pushed me as well at times, saying, ‘You can lean into that more,’ and it was a wonderful way to begin this whole process,” she said.

© Universal Pictures

Song Sung Blue is based on the 2008 documentary of the same name about Mike and Claire , who met in 1987 and formed the tribute band Lightning and Thunder. The pair fell in love, and performed in the Milwaukee and Chicago area throughout the 1980s and 1990s, even opening for Pearl Jam.

Deadline praised the film for “never losing the delicate tone of this musical comedy/drama” and called Kate “simply sensational,” and that Hugh “is as good as he has ever been playing a complicated guy who finds his groove in the music of an iconic singer”.

“This is the kind of robust entertainment — wholesome though not at all toothless, alternately joyful and heart-wrenching — that doesn’t get made much anymore,” wrote The Hollywood Reporter.