I Wanted The White Picket Fence

At 71, Goldie Hawn is heading back onto the big screen in a raucous mother-daughter comedy.Here, the trailblazing star talks to Chrissy Iley about beating anxiety, being a mum, finding love with Kurt Russell and breaking through that glass ceiling.

It was actress and comedian Amy Schumer who decided she wanted Goldie Hawn to play her mother in the edgy new comedy Snatched. She was convinced of it, even though Goldie has not actually made a movie in 15 years. This fact is surprising because Goldie has always been there, somehow permeating the Hollywood universe even if it was as the mother of actress Kate Hudson. Also perhaps because some of her classics – Private Benjamin, Shampoo and The First Wives Club – are always referenced and Netflix-ready. Yet, for this past decade-and-a-half, Goldie has been busy with her children’s foundation. It’s not that there was ever a moment she gave up acting. It wasn’t a decision. It’s something that evolved.

“I thought, ‘You know what? It’s time for me to let this baby turn into a teenager and get back to work, and have some fun,’” says Goldie. “So that’s what I did.”

The pairing with Amy is perfect. She is a new-generation pioneer of “funny lady calling the shots”, which is exactly what Goldie did in her day.

I meet Goldie Hawn in a grandiose hotel in Santa Monica – it’s by the beach with classic Hollywood blue sky and palm trees. It’s near the home she has just had built for herself and partner of 34 years, Kurt Russell. She has only spent three nights there, but radiates restfulness and peacefulness – she’s clearly happy that she’s in a good place and finally feels settled. And yet there is that air about her, a need to be calm in order to counter an anxiousness that has plagued her all her life. That’s why she’s done a lot of meditating and always has done.