How Amy Schumer persuaded Goldie Hawn to be in Snatched
SANTA MONICA, CALIF. — If you saw Goldie Hawn on a plane, you’d probably pitch her, too.
That’s how Amy Schumer broached the beloved Oscar winner about co-starring in her new comedy Snatched (in theatres Friday), a farce that sends a buttoned-up mother and loose-cannon daughter to Colombia — where they are promptly kidnapped.
“I was like, ‘Let me just go aggressively plant the seed,’” recalls Schumer, 35.
Hawn, 71, has a slightly different first impression of that airport meet-cute: “To tell you the truth, I don’t even remember the moment, honestly.” She shrugs. “People come up to you a lot.”
Things changed several months later, when Hawn bumped into Schumer at an awards show. “That’s when she really said, ‘OK, this is happening I really want you, I’m writing this with you in mind,’ ” says Hawn, who immediately texted her agent to get on it.
Schumer has had major Hollywood momentum since the $110 million success of 2015’s Trainwreck, which she wrote and starred in. A worldwide standup comedy tour followed, as did HBO and Netflix specials (the former directed by Chris Rock).
Hawn, meanwhile, had been MIA. “It’s not as if I didn’t want to do anything,” says Hawn. “But, you know, I want to do something good. Otherwise, don’t do it. It’s kind of the way it goes for me.”
And so last summer, they packed their bags and took off for Hawaii (a leafy stand-in for Colombia).
Hawn grins talking about her oceanfront apartment in paradise. “I had three gorgeous rooms overlooking the water. I didn’t have to cook a thing.” Kurt Russell, her partner of 33 years, “was off doing his movies and I was doing mine. And I didn’t see him much at all. So making the movie was being apart — which was not a bad thing after so long being together.”
Fast-forward a year. Russell’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 hit theatres a week before Hawn’s Snatched. The couple received side-by-side stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last week.
“Life planning is important. Because no one knows what’s going to happen,” says Hawn, who took a 15-year break from movies to create MindUP, an international educational organization for children that focuses on brain health through mindfulness practices.
“When you reach a certain age in your life, you’re either going to repeat what you’ve been doing forever or you’re going to be adventurous and you’re going to go out and learn something new and give something different.”
Schumer nods. Her R-rated standup routine has been evolving, she says, becoming a little bit more political and grown up. She’s been in a relationship with furniture designer Ben Hanisch for a year and a half. But she’s mindful of keeping the audience who buoyed her to international fame.
“Hopefully we are all evolving,” she says. “With comedians, you want to see an evolution. You’re like, ‘This again?’ It’s hard to sustain an act.”
Her schedule remains booked out a solid year: This fall, she’ll release Thank You for Your Service, a film about soldiers who struggle from PTSD upon their return from Iraq, and this summer she’s shooting a film called I Feel Pretty (the plot remains under wraps).
“I have a real interest in women and confidence and having people feel better,” says Schumer. “That’s another thing that really connects us — Goldie is humble about it, but knows she can make people feel joy and laugh and feel things. That’s what I want, too.”