In Running Point, Kate Hudson stars as Isla Gordon, a reformed party girl who is unexpectedly put in charge of the family business — which just so happens to be pro basketball team the Los Angeles Waves.
If that story sounds slightly familiar, it may be because it’s somewhat based on the life of Jeanie Buss, controlling owner and president of the Los Angeles Lakers who also serves as an executive producer on the Netflix series. And as it turns out, not only is Hudson playing a version of the Buss in the show, but they have a relationship that’s gone back decades.
“She was somebody that I’ve known since she was a teenager because her parents used to bring her to the L.A. Kings hockey games when I was managing the Forum, so I used to take her around,” Buss told The Hollywood Reporter at the show‘s Los Angeles premiere. “I knew she would understand the backstage of it all and what goes on with a sports team because she understands sports.”
There’s also the fact that Hudson starred as the love interest of Buss’ husband, Jay Mohr, in 1999 comedy 200 Cigarettes, which the owner called, “going all full circle.”
Hudson said she honored to play the role. “I was happy that she approved me playing a loosely based version of her, the comedic version of her life,” she said, applauding the exec for having “such a great sense of humor. She really gave us all this license to have fun.”
Buss met with the writers — Mindy Kaling, Ike Barinholtz and David Stassen — and told them real-life stories from her 40 years of working in sports to help guide the series.
Of working with Kaling, Hudson said the two are “a really good mix” as Kaling knows how to get things done. “I’ve never done a 30-minute comedy where it’s just joke after joke, hitting all of these jokes, and she’s such a good comedic writer,” the star said of their partnership. “Where we really had a nice balance was I like to pull at the heart a little bit and allow certain things to breathe, and because we collaborated so well together it was this really wonderful mix.”
Although there are some romantic storylines in the show, Hudson doesn’t see it so much as a return to rom-coms as a family comedy. “What I appreciate about it is it’s the full life of a woman who has a very big job,” she says. “It’s a little bit bigger than just a down-the-line romance.”
As for how they knew Hudson was the right lead, Barinholtz joked, “She’s just Southern California; she looks like she just emerged from the ocean one day. As an actor, she’s someone we’ve seen do so many different things and she can be super funny and give you heart and be sexy but also gross” and declared “she just killed it” in the show.
Stassen added, “She grew up in a dynastic family, she knew Jeanie growing up, she gets that world of high-powered people making big choices, and she just totally took over the role right away.”
Running Point is now streaming on Netflix.
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