'The Reluctant Fundamentalist': Kate Hudson Was Director Mira Nair’s First Choice For Role Of Erica

by uInterviewApril 11, 2013, 12:00 am >

Director Mira Nair revealed that Kate Hudson was her first choice for the role of Erica in her movie, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, which will be premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival next week.

While Nair auditioned many actresses for the role, Hudson was the one that she decided she had to have for the film. "We really fell in love with each other. We hung out for hours, which is something I never do. And then we went through many others and Kate kept sending me love notes,” the filmmaker said in a statement.

At one point, the casting choice appeared as though it wouldn’t work out, as Hudson was pregnant in 2011 when the project was set to get underway. But the pair caught a lucky break when production got delayed; when it picked up again, Hudson was ready to go. “It was meant to be,” Nair said. “By then, I had cast Riz [Ahmed]"

Hudson and Ahmed play girlfriend and boyfriend in the film, which is set in the tense period of time that followed 9/11. Ahmed’s character, a Pakistani-born young Princeton graduate, is making his way up on Wall Street and seeing his American dream become realized. However, in the post 9/11 era, his allegiances are questioned and tested, creating a desire to reconnect with his homeland.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist is based on Mohsin Hamid’s novel of the same name. Also starring in the film are Liev Shrieber, Keifer Sutherland, Shabana Azmi and Om Puri. Watch the film's trailer below: