Craig Brewer feels Kate Hudson's talents as an actress are under appreciated.

Kate , 46, stars with Hugh Jackman in Brewer's new movie Song Sung Blue as couple Mike and Claire Sardina, who perform as the Neil Diamond tribute act Lightning and Thunder, and Craig wanted to showcase Kate's range as a performer.

He told Variety: "When I've been in meetings and people start naming great actresses - the Kate Winslets of the world and so many others - I always say, 'You know, Kate Hudson's right here. Why aren't we talking about Kate?'

I think Kate has been, and this may be an extreme word, in a kind of prison of her own gifts. She's so winning in that delightful entertainment space - the movies she's known for, like How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. But I've always felt she was greatly underused.

A"s soon as Hugh and I started talking about her, I thought, 'I don't even need to think about this.' If we can say, 'This is who we want,' and if Kate wants to do it, then that's what we're going to do."

Craig also wanted to showcase a different side to Hugh, 57.

He said: "Both Kate and Hugh came into our consciousness around the same time in the late '90s and early 2000s. You've got X-Men. You've got Almost Famous. Now we're 25 years later. Yes, he's still gorgeous to so many people, but you can see that he's lived a life and is in a new place.

"One thing Hugh does in this movie that I really loved working with him on is his quieter moments, when emotion creeps up on him. That occupied a place I hadn't seen from him before, because so much of his onscreen emotion has come from anger or fury. I hadn't seen quiet moments of despair.

"Watching my crew watch him go through these scenes was something. I'd see grips and gaffers - big, beefy guys - up. They'd say, 'I don't know what it is about this character, but he's speaking to something I've been feeling lately.'"