Kate Hudson says being called a ‘rom-com queen’ gives her a ‘mixed feeling’

In the pantheon of romantic comedies, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days is up there. It’s no When Harry Met Sally, but the charming 2003 film helped boost its star, Kate Hudson, into the short list of women who unofficially hold the title of “rom-com queen.” The Oscar-nominated actress hasn’t always appreciated that distinction.

“It’s a mixed feeling because…now that I’m older, I love it,” Hudson said Thursday on the Not Gonna Lie with Kylie Kelce podcast. “I think what happens when you…have a very successful rom-com, it sort of becomes what people expect from you and want from you, and as an actor you’re sort of like, ‘Yeah, but I want to do a million different things.'”

While Hudson’s decades-long list of acting credits includes the 2009 Rob Marshall musical Nine, 2005 horror flick The Skeleton Key, and other projects outside the meet-cute genre, such as the 2000 dramedy Almost Famous, for which she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars, she’s spent much of her career in romantic comedies. Along with How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, in which she costarred with Matthew McConaughey, she teamed up with the Texan again in 2008 on Fool’s Gold. Something Borrowed from 2011, 2009’s Bride Wars, and My Best Friend’s Girl, a 2008 film from Pretty in Pink director Howard Deutch, also qualify. She gets it.

“As Hollywood goes, they love to put you in a box. They love it,” Hudson said. “And so I think when you’re younger, you don’t want to be pigeonholed into this idea that that’s what you do. And the second you have success in a rom-com as a woman, it’s like they just want you in that. So it’s like you love it, and then at the same time you’re like, ‘Yeah, but I want to do other things. I don’t want to just do this all the time.'”

Hudson’s latest starring role is on Netflix’s comedy series Running Point, which was co-created and co-written by Mindy Kaling, who’s a noted fan of romantic comedies, although she’s said it’s not her priority here. The show focuses on her Isla Gordon, a woman who’s abruptly appointed leader of her family’s pro basketball team, the L.A. Waves, after her brother becomes embroiled in a drug scandal. She has to find a way to win respect and a championship. Netflix has already renewed it for a second season.

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“It was a completely new experience,” Hudson told EW last month about making the series. “I’d never been on a show where you do so much in one day. You would shoot a scene from two completely different episodes. I was like, ‘This is a whole new world.’ But we had such an amazing team of people, and oh my God, we just laughed so much.”