Kate Hudson's new film Shell is about the extremes actors will go to for youth and beauty

At 45, Kate Hudson has acquired a lifetime of wisdom about aging and self-image, which stems not only from her own experience navigating the Hollywood fame machine, but also from seeing her parents deal with the same pressures (her mom is Goldie Hawn and her stepdad is Kurt Russell).

"I was raised understanding, because of their experience, how it's sort of not real," Hudson tells Q's Tom Power in an interview. "Anything that anybody's projecting onto you is just a function of this machine … but as long as you're a good person and you have a solid life and you've got other interests and things you love just as much as acting, you're going to maintain a sense of self and happiness."

In her latest film, Shell, Hudson stars as Zoe Shannon, the glamorous CEO of a wellness company that promises remarkable anti-aging treatments to its wealthy clientele, including a down on her luck actor named Samantha Lake, played by Elisabeth Moss.

Directed by Max Minghella, the film is a campy body horror about the beauty standards pushed on women and the people who prey on that.

"There's a great scene in this movie where we're on a white sofa … and I explain why the plight of women is the way it is," Hudson says. "I'm sort of saying to [Elisabeth's character], basically, to toughen up — this is the way of the world."

While the desire to look young and beautiful is perhaps more pronounced in Hollywood, Hudson believes that aging is the same whether you're in the public eye or not. "It's not just Hollywood," she says. "Aging is just aging. However you feel about it is a reflection on how you live, I think."

For her personally, she says the pressure to look young doesn't square with what she's trying to achieve as an actor, which is "to disappear into different roles."

At the same time, Hudson isn't judgemental about anyone who's had work done — she thinks it's all a matter of personal happiness.

"When it comes to how you see yourself or beauty it's an inside-out job," she tells Power. "Honestly, I don't even think about it. I just live my life…. We're so bizarrely integrated in this social world, you have all this noise and that noise sort of creates this energy that can sometimes be incredibly destructive. So the hope is that you just shut the noise off and enjoy your life."

Shell just had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last week and is awaiting its theatrical wide release.

The full interview with Kate Hudson is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. She also talks about her role in Almost Famous and her debut album, Glorious. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Interview with Kate Hudson produced by Vanessa Nigro.