Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn left Hollywood in the mid-1980s, but Russell says the move was not the dramatic industry exit some people imagined. It was, in his telling, a practical choice about raising a family somewhere that worked better “on a day-to-day basis.” Quietly sensible, which is not usually how Hollywood departures are sold.
Why Colorado Made Sense For Their Family
In an interview with People published May 31, Russell explained that he and Hawn relocated from California to Colorado in 1986 because the state offered the kind of life he wanted around him.
“What I want to look at, what I want to be a part of [are] all the things that Colorado has to offer,” the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood actor said, adding, “I wanted to eventually get into the ranching life.”
Russell said the shift began after he and Hawn became a couple in 1983. A few years into their relationship, they built a ranch together in Colorado, creating a home base where their blended family would grow up.
“When Goldie and I got together,” he said, “a couple of years later, we both built a ranch there together, where our family has grown up.”
Their Blended Family Grew Up With More Space
That family includes their son, Wyatt Russell, 39. It also includes Oliver Hudson, 49, and Kate Hudson, 46, Hawn’s children from her previous marriage to Bill Hudson, as well as Boston Russell, 46, Kurt’s son with his ex-wife Season Hubley.
Russell, who grew up in Maine, said Colorado offered his children a different kind of childhood than Los Angeles could provide.
“It’s very different from living in a city. They grew up with a good dose of what nature can offer,” he said. “There are difficulties to it, but there are also great rewards to it. I’m just more comfortable there.”
The reason is simple enough. For two working actors with a large, blended family, the move gave their children distance from the industry’s daily noise while still allowing Russell and Hawn to keep working. That balance is easy to understand, even if it was less common among movie stars at the time.
Russell Says He Was Not Running From Los Angeles
Russell, now 75, was careful to make one point clear: he did not leave because he disliked Los Angeles.
“I don’t dislike L.A.,” he said. “I wasn’t escaping. I was just living where I live. I was fortunate that it really didn’t make any difference.”
He also acknowledged that, in 1986, the decision looked risky to others in the business.
“When I did it, nobody else was doing that,” Russell said. “I had many people tell me, ‘Well, that’s goodbye. That’s it.’ I said, ‘Well, we’ll see.’”
As career predictions go, that one did not age especially well.
The Move Did Not Slow Down His Career
Russell’s work continued steadily after the family settled in Colorado. He went on to appear in dozens of films across several decades, including projects with Hawn such as Overboard and The Christmas Chronicles.
His Hollywood standing remained intact, too. In 2017, Russell received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a fairly public sign that the industry had managed to remember him despite the Colorado address.
Russell has also spoken with humor about the trick of working with a romantic partner. Asked by Daily Pop in 2020 about making it work, he joked, “Do it every 33 years, first of all.”
The bigger point is simpler than celebrity-retreat mythology usually makes it sound. Russell and Hawn did not vanish from Hollywood. They built a life outside its center, kept working, and raised their family in a place that felt more like home.
