Billy Crudup on Kate Hudson Calling Him a More 'Sophisticated' Kisser Than Matthew McConaughey (Exclusive)

Billy Crudup is thanking Kate Hudson for her kissing compliment. On Wednesday, ET's Rachel Smith spoke to the 54-year-old actor on the red carpet for his new AppleTV+ series, Hello Tomorrow!, and Crudup reacted to Hudson's recent interview that compared his kissing skills to that of Matthew McConaughey.

It all started when Hudson took Vanity Fair's lie detector test in December and weighed in on the kissing skills of the two men. Hudson starred with Crudup in the 2000 flick Almost Famous and alongside McConaughey in both How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003) and Fool's Gold (2008).

"I think Billy is a gentler kisser," Hudson said, at the time. "I wouldn't say better, but definitely just gentler. It's a more sophisticated version of a kiss. It's like theater. It's like Stanislavski and like Longhorns. You know what I mean?"

As for how Crudup felt about the statement, he thought it all had to do with his Almost Famous character, Russell Hammond.

"I think she was thinking the character Russell was gentler," he told ET. "I don't have a mustache now. This is the great thing about playing these parts, whether it's for music or romance, I love to expand my horizons."

Crudup was grateful for the compliment all the same, telling Hudson, "Thanks Kate for that shoutout!"

The actor put his real-life romance on display Wednesday night, stepping out for the event with his girlfriend, Naomi Watts. A blushing Crudup stayed mum about how he and his lady love spent Valentine's Day, telling ET that talk of it made him "all shy," but didn't deny that he's a romantic. "Why sure," he said of being a romantic at heart.

Professionally, Crudup is as busy as ever, as he recently wrapped filming for season 3 of The Morning Show.

"It was such a whirlwind. It was incredible," he said. "They took on everything. Imagine the past two years in this world, the number of things that have gone on in the news, and they hit on all of them. I hope the audience is ready for a ride."

As for what's next for his character, Cory Ellison, Crudup teased that there will be "more scheming, more operating, more weird, intellectual charm, and all the smarm that you can imagine."

While fans eagerly await the next installment of The Morning Show, they can catch Crudup in Hello Tomorrow!, AppleTV+'s retro-futuristic series, in which he stars as Jack Billings, a salesman who's determined to revitalize his customers' lives by hawking timeshares on the moon.

"It's the best kind of creative thing an actor can do. You step into a world that's not familiar at all and is a creation entirely by the way of Jonathan Entwistle and the group that he put together," Crudup told ET of the series' executive producer and director. "It's exactly what you hope for when you start playing around with theater when you're a kid."

Hello Tomorrow! premieres Friday, Feb. 17 on AppleTV+.

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