Goldie Hawn Dishes On Her Casting Couch Nightmare And Oliver Hudson’s Near Death Experience

Goldie Hawn recently celebrated her Hollywood career, when, along with her partner Kurt Russell, she was awarded her Hollywood Walk of Fame star. Now, as Hawn re-emerges into the spotlight with a new film set to premiere in theaters, she’s looking back on that lifetime of filmmaking and opening up about some of the darker experiences that helped to shape her into the strong and determined woman she is today. Looking back at the past, Goldie talks about being reduced to tears by a casting couch incident and shares how she handled that situation.

Goldie Hawn Faced Off Against a Sexual Predator

Talking with People, Ms. Hawn recalled running into cartoonist Al Capp in New York City and how that meeting led to one of the most nightmarish experiences of her career. Capp told Hawn that he was casting for a new film, prompting the actress to arrange a meeting with him. As Hawn recalls, she assumed she was meeting Capp for an audition, but she quickly realized Capp had other ideas.

“I was 19. I went up for the ‘meet,’ and it was so scary,” Hawn recalled. “He took off his business clothes and came in in, like, a dressing gown. I got the picture, and I thought, ‘I’m in trouble. Where’s the door?'”

Even after this awkward entrance, Al Capp put Hawn at ease by delving into her acting skills and offering insight into her performances that Goldie thought to be true. She says she took the interview a little more seriously, but when Capp wanted Hawn to show her legs and kiss him, Goldie says she drew the line.

Capp didn’t take the rejection well, threatening that Goldie would never make another film. He shouted that she should go back home and settle down without ever realizing her dreams of becoming an actress.

“I was crying and I didn’t have any money to go back to the [1964 New York] World’s Fair, where I was dancing, and so he threw me $20 for a taxicab,” Hawn says. “It wasn’t a good day.”

Goldie Hawn Turned to God When Son Oliver Hudson Nearly Died

Taking another look back at her life, Fox News reports that Goldie Hawn shared that her son’s brush with death caused her to turn to God in a moment of desperation. It happened just after Oliver Hudson’s birth. Pregnancy complications caused problems for Goldie, who was diagnosed with toxemia, and for Oliver, who was rushed to ICU immediately after being born. When Ms. Hawn was brought to see her son, the actress recalls turning to God to plead for a miracle.

Hawn retells a story that may seem almost unbelievable. She says she placed her hand on Oliver’s chest and asked God to heal him through her touch. Ms. Hawn reports that Oliver’s heartbeat began to strengthen almost instantly.

“I don’t think there’s any question that prayer can work. I’m a very spiritual person,” says Ms. Hawn. “I’m not a religious person, although I was raised Jewish and I like my tribe, but that was a beautiful thing. It was phenomenal. I just emptied myself. I don’t know how to explain it.”

Even after that experience, Goldie still hasn’t committed to an organized religion. When daughter Kate Hudson first asked about God, Hawn says she told her daughter that God was everywhere and one needed only to look for him.

“I said, ‘Well I think God is everywhere, really. To feel God is what’s really important,” explained Goldie Hawn. “You know that feeling just before you’re going to laugh? That thing where you get all bubbled up? It’s like a bubble of laughter, but it hasn’t come out yet? That’s what God feels like.'”

Goldie Hawn stars along with Amy Schumer in Snatched, which debuts in theaters on Friday, May 12.

[Featured Image by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]