Kate Hudson's 'Innate Charisma' in Campy “Shell” Role Brings Her a Goldie Hawn “Death Becomes Her” Moment (Exclusive)

Director Max Minghella tells PEOPLE why “there wasn’t anybody else I could think of” for Hudson’s role as a shady wellness company CEO

Like mother, like daughter! More than three decades after Goldie Hawn sought the fountain of youth in the 1992 classic Death Becomes Her, Kate Hudson stars in a new horror-comedy that also tackles the topic of impossible beauty standards.

In director Max Minghella’s Shell, Hudson, 45, plays Zoe Shannon, a wealthy and self-assured wellness guru whose clinic promises remarkable anti-aging treatments. What Zoe doesn’t advertise? Those treatments that give supple skin can have horrific side-effects.

Struggling actress Samantha Lake (Elisabeth Moss), who is losing jobs to younger up-and-comers after a successful run on a cheesy TV series, reluctantly agrees to go to Zoe's company, Shell, when pressured by her representatives.

The two women strike up a lopsided friendship — Zoe’s the alpha, Samantha’s more reserved — until Samantha’s panic over her changing body makes her question her new BFF.

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Zoe, says Minghella, 39, “has this self-possession and self-confidence that is so rarefied, and I truly believe it's not possible to teach somebody. I don't think it's something you could play unless you just innately have it as a human being. Kate is nothing like Zoe, but what they share is that ease and that physicality and that sense of self.”

Hudson was his No. 1 choice for the role. “There wasn't really anybody else I could really think of who would bring that kind of innate charisma and self-possession to it,” he says.

While Minghella thought Moss, 42, his Handmaid’s Tale costar, would be perfect to play Samantha, he says he was “nervous” to bring it up to her.

“I admit I was very reticent to talk to her about it,” he says. “I didn't want her to ever feel obligated to work with me or feel pressure in any way.”

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Ultimately, Moss came on as not only a star but a producer too. The movie also features Kaia Gerber, Amy Landecker and Succession's Arian Moayed.

“All of these parts, I feel like we have the only actor I can contemplate,” says Minghella, who filmed the “campy” movie in 25 days.

“It was incredibly important to us that the movie never took itself seriously,” he says. “So I think we were just driven every day as a crew to make something for our friends and our family that we thought could be really entertaining.”

Shell does have a point of view about Hollywood and the female experience, but Minghella doesn’t want it to come off as “pretentious.”

“We really wanted to make a great piece of popcorn entertainment which also happens to have some ideas in it,” he says. “So I think the dream for us would be — and this is what we always talked about — was we'd hopefully deliver a movie that will provide real escapism from your life, but then on the drive home, you start to maybe reflect.”

Moss recently compared Shell to the Hawn classic too. “There’s an element of those great ’90s [films], like Death Becomes Her, that kind of particular type of comedy,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “The tone of it was something that I’ve never really gotten to do a lot. So I really embraced [it].”

Shell premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival on Thursday, Sept. 12.

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