For decades, Kurt Russell has been one of Hollywood’s most recognizable stars, but the actor says the life he built far from Los Angeles is what truly feels like home.
According to Fox News, Russell recently reflected on his decision to settle in Colorado, explaining that the move was never about fleeing Hollywood. Instead, it was about creating the lifestyle he always wanted.
“What I want to look at, what I want to be a part of — all the things that Colorado has to offer,” Russell told People magazine.
The 75-year-old actor said he had long envisioned living on a ranch and eventually making that way of life a reality.
“I wanted to eventually get into the ranching life,” he said.
That dream took shape after he and longtime partner Goldie Hawn began building a life together.
“When Goldie and I got together, a couple of years later, we both built a ranch there together, where our family has grown up. That was 40 years ago.”
At the time, Russell said leaving Los Angeles was viewed as a risky move for someone working in the entertainment industry.
“I wasn’t escaping. I was just living where I live,” he said. “I was fortunate that it really didn’t make any difference.”
Still, he recalled receiving warnings from people who believed the decision would damage his career.
“But when I did it, nobody else was doing that. I had many people tell me, ‘Well, that’s goodbye. That’s it.’ I said, ‘Well, we’ll see.'”
In the years since, Russell has watched more people leave Southern California, but he emphasized that he has never harbored negative feelings toward Los Angeles.
“I don’t dislike L.A.,” he said. “It’s just not my preference in terms of how I like to live my life.”
He contrasted the atmosphere in Colorado with the pace of city life.
“You’ve got to understand something about the area of Old Snowmass. Everybody who lives there, they live there because they want to. I can’t say that about L.A.”
Russell said raising children in Colorado offered experiences that would have been difficult to replicate in a major 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 actor compared his Colorado lifestyle to his upbringing in Maine.
“I suppose, once you’re exposed to that kind of thing, it’s always home,” Russell said.
“Everything we did there in terms of what we built and what we have in terms of being able to offer in life for our children, I’m really, really happy that we were able to do that.”
Family remains one of the biggest reasons Russell and Hawn continue spending so much time in Colorado.
“What I enjoy most is that [Hawn] really likes it in Colorado,” Russell previously told Fox News Digital. “Wyatt and Meredith and their two boys, they live in Colorado now. So we like to spend as much time there as we can.”
Hawn has also spoken publicly about feeling increasingly uneasy in Los Angeles after experiencing multiple frightening break-ins.
“It’s just ’cause L.A. is terrible. I mean, we were robbed once,” she said.
The actress recalled returning home after being away for only a short time and discovering intruders had entered the house.
“We came back and went in the house. I went up to the stairs and I walked into my closet. I just lost it,” Hawn said. “They had broken in from the balcony to our bedroom, our closets.”
She described the burglars as highly skilled.
“And they completely knocked down my door, which is a safe door, so they’re very, very sophisticated, and they got a lot of my goodies, if you know what I mean.”
