Kurt Russell remembers moving out of L.A. with Goldie Hawn

Kurt Russell has reflected on his decision to leave Los Angeles for Colorado decades ago, a move that raised eyebrows in Hollywood at the time but which he has never once regretted.

Speaking to PEOPLE at the Madison FYC Panel in Los Angeles on 30 May, the 75-year-old actor opened up about the log-cabin ranch he and partner Goldie Hawn, 80, built together in Old Snowmass around 40 years ago, and why the Colorado life suits him in a way that city living simply never did.

"When Goldie and I got together, a couple of years later, we both built a ranch there together, where our family has grown up," he said. 

"That was 40 years ago." The move was driven by a desire to live closer to nature and, eventually, to get into ranching, a world away from the industry town he was leaving behind. 

"What I want to look at, what I want to be a part of, all the things that Colorado has to offer," he explained. 

"I wanted to eventually get into the ranching life."

At the time, the decision was seen by many in the industry as professional suicide. 

"When I did it, nobody else was doing that," Russell recalled. "I had many people tell me, 'Well, that's goodbye. That's it.' I said, 'Well, we'll see.'"

He was careful to clarify that the move was never about running away from anything. 

"I wasn't escaping. I was just living where I live," he said. "I was fortunate that it really didn't make any difference."

Years later, he has watched others follow a similar path out of Los Angeles, something he notes without any particular satisfaction. 

His feelings about the city itself remain straightforward. 

"I don't dislike L.A. It's just not my preference in terms of how I like to live my life." And on the community he chose instead: "Everybody who lives there, they live there because they want to. I can't say that about L.A."

For Russell, much of the satisfaction came from raising his family in that environment. 

He and Hawn share son Wyatt Russell, while also raising her children Oliver and Kate Hudson from her previous relationship with Bill Hudson, alongside Russell's son Boston from his marriage to Season Hubley.

"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." 

The upbringing reminded him of his own childhood in Maine. 

"Once you're exposed to that kind of thing, it's always home," he said. "I'm really, really happy that we were able to do that."