Neil Diamond didn’t make the trip to Hollywood for the world premiere of “Song Sung Blue,” about the Milwaukee couple who formed a tribute band to the “Sweet Caroline” crooner in the ’90s, but he still made an appearance on the red carpet — via FaceTime. Diamond’s wife, Katie Diamond, rang up the 84-year-old music legend to chat with the film’s stars Kate Hudson and Hugh Jackman, as well as director Craig Brewer, before they debuted the movie at the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood on Sunday night.

“What a privilege! Getting to know Neil and Katie has been really something special for me. I wish he could be here,” Hudson told Variety after the call. “That’s why we make movies: We have these connections with artists and sort of fall in love with each other.”

About watching the movie for the first time with an audience, Hudson added: “I’m so excited. I’m nervous. I can’t wait. I just have a good feeling that people are gonna love the way this movie feels.”

Indeed, “Song Sung Blue,” which is based on a true story, is a movie about the power of connection. Jackman and Hudson portray Mike and Claire Sardina, two tip-jar musicians whose love of Neil Diamond’s music spurs them to form a tribute band called Lightning and Thunder and follows as they live out their rock star dreams and navigate the trials of life with their blended family. The special screening of the Focus Features film was the closing night presentation for AFI Fest, but Brewer wasn’t nervous about the audience’s reaction or looming critics’ reviews.

Why? He’d already gotten a rave from Diamond himself.

“It’s a dream come true,” Brewer said about Diamond’s support. “When I heard that Neil was watching the movie, I thought to myself, ‘This is really the only audience I care about.’ His music means so much to me, and my hope is that all the people who love his music will love it. But my big hope is that I’ve helped add some fans of his music.”

Jackman and Hudson lead an ensemble cast that includes Jim Belushi, Fisher Stevens, Ella Anderson (who was recently named one of Variety’s 10 Actors to Watch), Mustafa Shakir and Hudson Hensley — and everyone has a Neil Diamond connection.

“I did the Blues Brothers for 25 years, so I have an appreciation for every skilled lyricist and musician,” said Belushi. “I’ve always appreciated Neil Diamond for his simplicity of language and how quickly he could get to the heart. He’s a beautiful writer and a singer.”

Stevens revealed that he shares a name with a Neil Diamond impersonator from Australia. “I used to get calls to perform because they thought I was him, so it’s such a weird coincidence to get this movie,” he said with a laugh. Though Stevens had grown up listening to Diamond with his dad — whose favorite song was “Song Sung Blue” — and would sing a some of his songs for karaoke, he never took any of the callers up on the gig. “I wasn’t, like, an authority,” he joked.

But what makes the movie “Song Sung Blue” so powerful, Stevens explained, transcends beyond Diamond’s lyrics. It all comes down to who the Sardinas are. “People who have a dream, and they don’t let people shit on their dream, and, no matter what, they do it, it’s very moving,” he said. “These two characters, who they are, is so unique.”

And it took a special pair of actors to portray them. “They are two spectacular people and I couldn’t imagine anyone else,” Anderson said of Jackman and Hudson. “They immersed themselves this story, and I saw them give everything that they had to make sure that they were accurately rendering these people. That’s what I love to do, so being in a space where other people were passionately doing so and had a love for this story, I feel like I was able to do that as well.”

Belushi also heaped praise on the film’s leads. “Kate is a lioness of an actress. It’s a very important performance for Kate Hudson,” Belushi said, alluding to the critical kudos she’s received for her emotional turn thus far. “Every actor needs a chance, and you can see the actor in Kate in this movie. Craig Brewer brought that performance out of it, because it was always in her.” About Jackman, Belushi added: “He can sing, he can dance, he can smile. I had a ball with both of them!”

Speaking of Jackman, the song-and-dance man had the last word when Brewer and the cast introduced the screening and he dished about his conversation with Diamond on the red carpet.

“I told him that I might mention that we had spoken, and [asked] do you have a message for everyone,” Jackman told the crowd about chatting with the music master. “He said, ‘Tell everyone I love them, and to keep singing.’”