"Where Movie Critics Get A Taste Of Their Own Medicine"
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AN INTERVIEW WITH:
ASHLEY JUDD
by Peter Sobczynski

July 2, 2004

I am only in the hotel conference room for a minute or two but Ashley Judd has already released the hounds in my general direction. Being the calm, rational fellow that I am, I immediately assume that she stumbled across my less-than-positive reviews of films like "Twisted" and "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" and has decided to lure me here so that she have me savaged by wild dogs. As I am about to plead for my life by citing such films as "Ruby in Paradise", "Heat" and "A Normal Life", in which she gave performances as good as any done by any actress in the Nineties (especially the latter title, a little-seen gem in which she played an emotionally strung-out sociopath with a fierceness and intensity that should have garnered her all the attention later lavished on Charlize Theron for her similar-but-lesser turn in "Monster"), I finally realize that the two "hounds" in question, actually a pair of cockapoos, are small enough to fit in a travel bag. (I must explain here that I just generally assume that all animals, no matter how cute or domesticated or tiny, are ready to kill me in an instant and so I tend to lapse into paralyzing fear as a defense.) Now that the dogs are being openly adored by the other journalists in the room, my pulse rate drops to normal and we can begin.

We are here to discuss her latest film, "De-Lovely", and for those who have been thinking that Judd needs to try something different from the woman-in-jeopardy films (such as "Kiss the Girls", "Double Jeopardy", "High Crimes" and "Twisted") that have recently become her bread-and-butter, this is a movie that, if nothing else, offers a change-of-pace for the actress. The film is a psychologically-based musical biography on the life of famed American songwriter Cole Porter (Kevin Kline). Judd plays Linda Porter, the woman who would marry him (despite his homosexuality) and stick by him through the high points (Broadway, Hollywood, Venice and the composition of one of the greatest song collections in music history) as well as the bad (notably a devastating riding accident that would leave Cole nearly crippled, both physically and artistically)

Now that the dogs and the panicky journalists are subdued, the interview can begin.

THE INTERVIEW

How did you become involved with "De-Lovely"?

My agent had read the script and I was going out to L.A. and saw Irwin Winkler and the producers. Essentially, we had a meeting and it was very appealing to me because the horses were already out of the barn-they were in pre-production, Mr. Armani had been approached, Kevin Kline had already been cast-and there was something that felt very organized and wonderful about it. Of course, I really felt that Jay Cocks had written an interesting and emotionally detailed script. I went to see Irwin at his house and met his wife and got a great feeling from his family and it seemed like a great way to spend a couple of months. I didn’t have to fight or push or rearrange my life in some dramatic way.

How were you able to do all of this research on Linda since most of what has been written about her has been about Cole Porter?

Kevin and I pretty much all the biographies that are out there about the Porters and Linda was included-more extensively in some than in others. I tried to do some research through the Kentucky Historical Society but I didn’t really get that together before I had to leave for London and it was difficult to do from there. I could not figure out their website-our housekeeper tried to help me with that-but I had to go pretty much on what was in the biographies. I also had to piece together information because they were pretty much the leaders of the Jazz Age. They were the catalysts for the Fitzgeralds and the Hemingways and Matisse and Picasso and all of those who made the Cote d’Azur so famous. They were always at the epicenter of what was about to happen and I put together a lot of information through that-I read "Tender is the Night" while we were shooting the movie and I am telling you, the mirrored room that Dick takes Sarah to is Linda Porter’s mirrored.

Did you watch "Night and Day" (the ill-received 1946 biopic starring Cary Grant and Alexis Smith as Cole and Linda) as part of your research?

No, just like I don’t watch bullsh** about my family either.

You have played real-life people before in your career in films like "Frida", "Norma Jean and Marilyn" and even, to a degree, in "A Normal Life". Can you talk about what you feel your responsibilities as an actress are when you are portraying a real person and whether it is easier to play a real person when they are, like Linda Porter, less well-known to the general public?

Well, the thing with "A Normal Life" was that we really did tone it down from their real lives because otherwise, it would have genuinely stretched the audience’s confidence in the story. It does make it wonderfully easy at the start because you have the platform from which to launch and you have these known facts in place as well as ideas and suggestions. The Porters, for example, were incredibly free-spirited and fun-loving and that just frees up all kinds of behavior. They had Josephine Baker at their house to teach them and their guests the Charleston. Cole flew a band in to Venice and did a party float that people would dance on all night long-it turned out to be kind of a disaster because there were no toilets and the floor got wet from all the spilled booze, so they just put the band on it and floated them around to serenade all of Venice, whether they wanted it or not.

What do you see as being the appeal of "De-Lovely" for audiences?

It has appeal on several different levels. First, obviously, is the music-older people will be overjoyed to hear music with a melody. The fact that the love story in unconventional is pretty interesting too. What I believe we are all looking for is to be known-to be authentically known and loved unconditionally and understood-and I think Linda and Cole had that. People don’t stay married for 35 years by accident.

In real life, there was a bit of an age difference between Linda and Cole-was there ever any sort of discussion about that in the making of this film?

Linda was seven years older than Cole and it was sweet that Irwin cast me because I am so much younger than Kevin Kline because he wanted me for that part instead of being more historically accurate and casting the role as older than Cole. It did present challenges about the aging process and we did have to be creative. While I am actually aging, Kevin stays in his first look and only after I die does he begin aging.

I went through all of "Wuthering Heights" in one day in the makeup chair-and that was just the makeup chair, not the hair chair. I listened to "Ivanhoe" and "Robinson Crusoe" in that chair. It was tough. I was actually interested in a script that involved some pretty intense prosthetic makeup and after I finished this movie, I detached myself from it because my ass was so sore.

You have to remember that Linda was quite sick so I don’t think that is what I will look like when I get old. We put a lot of yellow in the hair to represent the nicotine. I don’t smoke so I had herbal cigarettes, which they make better now-at least they do in the U.K. because they don’t have the honey-roast stench that they have in the ones they use here. If I have to smoke in a role here, I will sometimes prefer a tobacco cigarette because you can’t wash the smell of the other one’s off your fingers for days.

With movie musicals coming back, do you have any interest in doing a full-on musical yourself?

I’m in a bit of a pickle because I have a healthy enough ego to think that I have an adequate singing voice but I just don’t have any confidence. I certainly don’t compare myself to my sister because I don’t think anybody can be compared to her. She is in a class of her own. I like to think that k.d. lang and Bonnie and Joni and Celine, who has a great instrument even though I don’t particularly care for her music, those are people who can sing and I think my sister is first among equals. I didn’t feel any pressure that way but I was not as prepared as I should have been. I should have worked a little bit harder before those days popped up on our shooting schedule.

Had you done anything involving singing before taking on this film?

No.

Well, what was it like the first time that you had to go down and record-or were you shooting the vocals live?

That was part of the crisis I was having. They were recorded but Kevin asked me to do it live on that first day and that really threw me for a loop. We sang using earwigs, which are very distant and tinny, and he was singing in his old voice and I didn’t have a key on which to come in and I had to do it all in my head. It was a bit overwhelming at that particular moment and the music supervisor was not there that day. I just felt like I had no net-I was asked to do something tricky and I agreed to make it trickier by electing to do it live without the production support I needed. It turned out fine and I get major kudos for having big balls.

Among the highlights in the films are the appearances by contemporary music stars like Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow and Alanis Morissette, who turn up to sing various Porter tunes. What was that experience like?

It was certainly delightful to go to work every day and have some wonderful new talent appear on the call sheet to serenade us all day long. Robbie Williams sang for two days because that was a big scene with a lot of extras and camera angles and he had to pop that sucker out over and over again. Sheryl is a friend and Alanis is a friend and being able to see others was fun.

One of the things that is interesting about "De-Lovely" is that there is a bit of psychological depth to it-an unusual occurrence in a genre that generally prides itself on being heedless. Was that element something that appealed to you as well?

I don’t look on it strictly as a musical-I think that is kind of misleading and I hope that people will get the sense that it is more of an unconventional love story set to music. Cole’s music, while having unforgettable melodies, had a wit and style and yet were intimate and deeply personal and he wrote on the razor edge of what he was experiencing in his life. Whether it was homosexual love or gratitude for his wife or a new love affair or going to Hollywood, everything was power-packed into his lyrics. It is the songs that help advance the narrative instead of being a diversion. I loved that Irwin cast the songs as they developed the story instead of doing them precisely chronologically.

We were raised on the Andrews Sisters and the Boswell Sisters and my husband and I listen to Ella Fitzgerald non-stop around the house. I just think this is a wonderful opportunity to introduce them to a man who was, to use the phrase again, a first among equals. I didn’t know that all of these songs were the product of one individual. I probably thought "You’re the Top" was by Irving Berlin and I had no idea he wrote "Don’t Fence Me In"-I probably thought Gene Autry wrote it.

Did you find this to be a welcome change-of-pace from some of these women-in-danger films you have found yourself in over the years?

Well, those "women-in-danger" films have been a sort of mixed blessing. I’ve done a lot of other work but those are the ones that have played at the box-office and are the ones that people tend to remember. I enjoyed playing someone sophisticated because that really has been a part of my life for many years now. I spend a lot of time in France and, in spite of this mythology about poverty, I spent my summers at a country club and that is as much a part of who I am as "Ya-Ya Sisterhood" or "Heat" or "Smoke". It was refreshing and I hope people respond to the movie and to the character because I certainly did.

"De-Lovely" had its world premiere as the closing-night film at Cannes and you and Kevin Kline also presented one of the awards-your French was quite good, by the way. What was that whole experience like for you?

Closing the festival is a very privileged spot and there was a lot of buzz and a lot of pride about being there with the film. I got to stay at this beautiful hotel that I have only read about. the Hotel du Cap. It was fun to be there with my friends and to have that first day off, which was absolutely critical because once that press junket started, it was so intense. Plus, there was the nightlife factor-I don’t party or go out and to go to the AMFAR thing and then start the junket again the next day was like being walloped upside the head.

To speak French was a lot of fun. I haven’t spoken it in a while and I find that I do really well when people aren’t putting too much scrutiny or pressure or anticipation on me-when they are all up in my face, it is a little more difficult. When Kevin and I presented the award, it was cute because I memorized my speech and then forgot part of it. I had to look at my notes to remember the second part, but it flowed and was extremely correct. He fumbled his and said "Take 2" in French and he got much more love than I did because the French appreciate someone looking like they are making an effort. I didn’t look like I was making an effort and so I didn’t get the love that Kevin did.

-- PETER SOBCZYNSKI

Copyright © 2004 Peter Sobczynski
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