hen Ashley
Judd burst on the scene at Robert
Redford's Sundance Film Festival in 1993 with her role in Ruby in
Paradise, everyone thought her trip to stardom was going to be a short
one.But she seemed determined to carve out a career very separate from those of the famous singing Judds - her mother, Naomi, and sister Wynonna - and had gotten off to a great start with a sensitive performance in a Sundance Grand Jury Prizewinner.
She followed it with major roles in Heat, A Time to Kill, Kiss the Girls and Double Jeopardy. All that hard work has paid off, with Judd, now 34, being pursued for her part in Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and being chosen as the lead in Catwoman (for which she is rumored to
have earned a $10 million payday).
And, when she has to do the strong, focused thing on screen, it does seem
to be believable. "People like to see me do this," she says,
sounding somewhat surprised. "They believe I'm capable of so
much."In her most recent film, High Crimes, Judd played a lawyer defending her husband (Jim Caviezel), who is accused of massacring civilians while on a covert military operation in El Salvador 15 years earlier.
It was while on that shoot that Judd started receiving impassioned letters from first time director Callie Khouri to take on the part of the uninhibited character of Vivi in the screen adaptation of Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.
The movie details the friendship of four women who stage a rather
unorthodox intervention to help a young playwright understand her
eccentric mother. The story begins in the 1930s and '40s, continues in the
'60s and ends in the '90s. Ellen
Burstyn assumes the role of Vivi in the present. Judd plays a teenage
Vivi in the '40s and the grown-up mother in the '60s. Her role spans the
character from the age of 18 through to her 30s. Sandra
Bullock (Judd's co-star in A Time to Kill) portrays the grown
daughter of the Judd-Burstyn character.With all her starring turns lately, Judd told AOL that her supporting role in the film is a nice break. "I think it is important to mix up starring and supporting roles - because, frankly, that much responsibility all the time would leave no room for a private life."
That private life now includes a husband - Scottish race car driver Dario
Franchitti. The two married last December at Skibo Castle in Edinburgh,
Scotland, where Madonna
and Guy Ritchie
also exchanged their vows. The busy couple, who divides their time between
her movie sets and his race locations, now lives in Franklin, Kentucky.
Before settling down, the actress was known for her highprofile dating, having dated singers Lyle Lovett and Michael Bolton, as well as actors Robert De Niro and Matthew McConaughey.
Born in Los Angeles, she grew up living out of tour buses and hotels while travelling with her mom and sister. She attended 12 different schools in 12 years.
"My folks were on the road at a certain stage, and I was living with my dad (Michael Ciminella)," she explains. "I was 17 and there was a whole week I skipped school. My dad wasn't there."
Even so, this particular bad behavior wasn't all that rewarding for her. "I didn't have fun because there wasn't anybody else skipping school," says Judd. "There was no one to hang out with, no one to share a sense of conspiracy and adventure. I was miserable… Fortunately, I was able to recover."
That's an understatement. Judd went on to be a top student - earning a
place in the honor society Phi Beta Kappa - at the University of Kentucky
where she majored in French. After flirting with the idea of joining the
Peace Corps, Judd decided to pursue acting and landed bit roles on
television's Star Trek: The Next Generation and Sisters."I worked very hard to help make opportunities for myself," she says. "When I lived in Los Angeles and was studying at my acting school, I drove all over this town meeting people and auditioning for parts. I got some work, built some momentum, trusted my in-stincts, and here we are."
One thing that is evident is that Judd appears to be drawn to strong characters. In Double Jeopardy she was a betrayed wife with a purpose and in Kiss the Girls she was a serial killer's object of desire that refused to be a victim.
"It's interesting," she says. "In an article, Jodie Foster said she knew the links between the various characters she has played, what connects them
thematically.
People say that to me and I think what unites all my characters is,
they're hurt. It's most accurate to say I play characters who are hurt but
are responding to their environment." As her stardom continues to grow, Judd is responding to changes in her own life and trying to figure out where the line is drawn between public and private.
"It's hard, but I try to do it," she says.