An Interview with Ashley Judd - Movies and Getting Fit

Hollywood A-lister Ashley Judd talks about her new movie, Twisted, where she plays a female police detective investigating a case where all the murder victims are her past boyfriends.

With all the running that you do in the film, did you do any training?
I did. I started to train when I got to San Francisco for the rehearsal period and I just started to do yoga every day, which is, without a doubt, the most effective and best thing for you. I enjoy other things too, but yoga is the fastest and most complete way to get fit, and there are so many beautiful instructors out there. I worked with someone different every day for a week and zeroed in with whom I had a good simpatico and continued to work with those individuals as well as do a lot of hiking, which is so beautiful. I can be on a trail, pretty much, 15 minutes from anywhere, from where we shoot and from where we lived. It was wonderful.

I did a lot of hiking and I loved it. I fell in a lake - very funny - and I didn't tell anyone. I went down to the water's edge and it was real slippery and craggy and I slipped and fell in, and of course, I had on my really heavy-duty hiking shoes because the terrain was uneven, and I got caught in some stuff, and I almost started to panic. I had to take my shoes off and throw them ashore. I had to have my wits about me, but I have a story to tell. It was fun.

I enjoy other things too, but yoga is the fastest and most complete way to get fit, and there are so many beautiful instructors What can you say about the character's mental state? It seems like she has a lot of things going on in her life.

I'm not one to think that my work has an effect on my personal life and all that stuff. It's my day job and I try to keep it like that, but I was really worn out at the end and I'm starting to speculate that maybe what the character goes through emotionally had something to do with it. It was in this beautiful setting, my favourite city in America, staying in a fantastic house that I rented, surrounded by family and friends, and I was so exhausted. I would go home and basically say, 'I'll call you when I wake up.' I didn't relax for the whole 12 hours I had off.

You've made the movie and appeared in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof on Broadway. You must be set for a break.
Yeah, I'm gonna watch the daffodils grow. I planted some bluebells in the valley that I can't wait to see grow. They're very sweet, but they want me to extend the play some more, but I don't know if I can do it. I'm going to take it one step at a time. I called the people who own the house I'm renting and said, 'Could I stay?' and they said yes. Then I'll go to the next step. Maybe I can stay longer and maybe I can't. Regardless, we are a two career household, and it's Dario's season, and I'm really excited about going racing (Judd's husband is the motor-racing driver, Dario Franchitti). He didn't race much last year. He had an injury to his back; his motorcycle broke on him. Fool thing. So just going racing and having a good summer. I have a lot of stuff planned. My dad's getting married. I'm going to Asia For Youth Aids to coincide with the World Aids Conference in India. There's a little basketball tournament in March I like to go to. I'm reading scripts, but I haven't found anything workwise yet.

Handbag.com - 2004

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