Ashley Judd is Helen

Whether surrounded by rowdy, chest-painted frat boys at Kentucky Wildcats basketball games or sporting a Kentucky Derby-style hat and nervous grin while watching her husband, Dario Franchitti, whip around the Indianapolis 500 racetrack, actress Ashley Judd seems like the picture of happiness.

Judd, 42, best known as the star of thrillers like “Double Jeopardy” and “Kiss the Girls,” is in a good place in life. In May, she received a Masters Degree in Public Administration from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, her husband recently won the Indy 500 and Judd’s coming off a string of impressive roles in smaller, character-driven films like Joey Lauren Adams’s Sundance drama “Come Early Morning” and William Friedkin’s psychological horror film “Bug” that really show off her range as an actress.

It’s a far cry from 2006. That year, Judd had come off her biggest critical and commercial failure yet, the nonsensical thriller, “Twisted.” What’s worse, she was suffering from a bevy of personal issues and ultimately entered a program at Shades of Hope Treatment Center in Buffalo Gap, Texas, and stayed for 47 days. There, Judd was treated for depression and codependency.

In a stunning example of art-imitating-life, Judd’s latest starring role is in HELEN. Directed by Sandra Nettelbeck (“Mostly Martha”), Judd stars as Helen, a seemingly-happy music professor who, unbeknownst to her husband (Goran Visnjic) and 13-year-old daughter (Alexia Fast), suffers from severe depression. When Helen relapses, her life begins to unravel. She finds solace in one of her young students, Mathilda (Lauren Lee Smith), who is afflicted with the same disease. Similar to her standout Sundance performances in the aforementioned “Come Early Morning” and her breakthrough role in 1993’s “Ruby in Paradise,” HELEN is more than anything a showcase for Judd’s acting talent.

MMM chatted with the incredibly articulate Judd about her own battle with depression, her politics and political aspirations, being typecast in thrillers and, last but not least, Kentucky Wildcats basketball.

MANHATTAN MOVIE MAGAZINE: What attracted you to the character of ‘Helen?’

ASHLEY JUDD: I thought it was a beautiful, powerful screenplay. I think it was about page 12 and I was reading it and thought, “I absolutely have to do this.” I had no idea where this film was going but I had a really deep sense of identification.

MMM: Did you see similarities between Helen’s descent into madness and Agnes’s in “Bug?”

JUDD: Oh, what an interesting question! I love Agnes. I love that movie. On occasion, I’ll be in an airport – or some big public space – and an anonymous member of the throng will point their finger at me with their eyes wide and start to back away. “Oh, you’ve seen ‘Bug’!” [Laughs] I think that Helen is much more conscious about her trajectory than Agnes is because Helen knows where she’s going. She’s been there before, and that’s really common with people who have depression. There can be, oftentimes, a foreboding sense around a certain time of year or around the anniversary of a triggering event, and folks get really scared and think, “Oh crap, am I going to go there again?” There’s a wonderful saying around recovery circles that ‘we’re only as sick as our secrets,’ so, in addition to living with untreated depression, Helen is keeping a toxic secret about being there before. Agnes and she share the isolation.

MMM: But Agnes was pushed into madness by Peter [Michael Shannon.] Did your husband’s character in Helen [Goran Visjnic] have a hand in Helen’s relapsing?

JUDD: No, I don’t think so. I really think Helen was a biochemical baseline mood brain event. I think Goran’s character was the untreated codependent in the relationship, whereas Agnes is the one who’s very codependent in “Bug.”

MMM: The film seems to advocate hospitalization and medication to combat psychiatric illness—

JUDD: —Oh no, not at all. That’s a part of Helen’s journey, but I don’t think in any way, shape or form this film is advocating that. The director, Sandra Nettelbeck, was very clear in filming this one scene when Helen is insisting on being discharged, that the attorney representing her points out that some psychiatric patients succeed in committing suicide while in the hospital. Now, if you want my personal view, they absolutely have a place in treating major recurrent suicidal depression. And, in this day and age, we’re fortunate that there’s a full arsenal of tools that are useful and effective and they all need to be used in a concerted and coordinated effort.

MMM: So you’re not with the Tom Cruise camp on this one?

JUDD: Absolutely not. Absolutely not. I think medication can be crucial for stabilizing baseline mood and only from a stable baseline can the daily pick-and-shovel work of cognitive and behavioral therapy – experiential therapy, of which I am an impassioned proponent – and other modalities, can genuinely stand a chance of staying effective. Chat therapy on it’s own, lets be real clear, does no good. It can in fact be abusive because it regurgitates the problem instead of creating a design for living that helps move the person forward in a dynamic and real way.

MMM: As far as the ending is concerned, with Helen receiving electro-shock therapy, many critics have found it to be a bit “tidy.” What are your thoughts on the ending?

JUDD: Sandra is a German auteur, so “tidy” is not in her vocabulary. [Laughs] I’m not jumping on any electro-shock therapy bandwagon. It was part of Helen’s journey. I don’t know if you’ve ever lived with or known someone battling with major recurrent suicidal depression. It is not a thing to be trifled.

MMM: I understand you had your own battle with depression in 2006. How did your own experience inform the way you approached the role of ‘Helen?’

JUDD: Well, it certainly made me love Helen in a special way, and I think those of us who have been there can understand like few others can. When I started reading the script and, on a pretty deep, intuitive level, understand what it was about, I started to weep. “But for the grace of god go I” was the constant refrain in my mind, because it very easily could have been me if I had not gotten the kind of help I did when I got it. I was on an airplane when I was reading the script and as soon as I landed, I called two of my mentors and said, “I have to send you this screenplay. Do you think I can play the disease without being ‘in’ the disease?” And they said, “How dare you not. You of all people, you can carry the message of recovery because, in a way, you’re uniquely qualified.” I identified a lot with Helen’s story. Some of the major things were different but the essence was the same. This is going to sound perverse, but it was really fun. I got to play the disease without myself being in it. From an artistic point of view, there was something really incredible about that.

MMM: Ever since “Twisted” in 2004, you’ve come a Sundance darling so-to-speak. I know you got your start at Sundance with “Ruby in Paradise,” but you’ve really been acting in a lot of independents and staying away from the thrillers. Why the change?

JUDD: I like you! [Laughs] I burnt out. For some of Helen’s reasons, I was just ready to take a step back and opting out felt really necessary, and it also felt really good. I really enjoyed making “Come Early Morning” with Joey Lauren Adams. And then “Bug” was just a riot. I think I was being really nourished creatively and having my needs met.

MMM: But do you feel like the thrillers weren’t stretching you enough as an actress? Because in these independents you really seem to go for it.

JUDD: I always work hard in the thrillers. I show up and do whatever I have to do on any particular day. I was actually thinking about how, for that period of time, I was associated with those films, but I was also doing “Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood” and “De-Lovely.” Maybe because of [the thrillers’] commercial success, and audience familiarity, I seem a little over-associated with those than what’s really reflective of the totality of my work. “High Crimes” was a really difficult film for me. I was not in a good place, personally. When I look back on it, if I had been a little more empowered at the time, I probably wouldn’t have made “High Crimes.” And then I think it ended up setting up “Twisted” to look like one too many. Working with Philip Kaufman, Sam [Jackson], it was a great group of people, but I was personally in a really bad place. I was really in a pickle. That can’t help but be reflected in what goes out into the world.

MMM: I understand you just received your Masters Degree in Public Administration from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and you’ve done a great deal of advocacy work. Is it your goal to one day run for public office?

JUDD: No, it is not ultimately my goal. I would like to be of maximum service to the god of my understanding, and right now, I’m not sure that’s the best use of me. I was surprised during my time at school that I had, if anything, a deeply affirming recommitment to the power of individual consequence in the world. And work on the grassroots level, right now, is where I belong. But I am very active in Washington D.C. and I enjoy the advocacy that I do. Marsha Blackburn, who represents our [Tennessee’s 7th congressional] district in congress, is coming over. We have absolutely nothing in common except for a chromosome and our residency, but we’re going to be talking about intimate partner violence and we’re going to be putting our heads together to stop male sexual coercion and aggression.

MMM: Just wondering – did you attend any college parties at Harvard?

JUDD: That’s a great question, actually. I hosted a few parties and my class had this thing called ‘Dinners for Seven,’ where groups of seven students are randomly put together for a fortnight for a potluck. And one of the last ones I hosted I was the only American. It was the nastiest dinner ever. So gross. One of my Korean cohorts brought spongy cookies with orange stuff and we had Indian food, Greek food—

MMM: —Not sure how all those foods mix together in your stomach.

JUDD: Yeah. Totally. I just brought biscuits and gravy! [Laughs] But, in terms of beer-swilling kinds of parties, no. People do have fun and cut-up and we did karaoke and all that, but it was a pretty earnest bunch who wanted to get down to business and change the world.

MMM: Now let’s segue to sports. I know you’ve been married to Dario Franchitti for almost a decade. Is there anything more nerve-wracking than watching him race?

JUDD: Um… Watching West Virginia’s 3’s go down when ours don’t? Watching the [Kentucky Wildcats] start 0-20 from 3 in the Elite Eight?

MMM: But it must still be pretty difficult for a spouse.

JUDD: I honestly don’t get nervous. It would be a terrible way to live to be caught up in that fear or even excitement. I try to maintain a pretty even keel in life. But I enjoy it, I’m excited for him and I hope he has the opportunity to succeed at the highest levels because he has that kind of talent.

MMM: And speaking of your Kentucky Wildcats superfan status, how do you think the team will do now that they lost so many players to the NBA?

JUDD: I think they’ll do well! There’s a rule in the NCAA that a team can do something prior to the academic years, so Coach Cal is taking the team for a 3-game tour in Canada. Interestingly, that hasn’t been done since the beginning of the ’96 season when Pitino took the team that ultimately won the national title to Italy. We have a lot of incoming freshman, so we could potentially start five freshman – I don’t think we will – but we have the #1 recruiting class in the nation, again, so I think it will be an exciting year.

MMM: How do you think John Wall will do in the NBA?

JUDD: I think he’ll do great. But I’m really interesting in seeing how the others will do as well. I always thought [Eric Bledsoe] was a major star and he was just eclipsed, understandably so, by Wall, but he is phenomenal. And I think DeMarcus Cousins has the opportunity to play at a high level right away. I’m so excited for Patrick Patterson who’s one of the most popular players in UK history and he’s going to be playing with Chuck Hayes [for the Houston Rockets], who’s the other bring-the-work-pail-to-lunch type player who does everything. They’ll have long careers in the NBA.

MMM: I was always waiting for Al Pacino to play Rick Pitino in the Kentucky Wildcats movie.

JUDD: [Laughs]

MMM: Could you talk about your upcoming film “Flypaper” with Patrick Dempsey?

JUDD: It’s Patrick Dempsey, Tim Blake Nelson, Matt Ryan, Jeffrey Tambor – really fun cast, like, “Costumes go to two, Ashley’s wet herself again can we get her double?” I had so much fun on that film. It was a very spontaneous, last-minute thing. I just finished school and turned in all my papers, and Dario had just won the Indianapolis 500, it was filming in Louisiana, which isn’t too terribly far from where we live, and Tim Blake Nelson is really special to me from “Come Early Morning.”

MMM: So it’s a bank heist comedy?

JUDD: Yeah, it’s a bank heist comedy. I play a teller who has this annoying, strange guy with obvious psychiatric issues who comes to my station right as the bank is closing, and just as she’s about to leave she realizes the bank is about to be robbed, and the gag is that the bank is robbed by multiple crews at once and we’re all taken hostage and it plays out over eight or ten hours. And the congresswoman’s here so I need to scoot!

HELEN opens on July 30th in select theaters nationwide.

Tags: ashley judd, helen, interview, marlow stern