A Ruby in the Rough

ASHLEY JUDD DOES A LITTLE DANCE. The actress is in New York promoting Victor Nunez's "Ruby in Paradise," in which she plays Ruby Lee Gissing, a wandering soul trying desperately to clear her head and heart. New York. it turns out, is just the latest stop on a 13-city press tour. "My ears are ringing," says Judd. "That's how little sleep I've had." She stares down at a newspaper ad for "Ruby," which is full of raves about her performance. She's determined to remain calm, but suddenly she smiles and shimmies in the middle of a restaurant. It's a quick swivel of the hips, a victory dance.

At 25, Ashley already has the advantage of name recognition. Her mother and older sister, Naomi and Wynonna, spent the '80s as a Grammy-winning country act called the Judds. But Ashley grew up before the boon, during lean years lived partly in Kentucky. "I went to 12 schools in 13 years because we moved around," she says. "I made it my strong point. I could assess a classroom in five minutes and tell you who my boyfriends were going to be and in what succession. The thing is, you sink or swim, and I tried to do the butterfly."

Judd graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1990, and, in person, she's equal parts Phi Beta Kappa and Kappa Kappa Gamma: a disarming mix of booksmarts and Southern charm. "I run a really tight house," she says of her Malibu bungalow. "I'm proud of everything from my flower bed to the fact that my spices are in alphabetical order." Judd had a tiny part in the Christian Slater vehicle "Kuffs" and a role on the NBC drama "Sisters," but there's been nothing to prepare us for "Ruby," which shared grand prize at the last Sundance Film Festival.

Not much happens in this lovely, meditative movie, but one thing that does happen is Ashley Judd. She's honest, unaffected and hypnotically calm. Early on in the movie, Ruby pulls into Panama City, Fla., in a banged-up car with a Tennessee plate. "I got out of Manning without getting pregnant or beat up," she says. "That's saying something." Ruby works in a souvenir shop, test-drives two lovers, chooses solitude instead. Judd has enough presence to carry the minimalist plot. In those wistful moments when Ruby simply stares out her window, one is reminded that movie-making begins with an agile face and a camera.

A couple of studios are now vying for the actress's affections--she says she can hear "the sound of the troops gathering outside MY door." Judd is looking into two books by the Southern fiction writer Ellen Gilchrist, and she recently finished a harrowing courtroom scene for Oliver Stone's "Natural Born Killers," in which she plays the only survivor of a serial-killing spree. "I'd sob my bead off during the takes, and between takes I'd cry even harder," she says. "It was the most fun I had all summer, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. And that is the mysterious perversity of acting." Some sink. Some swim. Some do the butterfly.

Newsweek - 10/1993

>> Back