A 'De-Lovely' departure for Ashley Judd: Here's her take on Cole Porter's wife

Besides being known for her singing mom and sister, Ashley Judd has carved a niche for herself in Hollywood on the success of thrillers such as Kiss the Girls and Double Jeopardy.

Though she continues to appear in such suspense films - she did Twisted earlier this year - Judd takes a different direction in De-Lovely, playing the wife of Cole Porter, the Depression-era songwriter of such hits as Let's Misbehave and Be a Clown. Linda Porter stood by her husband despite his numerous homosexual affairs and a riding accident that left him nearly crippled. The movie opened Friday.

Judd, who grew up in Kentucky and Tennessee, now lives in Scotland with her husband, race-car driver Dario Franchitti. We recently caught up with her at the Beverly Hills Four Seasons.

QUESTION: Is this role a departure for you?

ANSWER: Not really. I think that I've done a nice variety of types of movies, but, obviously, the ones that have the suspense or thriller element have often been really successful at the box office, so people tend to associate me with those rather than a Where the Heart Is or Someone Like You or Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.

Q: What's the major challenge of doing a film like this, set in the past?

A: The times are similar to our current times in that it's very hedonistic. . . . I think the one thing that's definitely different is that in today's society, there is such a public and grotesque emphasis on sex, and in Cole and Linda's era . . . while the music actually was very explicit, it was done with so much style, wit and intelligence.

Q: How familiar were you with the works of Cole Porter?

A: I knew all of the songs but did not know they were written by the same great man. I think I probably would have attributed You're the Top to Gershwin, I certainly didn't know that (Porter) wrote Don't Fence Me In.

Q: How much research did you do?

A: They led very documented lives. And the biographies about them are excellent. They run from the more social, by friends, to the more academic. Those tend to really dissect the music, the Jewish influences, the Mediterranean qualities, a little more specific and esoteric.

Q: Was there anything in the biographies that surprised you?

A: I was disappointed that Linda could be such a brat. . . . She was rich, she had over a million dollars, cash. But she could be so haughty and snobby, which, whatever, we all can be in our own ways.

Q: Did Linda have a problem with Cole's affairs with men?

A: People don't stay married for 35 years by accident. Sure, there can be a loneliness, particularly at a moment when Cole is falling in love with someone, but I think all marriages can have loneliness. I'm sometimes a Play-Station widow. . . . I think it's important to point out that when Linda was upset with Cole, it was because homosexuality was a felony in this country at the time. And she was particularly concerned about the way he was risking himself, and when she left him, it was when they were in Hollywood and he was just being real outrageous. And she felt it was like being with someone who drinks. She couldn't subsidize that behavior.

Q: Do you consider Linda a tragic figure?

A: Linda Porter did what she wanted every single day of her life. Once she divorced her first husband, who was an absolute monster and abused her hideously, she lived exactly the way she wanted to live, with precisely the man with whom she wanted to live.



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