Winkler describes “De-Lovely” as a musical love story “placed within the framework of imagination, not scholarship.” Casting the role of Linda, Cole Porter’s artistic muse and wife of 38 years, was a tough job for the filmmakers. Noting “De-Lovely” is a period piece, producer Rob Cowan said, “…you have to be able to feel and look period, and that’s not as easy as it sounds.” As Linda, Ashley Judd brought a mix of vulnerability and strong-will the filmmakers needed to carry off the part.
“She’s extremely appealing and charming, which was essential to the character and she has this great inner and outer beauty about her. She has a very strong sense of self and sense of direction, and that comes across in the character,” explained producer Charles Winkler.
INTERVIEW WITH ASHLEY JUDD:
Was there pressure from your family when they heard you’d be singing?
No, I don’t tolerate pressure from anyone about anything.
Did you draw on your family as resources?
I should have. I really should have. I wasn’t as prepared as I should have been. The movie and the preproduction [were] all well underway when I was cast, so there wasn’t all that much time before I departed for London. I didn’t do a lot of preparation, therefore, in Tennessee. There just wasn’t a lot of time. And then when I got there, it was just busy.
Stephen Endelman did, I think, such a beautiful job with the music in the whole movie - arranging it, conducting it, casting all the voices, dealing with the various musicians as they showed up, and according to their very busy schedules, recorded their songs. I just kind of got lost in the mix, really. He felt like I had a wonderful voice and he had no qualms about it whatsoever. And then all of a sudden, it was time for me to shoot the singing stuff and I just lacked confidence, so those were not my favorite days.
Coming from a musical family, was there a lot of Cole Porter in your house?
It was Cole Porter, but I didn’t know it was Cole Porter. We listened to the Andrews Sisters, the Boswell Sisters. I’ve always been crazy for the American songbook. I learned about Cole Porter through Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald renditions. And then when we were working on the movie, I couldn’t believe that all of those great songs with which I was familiar, were written by him. I think that that will be the same for moviegoers, that most everyone will recognize the songs but not realize Cole wrote them all. I had no idea he wrote “Don’t Fence Me In” for example. “You’re the Top,” I guess, I thought was written by Berlin.
Was Linda really this supportive or did she stray at some point, too?
We’ll never know and they’re not the kind of people who would’ve, I don't think, wanted us to know. But she was really abused in her first marriage, which is hinted at in the film. That also happened to her at a fairly tender age. I mean, the day after her 18th birthday she got married, and I think in those times, for the sheltered life Linda had led up to that point, she might as well have been 14 or 15. And to be married to such a beautiful, intelligent, stylish, hilarious and brilliant man who loved her so much for who she was and didn’t really care about sex, was a tremendous relief - at least not sex with her.
They did have sex at some point though, didn’t they?
That’s what we understand.
What was it like to see yourself in old age makeup?
It never bothers me. I don’t spend that much time looking at myself anyway, but Dario [Franchitti] was a little startled. But you have to remember, as I reminded him, Linda was really, really sick. In fact, she was feeble her whole life. They found out not long after she married her first husband that she had very aggravated allergies. She had very weak lungs. And because she smoked so much, she actually spent a lot of her latter years in an iron lung. So we did sick old makeup, which is hopefully quite different from the way I will age. We did a lot of yellow in the hair from the nicotine and stuff like that, all those [puffy mouth] wrinkles that people get.
There’s so much smoking in this movie.
Yeah, and you know what’s funny? Because of the duration of a take, I didn’t smoke that much. I didn’t smoke any nicotine whatsoever. It was all herbal, but I never had to smoke an entire herbal cigarette. That’s just the nature of shots and takes.
PAGE 2: Ashley Judd on Personal Experiences, Costumes, and Linda Porter
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Interview with Kevin Kline
"De-Lovely" Photo Gallery
"De-Lovely" Trailer, Credits and Movie News
