Ashley Judd: Heat’s depiction of women is ‘not okay’

Ashley Judd believes her 1995 thriller Heat was “problematic” because of the way it depicted women.

Ashley Judd believes Heat was “problematic” because of the way it depicted women.

The 57-year-old actress starred in the 1995 thriller as Charlene Shiherlis, the wife of Val Kilmer’s career criminal character, Chris Shiherlis, and though she “loved” working on the movie, she has some issues with the way female characters are shown, though she insisted that is more because of the way it reflected the realities of society at the time.

She told Vulture: “I loved being a part of the movie. And I’m glad, still, that I was a part of this movie, and I do think it’s iconic. It’s a reflection of reality, and reality is problematic.

“To say the movie is problematic is not to put the responsibility and focus where it lies, which is with the reality of which it’s a reflection. Observation and critique is what I’m offering…

“The depiction of women in this movie is not okay.”

Ashley and her partner have been rewatching her past work “in order” and she admitted there are a number of scenes she shot in the past that she’d speak out against if asked to do them now.

She said:”When we watched Norma Jean + Marilyn, there’s that scene with Josh Charles; we’re at the Roosevelt Hotel, at the swimming pool, and I take off my swimsuit and he doesn’t.

“I’m like, ‘Wow, I wouldn’t do that today, and I would call everybody out on that. He should have taken his swimsuit off, too, or we should have both kept our swimsuits on.’ Not okay.

“Today when people say, ‘Kiss the Girls is my favourite movie’, I’m like, ‘Let’s talk about that’, because male sexual violence and male torture of women is not entertainment, and that’s what that movie is about.

“Calling it ‘resilience’ rather than going into the structural inequality that caused the harm to happen in the first place — we’re all implicated in that.

“Sherry Lansing was the first woman to be the head of a studio since Mary Pickford, and she called for the more violent ending to that movie. It’s all internalised. We’re all a part of it.

“I’m not saying that I’m not, because I went along with those things, and today I would not. It’s an important part of the commentary 30 years later.”