They make unlikely movie buddies.
But 33-year-old Ashley Judd — the petite, French-speaking, basketball-crazy relation of country music stars — and 64-year-old Morgan Freeman — the lanky, journeyman stage actor who's become one of Hollywood's most-respected stars in the past 15 years — have developed a rapport never quite seen before in movies.
Their first film was in the serial-killer thriller "Kiss the Girls," and now they're back on screen in the new military courtroom drama "High Crimes."
Judd plays a canny young lawyer who discovers her husband (Jim Caviezel) had a secret past in a special Army unit — and is now charged with committing mass murder. Freeman plays the alcoholic ex-military lawyer she enlists to help their case.
Whatever you think of the movie, it's hard to deny that Judd and Freeman work their scenes together like the oldest of friends. They have a familiar ease and a palpable joy of being in each other's company.
Talking to the two of them makes you wonder if that required any acting at all.
Question: Was working together better the second time around?
Judd: It does get better and better the more we work together. I just pitched him a part in the hallway!
Freeman: She pitched this one!
Judd: I wouldn't have admitted it at the time, but I was probably a little green on "Kiss the Girls." So now, I could loosen up a lot and have more fun, and just enjoy his Morganesque . . . um, Morganism.
Question: What do you enjoy about her Ashleyness?
Freeman: Her sense of humor is one of the more endearing qualities about her, among the many. This playful, kind of kittenish thing she can do . . . and she doesn't take herself too seriously. That makes her special, because I think young, pretty women are driven to that.
Question: Your own sense of humor is more evident in this movie than in the stoic characters you usually play. Have you been waiting to let this side loose on camera?
Freeman: I wouldn't call it waiting. You just get your opportunities and rise to the occasion as best you can.
But this whole thing about Morgan Freeman and gravitas is getting old. Soon, you can't do anything that doesn't have this weight to it. (Gravely): "Oh, that's a Morgan Freeman-type role." So, an opportunity to lighten things up a bit is welcome.
Question: You have your own reputation for being quite a serious intellectual, Ashley.
Judd: I have a girlfriend who keeps telling me I think too much.
Question: Nothing wrong with that. And that must be a part of why the two of you connect so well.
Freeman: There may be a fairly high level of intelligence on my end; there's an extraordinary intelligence on her end. I find her intelligence intimidating; she's really, really bright.
Question: That even comes across a little bit in "High Crimes." Mostly, though, the two of you have just developed this interesting, very 21st-century rapport, the way you play two people who have absolutely nothing in common yet can respect each other and work well together.
Freeman: As an actor, you work with all kinds of different people, and it comes as easy as anything else. But also, there's a certain kind of chemistry between us. You don't very often work twice with the same person in this business, with so many others out here and so few projects that we get to do. So, us having history and knowing each other was certainly a plus this time.
Question: And that must have informed the genuine friendship the characters in this movie develop — something we never would have seen on screen as recently as a decade ago.
Judd: It's such a relief not to be told, subtly and unsubtly, with whom we can be friends because of gender, because of age, because of race.
Question: When did you know that your real-life friendship had taken hold?
Judd: For me — and Morgan may not even remember — the pivotal moment was when I was getting a little harassed by a certain person on the set of "Kiss the Girls." I was trying to figure out how to handle it, and I decided to go to Morgan for advice. I might have even asked my agent what I should do, and she said, "He's your elder, but he's also your colleague and your peer. You guys are sharing this work environment, so ask him."
So I went over and said, "Mr. Morgan, when you have a free moment, there's something I need to ask you." And it was like he sprouted these wings . . . I remember feeling like he puffed up and became this beautiful, encompassing being who enfolded me into his care and confidence. It happened right next to camera, even, and he still sort of shielded me. He tilted his head down with great confidentiality, I poured my heart out and he gave me his impeccable advice. For me, that was really it. I had to work up the courage to approach him in that way, but his response was so welcoming and loving that that helped me segue into believing that, yeah, this guy is my friend.
Question: And unlike the usual moviemaking friendships, yours continued between films.
Freeman: I don't keep in touch with that many people, and we keep in touch. The only other person I keep in touch with is, uh . . . there is nobody!
Judd: My sister and I and my now-husband went down to visit him in Mississippi, and that's wonderful when you kind of break that seal, when you go to someone's home and fry your own eggs in their kitchen.
Question: Speaking of that husband, a long time passed between your engagement (to Scottish race car driver Dario Franchitti) and your wedding late last year. Did making all these movies where you're married to potential murderers have any influence on that?
Judd: It's a theme: No luck with movie husbands, good luck with real-life husbands. (Laughs) It's cool. We've been together three years, we got engaged very quickly and then didn't get married for two years, which seemed to work for us.
Question: Well, one thing about the movie that may yet prove daunting is its critical view of a corrupt, coercive military. I realize the film was shot before Sept. 11, but it's coming out in a whole different atmosphere now.
Judd: I have a lot of thoughts about that. I want to be careful not to pontificate; remember, movies are entertainment and a diversion, and actors aren't necessarily great geniuses walking around with all the answers. What I personally believe is that any organization is a human organization, and therefore it's capable of greatness as well as inherently containing flaws. Those organizations need to be accountable to active, conscious, concerned citizens. And we all have to participate; it's a wonderful thing to be skeptical, maybe not such a great thing to be cynical. And that's how I feel about all facets of government.
Question: Speaking of potential movie controversies, Morgan's next release is "The Sum of All Fears," based on Tom Clancy's novel about nuclear terrorism. There's a lot of concern that audiences are going to be too freaked out by something that hits that close to home now.
Freeman: It might upset people more, particularly with the president talking about us getting back into nuclear armaments development. But that we, as Americans, will always be able to question, always be able to challenge — that's a good thing.
Question: And, at least in our time, a Southern thing as well.
Freeman: Hey, y'know, Mississippi is Mississippi. It ain't all white. It's home, it's where I was raised. It's the place that nurtured me and made me and turned me out. I didn't have a bad life, I didn't grow up feeling deprived or repressed.
Question: Do you think shared Southernness is another reason why the two of you make a good team?
Judd: To me, Morgan's such a citizen of the world, because of his time in San Francisco and Chicago and doing theater in New York. . . . And boy, he loves to sail. But sure, there's a Southern affinity there.
Freeman: There could very well be. Y'know, we've never actually dealt with the Southern thing. She's a Kentucky gal, I was born in Tennessee and raised in Mississippi. But there is a connection there that people from the South always find. Now it's even more so, considering everything that's happened historically.
How do we deal with the fact that we're Southerners? Why, stick it out there!