For Judd, the role is a natural evolution of her blockbuster work in Heat and Kiss the Girls, merging her earthy relatability and jaw-dropping beauty with double-fisted action. Off screen, Judd is devoted to higher learning (she’s a 2010 Harvard grad) and her involvement in global concerns like human rights. Clearly, she’s a woman of action. Here are some keys to Ashley Judd’s charmed life. [sidebar]Know your “pig.” “My godmother has a pig as a pet and a lot of people think that’s very strange, but she just throws her hands up and says, ‘Well, it’s what I’ve got; that’s my pig.’ When you know your ‘pig’–your greatest sensitivities–you very naturally identify the ways you can best serve the world, either locally, nationally, or globally. If you know your pig, you know your service.” How To Make Peace With Your Past Carpe diem. “I don’t know another way to live. It’s simply who I am. Sometimes when I’m being introduced at one of my speaking engagements and the person begins speaking about my credits and experiences, I have an out of body experience because even I don’t think I could do all of what I’ve done.” Be humble. “I don’t really take credit for what I’ve done. I’ve just been willing. I like to say, ‘By the grace of God, and a little willingness on my part.’ We’re all called all the time; most of us just don’t listen very closely.” Carry your cause. “I don’t make distinctions between the personal and professional. How I do one thing is how I do everything. So my new show is a really fun, action-packed adventure, and audiences won’t be disappointed in those aspects of the show, but it was important to me that the show also honor other things that are important to me: family and global issues. My character may be former CIA, but she’s also a mother looking for her son. That resonates for me. I’m also very involved in a number of causes around the world, and much to the network’s credit, they assured me that we could do a human trafficking storyline in season one.”
Stay curious. “I’m always learning. When I was in graduate school, one of the things we talked a lot about is: Should women learn to speak the language of violence? Is that one of the means of achieving the goal of gender equality? It certainly informs the job I do in Missing. I’m a pacifist, but this character is a woman of action, sometimes very violent action. Filming those sequences, it’s incredibly empowering. We’re spiritual beings having this human experience, and fighting—even if you’re pretending for a television show—is part of that human experience. The oldest, most primitive part of brain is called “fight or flight,” so that’s in us. I like to stay curious about these things.” Stay grounded. “When you’re really engaged in the world, really serving the world, you have to find ways to take care of yourself and to stay grounded. I do a lot of yoga and meditation, hiking and journaling. I write every day about my experiences. That’s how I keep myself feeling safe and sane, given life’s atrocities. And the yoga, that comes into play in Missing too; all that Vinyasa flow yoga I’ve been doing really allows me to kick ass with style.” Also see: Find Your Meditation Personality, Power Up With Pilates, Can Your Forgive Yourself?
