Ashley Judd reflected on the complicated feelings she has for her breakout film, 1997\u2019s \u201cKiss the Girls,\u201d criticizing the thriller for \u201cmaking entertainment out of sexual terror.\u201d<\/p>\n
The actress got candid in an Instagram post shared Sunday, in which she shared both a lengthy video and a caption describing her new insight into the movie, which follows a forensic psychologist\u00a0(played by Morgan Freeman) as he hunts down a serial kidnapper. <\/p>\n
While Judd thanked fans for loving the film, including her in it, and defended the project as \u201cpivotal\u201d to her career, she noted that her \u201cperspective on this movie has evolved quite significantly over the years.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201c\u2019Kiss the Girls\u2019 centers on male sexual violence and the torture of women\u2019s bodies,\u201d Judd wrote in her caption on Instagram. \u201cAt the time, we often framed stories like this around female resilience \u2014 the strength of surviving. Many people still say that\u2019s what the film means to them. But I\u2019ve found myself asking a different question: Why is sexual terror against women something we package as entertainment? Why is it profitable?\u201d<\/p>\n
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Judd, who became a prominent figure in the #MeToo movement after speaking out against Harvey Weinstein, echoed similar sentiment in her video upload, sharing, \u201cI want to talk about the movie in a way that has become more clear to me over the years, and I invite you to consider [this] for yourself. It\u2019s okay to love the movie and come up to me and say it\u2019s your favorite movie. And also, I became curious about why filming male sexual violence, torture of the female body and some of that dialogue \u2014 which I would literally cringe while I was listening to the dialogue, if I ever watched the movie in a theater or with anyone. Very misogynistic dialogue, excruciatingly not okay.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Judd went on, she highlighted that many fans felt the point was meant to highlight \u201cthe resilience after male sexual violence.\u201d Yet, Judd made it clear she wasn\u2019t swayed by that argument. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s resilience after male sexual torture of the female body and I go, \u2018Why is that entertainment? Why is that a capitalist enterprise? Why do we create entertainment and earn money off of such a subject?\u201d Judd pondered. \u201cSo we\u2019re valorizing my [character\u2019s] resilience in the movie but we\u2019re not necessarily critiquing or wrestling with or holding at arms\u2019 length why\u2026 the movie is about trauma, and it is traumatizing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The actress stated pointed blank that she did not find the film to be \u201centertainment,\u201d blasting it as \u201ccollective denial\u201d and \u201cmaking entertainment out of sexual terror.\u201d <\/p>\n
Watch her full commentary here<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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