By James Irwin
She's an accomplished actor with more than 20 film credits to her name and an activist who has spoken before the United Nations General Assembly on the topic of human trafficking. She's even toyed with running for Senate. But before that, Ashley Judd was a member of the Beta Chi Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma at the University of Kentucky, an experience, she said, that led her to where she is today.
Self-worth, empowerment and a sense of belonging were a few of the themes Ms. Judd touched on Wednesday night at the annual Grand Chapter Meeting of the George Washington University Greek community, sponsored by GW Greek Life, the Program Board and the Student Association. The actor, who holds a master’s degree from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, spoke of her Greek experience, humanitarian issues and dished out anecdotes from her film career—“I photobombed Morgan Freeman on the set of ‘Dolphin Tale 2’”—during a one-hour forum hosted by Associate Dean of Students Tim Miller.
Greek experience
“My godmother was a Kappa at the University of Kentucky. I wanted to live in the sorority house so badly I lived in a janitor’s closet. Being Greek meant a lot of things. I joined lots of different organizations. I had so much fun. I was a French major, and I had four minors. I got to do things I didn’t get to do when I was growing up.
“And I remember getting my butt kicked when my grades weren’t good. I had a 2.5 GPA my first semester. I was in the honors program, and I was put on probation, which was shameful and totally appropriate. The next semester I took 20 hours and had a 4.0.
“I was in the Kappa house when I learned I could call the state capitol or the governor’s office, I could read the paper every day and learn about racism and violence against women. I learned a lot about life.”
Work in film
“I have a collection of great memories and lessons from each film. ‘A Time to Kill’ was an awesome ensemble cast, late summer heat in Mississippi, playing on the river, eating fresh peach pies and shacking up with [Matthew] McConaughey. I learned there has to be something fundamental about a film in every scene. It was delightfully written, beautifully acted, somewhat wonderfully comedic—but the story is one of social justice, about race.
“Probably the handful of films that are most precious to me are the down-and-dirty independents. For example, I did ‘Big Stone Gap’ in the Appalachian Mountains, based on a book by Adriana Trigiani. It was one of the finest acting experiences of my life. And ‘Dolphin Tale’ was great, of course. We were just gallivanting around.”
Women’s rights activist
“A lot of the stories of hardship just differ in the details. I was in this brothel talking to a woman who had been a victim of sexual assault, and she just made this gesture of fatigue, and said, “My story is the same old, same old.” And I thought, ‘This is a South African story, a Cambodian story, a Ukrainian story, an eastern Kentucky story.’ It’s about poverty, lack of assets, failed institutions. It also means the solutions are the same: access to education, economic empowerment, entrepreneurship, the capacity of people.
“No solution is possible unless we believe and empower survivors, and work on social behavior. There’s a spectrum to violence—the subtle, covert name calling and the dramatic, overt action. So often we don’t recognize the former until it becomes the latter.”
Speech at the U.N.
“I was in the General Assembly room. I said, ‘We’ve only seen each other in the movies,’ because that’s the room you see on TV. The chairs were so old, really uncomfortable, plastic chairs that were stuck together with built-in ashtrays. Part of what I loved about it was I had such a cheering section from the NGO community. I was able to express the best practices from sex, labor and abolition experts, and I was excited to bring the totality of my personal and academic experiences, my relationships and my sense of self to that moment. One of my best friends is from South Africa. She grew up under apartheid, and we stood together and took a photo in the Hall of Flags with the Republic of South Africa flag. That wasn’t the flag she grew up with. It was an awesome experience.”
Advice to the Greek community
“The University of Kentucky in the 1980s had some really strong chapters, traditionally African-American fraternities and sororities. I ended up doing a great deal of work with them, and that was absolutely defining to my college and humanitarian experience. I loved those people. I am here today because of them. I have been to the Congo three times because of them. I have been to the brothels of Thailand because of them.
“Greek life is a delivery system. I think this community has a strong role to play in advocacy and setting social norms. The answers to many pressing issues are about safety and support. Somebody you know is going to have suicidal thoughts, somebody’s going to have an eating disorder. You have people affected by alcoholism. Do you reach out to a 12-step community and ask people who are from programs to come talk to your chapter on things you can do to help them? Those are life skills and solutions that can help.
“Greek life goes to a fundamental need: We must belong. When we have that, then we can be individuals, have autonomy and self-expression. Leveraging our passion makes allows us to manifest solutions. Play, develop, do intramural softball, whatever it is. Don’t force yourself to change the world right now. Being who we are is how we grow into the geniuses we are destined to become.”