Frazer Harrison/Getty ImagesAshley Judd's character in Divergent may be harboring some major secrets—but the actress herself doesn't seem interested in disguising the truth.
The 45-year-old actress, who plays mom Natalie Prior to Shailene Woodley's Tris in the hotly anticipated futuristic thriller, opens up in the April issue of Ladies' Home Journal about love, aging and why she identifies so well with her latest role.
Asked about what's really going on between her and husband Dario Franchitti, whom she separated from over a year ago, Judd characterized what they're going through as just plain human.
"He'll always be my loved one," she said of the recently retired IndyCar driver. They seemingly remained very close after they confirmed their split, with Judd rushing to his side when he was severely injured in a crash in October and tweeting her support for him when he made his decision to retire.
"Even before our wedding," she said, "we agreed not to tell people about our relationship, but to show them instead. What we're showing them now is we're human, we're family and this is what family looks like."
And speaking of what stuff looks like, Judd also offered her opinion on Photoshop, and why it isn't doing women any favors in the long run.
"It distorts images of women," she said. "Trees turn colors and lose their leaves. That's what they're supposed to do, just like women are supposed to have their own seasons of life."
Judd envisions herself as a "joyful" old lady, she told LHJ, describing her future self as "a feminist committed to social justice. A homebody. A Kentucky basketball fan. But mostly, a woman who has her priorities in order." (And maybe an elder stateswoman? Her home state of Kentucky would love it...)
Describing her character in Divergent, she says, "I play a woman who doesn't fit with the group she was born into. The film is really about the greatest fundamental human longing, which is to belong. But it's also about that opposing desire to be an individual.
"That's a profound tension I can certainly relate to."
And what would she tell her own teenage self if given the chance?
"I'd hold her!" Judd exclaimed. "Adolesence was exceedingly difficult for me...Only when I got into therapy and started to understand what neglect looked like was I able to ask, Where were the teachers? Where was everybody?"
Judd discussed her painful childhood in her 2011 memoir All That Is Bitter & Sweet. But sometimes, rehashing the past is just what's required to move forward.