Amy Brenneman: How she beats stress, stays fit, and finds moments of peace

Prevention Magazine - November 2004

By Laurie Drake

There are so many similarities between Amy Brenneman and the role she plays on the CBS show Judging Amy that it's easy to confuse the two.

Both are named Amy, both grew up in Connecticut, both have a young daughter, and both have ties to the legal profession: The fictional Amy plays a family-court judge, and the real-life Amy has a mom who's a judge.

Both Amys are smart (the character has a law degree from Harvard; the actress earned her BA there), and both try to stay healthy while juggling the demands of career and family.

Brenneman works longer hours than her fictional counterpart--from 5:30 am to 9 or 10 pm some days--as both the star and executive producer of the show. Given all the sedentary time she spends on the set, with its groaning boards of food for cast and crew, it's a wonder that she doesn't pack on the pounds (especially considering the forgiving nature of long, black judicial robes). But she still has the great body that caused a sensation 10 years ago on NYPD Blue when she played officer Janice Licalsi.

Curvy in all the right places and with an enviably flat tummy, she looks as sleek at 40 as she did at 30. "I'm lucky that I have a fast metabolism and good genes," says the star, who won't lay claim to having self-discipline regarding food and is grateful she never developed an eating disorder (practically a rite of passage in image-obsessed Hollywood).

A natural athlete--she was on the track and cross-country teams in high school and college and also studied dance--she downplays her role in staying in great shape. "I feel prouder of the parts of me that I've had to work on, like my spiritual and psychological health," she says. If she doesn't have time to attend an Ashtanga yoga class, which she says she was "really into about a year ago--it's a wonderful athletic workout," she'll do a few moves on her own: "sun salutations, hip openers--whatever my body tells me it needs."

And though she'll admit to succumbing to "a little sugar buzz every day," she doesn't turn to food for comfort. "I have the opposite problem: When I feel stressed, I forget to eat, which can be bad in that I get weak and shaky. When I'm underweight, I feel like a reed in the wind, like the smallest thing will blow me over. So I have to remind myself to eat, because I like feeling strong and resilient, with a bit of meat on me."

To keep stress at bay, Brenneman runs two or three times a week, but nothing is set in stone. "I worked out pretty hard throughout my pregnancy, but after my daughter was born, I said to myself, 'I'm not going to freak out if I don't have time to exercise, because that's just another pressure I don't need.'" Brenneman also finds "little moments of peace" at a makeshift altar in her trailer, which is filled with things she loves: "a stone from the beach, a picture of my daughter, a picture of myself as a child--whatever allows me to go a little deeper into myself" (and back to her college days, when a semester in Nepal gave her an appreciation of Buddhism).

But the best stress-busters are "really good friends" with whom she can let go and have a quick cry if needed. She counts her husband, director Brad Silberling, as chief among them. He's her reality check. "If I get too wrapped up with the show, he says, 'You know, these are high-class problems!' And it's true. I'm lucky to have them."


Copyright © 2004 Prevention Magazine. All rights reserved.

'Judging Amy' © Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation & CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Judge Amy: Judging Amy Fan Site © jafan@judgingamy.tripod.com. All Rights Reserved.