The Making of Julianne

QATAR TRIBUNE Publication Friday 20.05.2016 The making “I have two passions – acting and cricket...” of Julianne Bollywood COVERPG STORY 2&3 02 Friday, May 20, 2016 COVER STORY ¸0»TZ[PSSZVPU[YPN\LK HUKZ[PT\SH[LKI`[OPZ ^VYR/VULZ[S`0Z[PSS KVTV]PLZ[OLZHTL ^H`0HWWYVHJOLK WSH`ZÔLU0^HZ `V\UNLY0KVP[ ILJH\ZL0SV]LKVPUN P[·HUK[VILHISL [VKVZVTL[OPUN0 SV]LTLHUZHWYL[[` MHU[HZ[PJSPML¹ Her performance in Still Alice as a professor grappling with early-onset Alzheimer’s earned Julianne Moore an Oscar as Best Actress. Julianne Moore and a portrait of two marriages CINDY PEARLMAN really matters. Not Moore. with the occasional studio blockbuster. wants to have a baby. She meets John NYT SYNDICATE “It’s seriously a mess in my office right Her next film, written and directed by (Ethan Hawke), an adjunct professor writ- now,” the 55-year-old actress admit- Rebecca Miller, is Maggie’s Plan, ing a novel, who is unhappily married to Y the time she was nominated ted, laughing, during a telephone due to open in limited release on Georgette. He and Maggie have an affair, for an Academy Award as interview. “But May 27. The film casts Moore get married and have a child. Soon, how- Best Actress for her per- all I can tell as Georgette, a Danish an- ever, Maggie decides that she’s unhappy formance as an Alzheimer’s you is that thropologist whose marriage with her new life and concocts a plan. patient in Still Alice (2014), when I look is falling apart. “More than anything,” Moore said, BJulianne Moore knew better than to ex- at the awards “I loved her on the “she wants to reunite me with my ex- pect to win. She’d been Oscar-nominated which I do keep page,” the actress said. husband.” four times before, and four times had had on my desk in “She’s an academic, an The film is a comedy, but it’s also a to smile and applaud as someone else col- the office – and anthropologist. She’s serious look at the ups and downs of mar- lected the award. I do look, be- quite a command- riage. Even when her husband, director Bart cause it never ing woman, but “It discusses what happens in a long Freundlich, told her that it was in the bag, gets old – I still that’s not all. marriage and how relationships have their she didn’t take it seriously. say, ‘I can’t She’s not what peaks and valleys,” Moore said. “I really “He was the first person to see Still believe this she appears liked the ideas Rebecca presented. She’s Alice,” Moore recalled. “I heard him crying has happened to be, which a great friend and an amazing talent. She during the screening and, when we walked to me.’” was deli- wrote about how you can look at a situa- out, I’ll never forget Bart saying, ‘You’re Winning the cious.” tion from the outside and it’s not what you going to win the Oscar.’ Oscar hasn’t led The title think.” “He was the one who actually walked to any slowdown character, Born Julie Anne Smith at Fort Bragg me up the Oscar steps.” for Moore, who has played by in North Carolina, Moore was the daugh- It’s customary for Oscar winners to long been one of Holly- Greta Gerwig, ter of an Army colonel who was a military laugh off the award, to say that it’s all wood’s busiest actresses, is a younger judge. Her mother was a psychologist and hype, that “the work” is the only thing that mixing intelligent indies woman who social worker, and the family — including 03 COVER STORY Friday, May 20, 2016 a younger sister and brother — moved often because of their father’s repostings. “I attended so many different schools that I was truly reinventing myself with each move,” Moore recalled. “I would adapt for the place and time. I guess it was great early acting training.” At 16, after stops in Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Panama, Nebraska, Alaska, New York and Virginia, she moved to Frank- furt, Germany, and began high school. At the time she planned to become a doctor, but she showed an interest in acting and an English teacher encouraged her to pur- sue it as a career. She went on to Boston University, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in theatre. From there she headed to New York, where she waitressed and worked in Off- The role of Frannie Hughes on As the World Turns Broadway plays. Her first big break came was a career breakthrough for future Oscar when she was cast as Frannie Hughes Greta Gerwig (left) and Moore play romantic rivals in Maggie’s Plan. winner Moore. in the soap opera ‘As the World Turns’ (1985-1987). “It was baby steps at first,” Moore said. “I never quit, because I was driven by the desire to act. I also wanted to have a job and approached it that way.” She made her film debut as the victim of a mummy in Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990), but first got trac- tion with the nanny-from-hell thriller The Hand that Rocks the Cradle (1992). Moore garnered critical raves for her performance in Robert Altman’s Short Cuts (1993), and earned her first Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress for her work as a porn star in Paul Thomas An- derson’s Boogie Nights (1997). She got her first nomination as Best Leading Actress for The End of the Affair (1999), and in 2002 received matching nominations as Best Leading Actress for her performance Moore specialises in indie dramas, but occasionally ventures onto blockbuster In Far from Heaven, Moore played a 1950s housewife trapped in a in Far from Heaven (2002) and as Best turf, most notably as President Alma Coin in the Hunger Games series. stultifying marriage. Supporting Actress for The Hours (2002). Moore has mixed the indie dramas for stories about relationships. When there’s young woman who changes the world, pace, which Moore said is because acting which she’s best known with occasional success with a film like Still Alice, people which is every kid’s hope and fantasy, boy still excites her. mainstream fare, most notably Steven think about more personal stories be- or girl.” “I’m still so intrigued and stimulated Spielberg’s The Lost World: Jurassic Park cause they know it can work. It can make That said, Moore still gravitates to- by this work,” she said. “Honestly, I still (1997), Ridley Scott’s Hannibal (2001), money. ward smaller films of the indie variety. do movies the same way I approached Carrie (2013) and The Hunger Games: “At the end of the day,” she said, “Hol- “More than anything, I like stories plays when I was younger. I do it because I Mockingjay (2014-2015). She character- lywood is still a business. It always comes about real people, real relationships and love doing it — and to be able to do some- ised her career as “incredibly incremen- down to who is buying tickets.” real families,” she said. “Give me a story thing I love means a pretty fantastic life.” tal.” Playing President Alma Coin in The that asks, ‘Who do we love? Who do you One thing has changed: These days “It was a long road to get to the place Hunger Games: Mockingjay boosted her value?’” Moore often finds herself asked to give where I could do what I wanted to do,” career by demonstrating that she could She also savours the human contact advice to younger actors. she said, “which was character-driven contribute to a blockbuster, but Moore with other actors that comes with telling a “I tell them to keep going,” she said. pieces … I’m very fortunate that I can be insisted that the series meant more to her story that isn’t about aliens or superhero “You have to be persistent in this career. It so material-driven now.” than that. slugfests. also takes a lot longer than you imagine. Her upcoming films include Kings- “I fell in love with the books when I “One of the most exciting things about “Most of all, I tell people, ‘Act because man: The Golden Circle, with Colin was on vacation with my children and acting, for me, is getting into that space you love it,’” Moore concluded, laughing. Firth and Halle Berry, and Todd Haynes’ needed something to read,” she explained. with the other actor,” Moore said. “You “If you’re an actor because you want to Wonderstruck, about a young boy from “I started reading my daughter’s book. bring something, they bring something. enjoy all the stuff around it, then don’t be the Midwest and a young girl in New York When the role came around, I was really It all comes together. You have no control an actor!” who have a mysterious connection. honoured to play President Coin. What over it, and it’s magic.” Many of her peers bemoan the cur- I wanted to do over the films was show a Moore lives in Manhattan’s Greenwich rent state of Hollywood, in which serious political evolution. My character evolves Village with Freundlich. The two met on films intended for adults can get lost in the into a different kind of leader over the the set of his movie The Myth of Finger- backwash of science-fiction and superhero process. prints (1996), and have two children: blockbusters.

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