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9 !"#$ %&'#(, creative director at Living Omnimedia

)*$+",,# -&&.#, actor, interior designer, and children’s book author 5

!" BOSTONIA Summer 2012

442-45_BostoniaSummer12_03.indd2-45_BostoniaSummer12_03.indd 4242 55/30/12/30/12 44:29:29 PMPM Moore They live mere blocks apart in Man- inspired a successful off-Broadway hattan, and each is the mother of musical. two children. They both attended After working as design direc- BU’s College of Fine Arts, and they tor for House & Garden magazine, share interests in storytelling, inte- Towey joined Martha Stewart Living rior design, and healthy cooking. in 1990 as its founding art director. ACTOR JULIANNE When Julianne Moore (CFA’83), She designed the magazine’s inau- an Academy Award–nominated gural issue, establishing its iconic MOORE TALKS actor, and Gael Towey (CFA’75), and award-winning visual style, the longtime chief creative direc- and then moved into progressively WITH FELLOW CFA tor at Martha Stewart Living Omni- larger roles at MSLO, directing the media (MSLO), first met at a CFA design of products from magazines ALUM GAEL TOWEY alumni dinner, it was clear they had and books to home furnishings and much in common—not least, their merchandise. This year she became ABOUT THE ARTS, status as highly accomplished and chief integration and creative multitalented women. director, overseeing the creation STORYTELLING, Moore, known for her intel- of digital magazines and mobile ligence, versatility, and distinctive applications for the multimillion- AND WHERE THEY red hair, has appeared in more than dollar Martha Stewart brand. 50 films, ranging from the 1998 cult The College of Fine Arts recently FIND INSPIRATION favorite to 2010’s brought Moore and Towey together critically acclaimed The Kids Are again. Moore took a break from a All Right. She has earned a Daytime busy schedule promoting the HBO Emmy, six Golden Globe nomina- movie , in which she tions, and four Oscar nominations. portrays former governor In addition, Moore’s interior and GOP vice presidential candi- design talents have been featured date , to talk with Towey in The World of Interiors magazine, about arts education, raising chil- and her popular Freckleface Straw- dren to be creative, and living a life berry children’s book series has in the arts.

Edited by Corinne Steinbrenner

TOWEY: You were an acting student at in the 1980s. Are there things you learned at BU that are still important in your everyday life as an actress? MOORE: Absolutely. I had a variety of sources to draw from while I was there. Different techniques and methods were taught each year, and the one thing that I came away with is that there is no one method to acting, to performing. You have to find it yourself. You spend four years with some teachers you really respond to, and then there are other teachers whose methods you don’t respond to. At the end of the four years, you realize what you like and what works for you. So, absolutely, there are things that became fundamental to my acting. TOWEY: I was thinking about how, especially having children in college myself, so much of a person’s education depends on what you bring to it as a student. I don’t know if all students realize the responsibility they carry when they go to university and how important it is for them to make choices and open themselves up to possibilities. MOORE: I don’t think they do. I was at BU not long ago and spoke to some acting students. I talked about what was expected of them when they got out of school, but I think they should require those same things of themselves

PHOTOGRAPH!BY!MATTHEW!HRANEK Summer 2012 BOSTONIA !"

442-45_BostoniaSummer12_03.indd2-45_BostoniaSummer12_03.indd 4343 55/30/12/30/12 44:29:29 PMPM GAEL TOWEY

Gael Towey’s career has spanned the publishing spectrum: she got her start as a paste-up artist for Studio Books, her creative direction brought Martha Stewart Living Omnime- dia (MSLO) numerous magazine design awards (including the prestigious Towey drove the 2010 launch of “Boundless In 2010, Towey took As MSLO’s chief American Society of Beauty,” a special iPad edition of Martha Stewart part in the rebranding creative director, Magazine Editors Award Living, which won the Society of Publication of health and lifestyle Towey helped to Designers inaugural Tablet App of the Year magazine Body+Soul spearhead the launch for Design), and she now Award. MSLO has since introduced a series as Whole Living. of several magazine leads MSLO’s digital pub- of mobile apps and iPad versions of Living titles, including the lishing initiatives. and Everyday Food. sumptuous Martha Stewart Weddings.

while they’re in school. I try to say it military, you were brought up all over TOWEY: The house that your character, to my children even now. When my the world. You were in a new school Charley, lived in was so 1960s, soph- daughter says, “I don’t want to do this almost every single year. Obviously, that isticated. homework,” I tell her, “Then don’t do had a big impact on how you approach MOORE: The style was very Hollywood it. Don’t do it and go in tomorrow and life. I can imagine you felt as though you Regency, yes. And George, played by tell your teacher that you didn’t want had to test those inner resources every , lived in a really modern, to do it and didn’t finish it.” Of course time you walked into a new school and tiny Lautner house that’s actually in that makes her very upset, but I’m just tried to make new friends. Pasadena. It’s always great to be on a set trying to ask her to take responsibility. MOORE: I did, and the thing I learned where someone has taken a lot of care By the time you’re in college, you need is that behavior is not character. in the storytelling and put real thought to say, “I’m going to take responsibility Behavior is mutable. I think that into who your character is and what for what I want to do and how I’m going when you stay in the same place, you they would have around them and what to accomplish it.” believe that behavior is a static thing, would be meaningful to them. That’s TOWEY: I think that’s true of visual that it’s part of who you are. It’s not. just fun. It fills in your story. artists, too. You have to open yourself It changes from place to place. What’s TOWEY: I want to segue to the subject up to take risks. Being willing to fail is universal is a different sort of thing—it’s of raising kids. Giving my children the important. deeper. Universal truth—something ability to learn how to be creative is a MOORE: And you have to be brave about that everybody shares regardless of huge part of my life, and it’s made my it. I talked to my daughter about this language, culture, behavior—I’m always life with my children and my husband the other day, too, because she and her looking for that within a narrative. so fulfilling. My husband is a designer, friends were all trying out for parts in TOWEY: Storytelling is such an and we share a lot. You and your hus- a play. And one little girl said, “Well, important part of our lives. In the band are both in the film business, and you can’t get your hopes up because magazine business, that’s what we you obviously have a lot in common. you might be disappointed.” And I do, and that’s obviously what you’re What do you do to make sure that your said, “No, you can get your hopes up. doing, too. children have that creative life? You should get your hopes up. You just MOORE: And you’re doing it visually. MOORE: I feel that exposure is every- have to be brave, because you might That’s something that I tell acting thing. I made both of my kids take piano not get the part, and that’s going to be students: look at the frame; don’t just when they were five. My son took piano really disappointing, and it’s going to hear the words. If someone has chosen for a year, and then he wanted to take feel terrible. But you have to be brave to frame something a certain way guitar. I said, “You can’t quit piano yet. enough to do it again, to try again.” I and placed actors within it, there’s a At the end of the year, you can decide.” think that’s what it’s about in the arts in narrative there. Or, there’s a narrative Well, he decided guitar, and he stuck general, because it’s never a sure thing. within a collection of objects in a room with it. And now he’s a teen, and he’s As a musician, as a visual artist, as an and the way they’re placed. been playing guitar all these years. My actor—you have to be able to know TOWEY: You’re a very visual person, so I daughter struggled through piano, you’re going to fail, and fail a lot. wanted to ask you about the movie sets struggled through guitar; that’s not her TOWEY: And it’s hard to find that inner you’ve worked on. What are some of thing. So with each child, you’re going resource. I think it actually takes a lot your favorite sets? to learn what sticks. In terms of visual of practice. With your father in the MOORE: comes to mind. arts, you try to demystify it by talking to

!! BOSTONIA Summer 2012

442-45_BostoniaSummer12_03.indd2-45_BostoniaSummer12_03.indd 4444 66/14/12/14/12 110:160:16 AMAM them and bringing them to museums. Friends Forever, which is the third book, TOWEY: I agree. It’s about passion. If TOWEY: And it’s all here in . It’s is a metaphor for marriage. So, yes, you let your passion lead you, you’ll the best place in the world to bring up they’re all things I wanted to talk about, discover the wonderful things you can children—what they’re exposed to just but they’re written from a child’s point do. I think a creative life is a whole life. on the street is so inspiring. of view. In a creative life you never stop working. MOORE: Yes, you can see street artists TOWEY: How did you find the courage to You’re always looking. You’re always and say, “Look at that. See what this try your hand at writing, to branch out learning. Lifelong learning is one of the person has done. What does it look like? from acting and try something new? most important things you can do for How would you draw it?” When I talk MOORE: Well, it doesn’t hurt to try. yourself and the people around you. to little kids about the books I write, I That’s what my mother always said. MOORE: I think that’s absolutely true. tell them, “I wrote the words. Someone You might as well try. The worst thing TOWEY: And you have to learn so much. else did the pictures. I’m sure you make that can happen is that you fail. And it’s I was reading about your recent Sarah books in school. You can make them by painful, and it will hurt your feelings— Palin movie and about the technical yourself and put the words and pictures and my feelings have been hurt many, part of learning a character. It’s similar together, or you can get a partner like I many times—but what else are you with art: craftsmanship is tremendously have.” You try to demystify it so that the going to do? important. You begin with a creative book is not just something that’s created TOWEY: Exactly. And for young inspiration, but it’s the time you spend somewhere out there. It’s something artists who are just beginning their on the execution—your technical they can understand. careers, would you recommend they craftsmanship—that enables you to TOWEY: I wanted to ask you about your concentrate on a single craft until fulfill the original vision. writing. You’ve been able to intermingle they’re more experienced, or should MOORE: I’m glad you brought that up. your creative life as an actress with that they branch out from the beginning? That’s something people don’t always of being a writer at the same time. MOORE: This is interesting, because talk about—about the things you have to MOORE: Well, I’m not a novelist! when I was at BU last year, a student do technically. It gives you a framework. TOWEY: I know, but you’re telling stories. asked me this. He said, “What should If you have an idea, an inspiration, it can And did the lessons in the stories come I do? Should I diversify?” and I said, pull you around all over the place. Until out of your own personal experiences? “We’re talking about your life. When you have a framework for it, it goes MOORE: I think for most children’s you get out of school, you’re thinking nowhere. That’s where your technique book writers, it’s all autobiography. I about career, career, career. But take comes in: it allows you to take the idea always tell little kids that everything a step outside that and realize that and to shape it and present it. That they say about my character’s freckles your career is just one part of your framework is what school is all about. in Freckleface Strawberry, people said life.” Diversification is not about get- It’s what I learned from my teachers— to me as a kid. Freckleface Strawberry ting ahead; it’s about what you enjoy. different techniques and ways to and the Dodgeball Bully is really about So, by all means, do what you want structure things. You don’t exist as a my experience hating dodgeball. Best to do. There’s no right or wrong. creative person without that. p

JULIANNE MOORE

After two years on CBS’ , Moore moved to the big screen with supporting roles in such fi lms as 1992’s The Hand That Rocks the Cradle and 1993’s The MARK MORELLI Fugitive. Today she’s both an accomplished actor and an author, with During her senior Moore starred with Her pitch-perfect Moore could be year at CFA, Julianne Colin Firth in the portrayal of Jules, seen in theaters this three installments of her Moore (known then 2009 film A Single the easygoing half of spring in , Freckleface Strawberry as Julie Anne Smith) Man, which was set the lesbian couple the movie adaptation children’s series in book- performed in a in 1960s Southern in The Kids Are All of ’s stores. student production California and Right, earned Moore memoir Another of the French farce A featured meticulously a 2011 Golden Globe Bullshit Night in Flea in Her Ear. designed costumes. nomination. Suck City.

Summer 2012 BOSTONIA !"

442-45_BostoniaSummer12_03.indd2-45_BostoniaSummer12_03.indd 4545 55/30/12/30/12 44:30:30 PMPM