One of the most significant actresses of our time. Oscar nominee and winner of Cannes, Berlin and Venice. Mum. Wife. Daughter. Civic activist. Author of children’s bestsellers. The man in charge. Meeting with Julianne Moore, about which I want to know all the details.
“Is there something you want? You were driving from New York!” She appears out of nowhere on a sleepy street in the tiny resort of Montauk, next to Joni’s Kitchen, where I sit on a white bench at a long white wooden table. Two couples trudged past me to the beach, in the same direction a girl of about ten dragged a dog, resting like a donkey, two boys rode on bicycles … And in 10 minutes no one else. Only warm wind, sun, nearby dunes. And here she is. Nowhere. In a hat that covers her face and sunglasses (“burning tomato!”), In a light, light-colored sleeveless dress, completely without makeup, but in all the splendor of her billion freckles and fiery aggression of long red hair. I don’t even have time to take a breath to answer that, in fact, I was driving from London, and she already throws a canvas bag on a bench, runs to the counter, orders us two portions of the best that the local “gastronomic seducer” Joni has ( chicken stew with brown rice), immediately pays (God forbid, I won’t let her later), sits across from me with a glass of ginger non-alcoholic cocktail on ice, and finally exhales in a relaxed way.
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It turns out that Julianne Moore is fast. Judging by her roles, she is serious and thoughtful, deeply feels and sincerely empathizes. And she is first of all weightless and swift. And still white to transparency and folded extremely delicately. When I say that my eldest daughter also has freckles, she bombards me with questions: is she all over her body, can she tan, are they teasing her at school, is she complex because of them … I wonder: is it really a four-time nominee for “Oscar” is still worried about freckles? It’s strange, but it is with these frivolous freckles that our quite serious conversation begins.
J.M.: The thing is, they made me different. Different than everyone else. Red crow. All childhood. And this is not easy – you want to be like everyone else as a teenager, wear the same and dance the same way. And here it is: you are different. But the trick is that what makes us different makes us. So I’m talking about freckles because I owe them what I’ve become. In fact, that’s why I wrote this book. Partly about my childhood.
Psychologies: Yes, Freckled Strawberries, a series of children’s books, a bestseller.
J.M.: That’s about it – about a girl who is so different from her peers and is forced to prove that she is no worse than them. Actually, I admire another red-haired and freckled heroine – Pippi Longstocking. But she’s the heroine. And I was writing a book about an ordinary girl who does not have Peppina’s superpowers. I wrote a book on psychology for children, if you will.
To be honest, I don’t believe that appearance determines anything. Unless you’re a model, of course…
J.M.: In specific life events, no. But, excuse me, in our formation, our appearance is of great importance … And here it is stupid to be hypocritical. I am telling you this as the daughter of a military man who has changed 10 schools in 9 years. Dad was a military judge, we actually lived according to the instructions of his leadership – where he was sent, we would go there. We moved from place to place, from base to base, 23 times until my 18th birthday! And in each new place they dressed differently, spoke and danced differently – and this is important when you are 14! I had to adapt to new mores and customs every year. It made me more flexible, yes. And it showed that, despite all the differences, people are the same everywhere. But I invariably turned out to be different everywhere. To some extent, I also had to overcome these freckles, just as I had overcome old manners and old habits. Do you think it didn’t shape me?
I just don’t believe in appearance.
J.M.: And I believe Oscar Wilde, who said: only the most superficial people do not judge by appearance! In the sense that appearance not only reveals something in us, but also sets something in us. Especially in youth. I noticed that my daughter, she is 13, is becoming … hell, yes, a real beauty! I noticed and, to be honest, I was scared. Because she, too, has to overcome the dictates of her appearance. And show maturity so as not to become her slave. These problems are not familiar to me – I have never been considered an undeniable beauty.
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I just wanted to ask about children. Usually, we as parents experience their adolescence as a trial or punishment from the Lord.
J.M.: We are all tolerant. No riots, no scandals. You see, all this time – since their birth – I have been experiencing a feeling of … blessing. I have kids! There is! Children! You know, before meeting Bart (Bart Freundlich, film director, Julianne’s husband. – Ed.), I had been married for many years. My first husband and I had no children. But even before my first marriage, long, I always knew that I would have children. I have always believed in family. Perhaps because she grew up with her mom and dad, who met at the age of 12 and have not parted since then … In a family that moved all the time and therefore kept as one team, we really were very close. And when I finally met the man who was ready to be my team, Bart, I had a feeling of… fulfillment. And when the children were born, first Cal, then Liv, I felt … yes, some kind of blessing. It was as if I had finally aligned with my true center. And then … children make us more patient. At first, everything is slow with them, the first steps, learning such simple things. They tell me it’s so exhausting, but I think it’s not at all, it’s just slowing down your time. You see… We are being prepared for misfortunes, we are being prepared to resist them, to resist them. But who ever prepared a person for happiness? And we don’t know how to recognize it. And I recognized. And since then my whole life has been subordinated to our “team”. Both Bart and I try to work more in the summer so that if we leave, then with the whole family. The school year is irrevocable, always in New York. Summer is always here in Montauk. In this routine, I see strength. And what else do children need, except for the feeling of the solidity of their lives? Maybe that’s why so far everything is quiet here. And by the way, Caleb, for example, is older at 16 than I was at 16. He has a girlfriend and they are in a serious relationship. Not like we have at their age – except for dancing … But everything is strict with us. Caleb knows I can check his Facebook page. Because, damn it, there can be no privacy at 16! Although … In our family, everything turned out like in mine: one parent gave money and bought something beautiful, and the second forbade it. Dad gave me 50 dollars and forbade me to leave the house today, and my mother said: go to the cinema to see Bergman, but don’t ask for money today. We also. Although I am a discipline freak, we are far from ideal.
But still, you do not have the most ordinary family. The husband is 10 years younger than you, the first child was born when you were already at a quite mature age …
J.M.: No, we have an ordinary family. I mean, everything happened without any plan, of course. We met Bart, and I was fully aware of our age difference … But then our relationship developed, and age ceased to matter. Then we began to live together. Then the children were born. And age still doesn’t matter… If you are responsible for each other… no, specifically age doesn’t matter. And children – does it really matter when they were born, if it really matters that they were born with you too?
1 Julianne Moore’s book “Freckleface Strawberry” (Bloomsbury Juvenile US) was published in 2007. A sequel followed in 2009 and 2011.
Do you admit that the age difference can still turn out to be fatal and appear, sorry for the faux pas, “another woman”?
J.M.: Quite. But it will also come naturally. Life is not obliged to report to us, it is pointless to resist it. You can only help. What happens just happens. I am not a narcissist to think that everything depends on me, that everything is in my area of responsibility. And then … no matter how we are attached to each other … Each of us has a job. And we have children. And we have a house. And someone has to take the dog to the vet. And a pipe leaked in the house … And at some point you get tired. I fully understand how one can get tired of this happy routine. How can you get tired of happiness. Understand.
You are 53. You are certainly beautiful, and this is not an empty compliment at all. But old age … Will it take something away?
J.M.: And he will give something in return, I’m sure.
Does the loss of attractiveness scare you? You yourself talk about the importance of appearance.
J.M.: I’m not particularly worried about appearance – I’m already formed as a person. And then, it turns out, I have good genes – I do not change radically. Of course, I’m getting old, like everyone else. But I’m not too worried about it. I’m more worried about women being denied the right to grow old. It’s a shame to get old. The very natural course of life and time is denied.
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And how do you look at the fact that parting is not far off – after all, the children will soon grow up?
J.M.: You know, I already told them: go wherever you want, study, work wherever you want. But where can be reached by car or train. Because if you fly, it means it’s far away. I just remember this feeling – some kind of orphanhood. When my parents stayed in Germany, and I went to study in America. I was 18. I really needed them sometimes. But they were too far away.
Are you not one of those parents who strive to take care of their children for as long as possible?
J.M.: I’m just one of those. When Caleb started riding the subway himself about five years ago—we live in New York, you can’t do without the subway here—I sneaked up behind him every day and watched to see if everything was in order. Until Bart contracted the same thing and started stalking him. And here I said: that’s it, that’s enough. We must control ourselves. Man must live by himself. So I’m holding back, but, yes, I’m from crazy parents. Of those who seek control. Checking my daughter’s Instagram… Bart laughs: what do you hope to find besides kittens, flowers and cupcakes that they baked in craft class? There really is nothing else. Which, I think, is a terrible bore – kittens and cupcakes. But I know where Liv gets this stickiness. From me! I tend to stick like a key in a broken elevator.
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And what, for example, is it expressed in?
J.M.: Well, for example … We recently starred here with Michelle Dockery. And Michelle Dockery is known to be Lady Mary in Downton Abbey. And I’m a maniacal Abbey fan. So, by the end of filming, Michelle began to almost run away from me. Because I pestered her with questions about what will happen in the next episodes, is Hugh Bonneville really as courtly and refined as in the series, and the actress who plays this bitch O’Brien, Lady Grantham’s maid, what kind of person is she, isn’t she a bitch? Every filming break, I ran to Michelle for an insider … It’s unfair after that to accuse Liv of being boring.
Are you like your mother as a mother?
J.M.: Question to the point. I compare myself to her all the time. It’s stupid to compare though. Mom became a mother at the age of 19, almost a girl. She was left alone with three children when her father went to Vietnam … Her motherhood was a test. And mine is pleasure. And yet I try to be at least as good. You see, she was one of those people who are irreplaceable. Not-for-me-nimes. She died 4 years ago, she was only 68. I hoped to grow old next to her. She said: soon we will be two old women … I miss talking with her so much! She was a psychologist, a social worker, and knew so much about people… About how differently they react to joy or grief… Now that she is gone, I have no one to consult not only about life, but even about roles. I still don’t know if I can live without her. That’s right: I don’t know if I can live without it. Somehow I live, but I don’t know.
And why did they write a book about her?
J.M.: Not about her literally! I wrote about my experience of living next to a wonderful person. Which in some way was different from the rest. The book is called “My mother is a foreigner, but not for me”**. Mom really was a foreigner – she spoke with a Scottish accent all her life, although she came to the States at the age of 12. Of course, a book in memory of my mother, but for me it means more: it is addressed to children whose mothers are foreigners and they are uncomfortable with this. And you know, in this venture it was … Imagine: out of two dozen illustrators, without meeting, I chose one artist. She didn’t even know her name. But it turned out that she is from Hong Kong, but lives on the island of Yell – this is Scotland! Can you imagine? She lives in Scotland, my mother’s home country, and she is a foreign mother herself!
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Do you believe this is not an accident?
J.M.: I believe that love is not just a feeling. But also strength. One of the elements.
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Julianna is not afraid of costly roles, hysterical heroines, image failure. She acted nude from the waist down in Robert Altman’s “Short Cut” and was emotionally completely naked in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights. Moore is all over the place. And soon we will see this again. In The Hunger Games by Francis Lawrence, she will be the head of a totalitarian state. In “The Seventh Son” by Sergei Bodrov – a witch. And in David Cronenberg’s Map of the Stars, he will desperately catch up with time. Although time for the actress Moore just does not pose a threat. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay opens November 20. The Seventh Son opens January 1st.
More than a star
For Julianne Moore, there are more important things than film and career. It’s understandable: family. And writing. But also her activism, her “community mission”, as she says, this time not being modest as usual. She openly speaks out for the rights of sexual minorities, participates in charity campaigns, and financially supports a number of foundations.
Convinced feminist, she is actively involved in the Pro-choice movement, which advocates the right of women to independently decide on an abortion.
Consistent supporter of freedoms and the responsibility of the state to the citizen, she campaigned more than other Hollywood people for presidential candidate Barack Obama.
“Manic Mom” (in her own words), Moore is one of the chairs of Planned Parenthood, a child and maternal health organization, and an ambassador for the Save Children initiative, whose mission is to help children in developing countries.
2 J. Moоre «My Mom Is a Foreigner, But Not to Me» (Chronicle Books, 2013).