LIFE AFFIRMED: An interview with Far From Heaven star Julianne Moore By Ryan Kugler 11/04/02 Part 1 of 2

Julianne Moore has had an amazing career, alternating between independent fare (Short Cuts, Cookie's Fortune and husband Bart Freundlich's The Myth of Fingerprints) and Hollywood blockbusters (The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Hannibal). Some of her most acclaimed work has come from her collaborations with exciting and challenging directors Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights and Magnolia) and Todd Haynes (Safe).

For her role in Safe, she received much praise and an Independent Spirit Award Nomination for Best Actress. It was only a matter of time before she was ready to work with its challenging director again.

Moore's latest screen triumph comes in Far From Heaven, Haynes' brilliant take on the classic Douglas Sirk melodramas of the 50s. Her role of housewife Cathy Whitaker is the kind of once-in-a-lifetime part that most actresses dream of. As usual, Moore steps up to the plate and delivers an amazing performance. She's been nominated for awards before (including Golden Globe and Academy) and she will more than likely receive a few more nods for her portrayal of a woman dealing with the prejudices of the era. Unless a really amazing challenger comes along in the next two months, I think she has a lock on a few end-of-the-year awards.

CinemaSpeak sat down with Moore at the recent Los Angeles press day for Far From Heaven, which opens on November 8.

(Note: This interview was conducted as part of a press roundtable, therefore not all of the questions were asked by CinemaSpeak.)

Had you always wanted to be in a movie from the 50's?

No, I don't have any desire to do anything but a really good script. I was just thrilled and excited when Todd sent this to me, because I think this is just a masterpiece. The script was just magnificent and he is a wonderful, wonderful talent. That was exciting for me.

You have two 1950's roles coming out (Far From Heaven and The Hours). Is there something drawing you to play 1950's housewives?

No, that's an unfortunate coincidence. I actually said to somebody last week that the worst thing about having two movies out at the same time is that people want to compare and contrast them because they have to write a story. Unfortunately, they are both in the 50s, so I'm going to have to talk about that, when it was really just a coincidence. I mean, they are both really different kinds of people and different kinds of stories, so I was fortunate to get to do them both, but they don't have any bearing on one another.

Talk about the behind the scenes stuff. I mean, your hair had to be curled. There must have been a person around every five minutes for your lipstick, your gloves, and your costume changes in each scene. Was that a huge part of it? Did that sort of help weld the character to you?

The production values were immensely high on this. Todd is just an absolutely extraordinary director and he's probably the only person I've ever known who works with a color chart. I mean literally, the movie was colorized. We had a meeting one day to talk about some stuff -- my hair or something -- and everyone was coming in; the wardrobe person, the DP, production designer, everybody was coming in to talk about the color, scene by scene. Every single detail of this movie has a meaning and has some effect on what's going on -- the color of the leaves, the color of my car, my dress, my gloves, my scarf. Where is my scarf? Is it in my pocket, on my head? So all of that stuff has some kind of meaning to the story. So in that sense, yeah, that kind of construction is something that we were all aware of and worked very hard to maintain. It was a very interesting way to work, because as an actor, it's a lot of fun to have style and that kind of artifice, but at the same time, in this kind of genre, you have all the emotion. You have all of that content. It was great to have those things to work with all the time -- that duality.

What were your very first meetings like with Todd? What did you talk about initially?

Todd and I never talk. I mean, Todd and I have one of the strangestwe made a movie before and we have kind of a very symbiotic, very easy relationship where we don't have to explain things to one another for one reason or another. I don't know why. And I don't like to talk a lot. He talked about some movies that he was referencing and there are some moments that are referenced very directly. Some stuff in All That Heaven Allows and Reckless Moment and Written On The Wind. So we'd say, "Did you see this?" and "what'd you think of that?" He'd talk about what the arc of the scene was and where I would go in the room. We actually had a full house. Our set was built like a house, not like room by room by room. I mean so literally. You could go in and walk in the front door to the living room, go around the dining room and in the kitchen and up to the upstairs. It was sort of extraordinary.

What things are most interesting to you about those movies from the 50s? The performance angle or cinematic angle?

What's interesting to me is that these movies are social commentary couched as melodramas. So, it's just remarkable that Douglas Sirk and Todd Haynes were able to talk about people who are disenfranchised or kind of outside of their community in some way, or feeling the pressures of what it's like to live in a town in the United States at that time. That's what's so exciting. The content is actually kind of rich and interesting and humane.

You've had such a great career. You've done so many different kinds of roles. You have the perfect family now. You kind of just have it all. Since I'm on the outside, it seems like you have the perfect life. Do you think, "Oh, I'm so lucky that I have it all." Do you feel like you have it all?

I feel incredibly lucky. I feel very fortunate about my family and about my children. I have two really healthy wonderful children and to have that -- to have them be okay, that's an extraordinary blessing and I feel very lucky. And then the fact that I have a relationship and a house and that I have a career too. You know, I feel lucky all the time and I'm grateful for it.

Do you feel that having a very strong sense of personal contentment really makes it different with playing roles, where you know someone is very discontented with their lives?

I think that it has been imperative to have a happy personal life. I really felt, I think early in my career, that I worked mostly on my work and that was my biggest concern. I wanted to have this career and stuff and then I got to a point where I was like, "This is not good." I'm not happy, you know. It can't be about working all the time. I really feel that my pursuit of my personal life and having this family has made me a better actor. You just learn so much and you kind of grow so much and it made me able to go further in my work actually, which I didn't expect.

What happens to your character after she leaves the train station? Has her life changed? I mean, it is about living an authentic life. Does she get to live one? Can she leave? I guess she could leave town? She'll probably get a nice divorce settlement.

No, she doesn't. The money's gone. Remember when Patty Clarkson says to me, "Are there any savings?" and Cathy says, "No, there's none". What's interesting is how many people ask me that, or how many people come up to Todd. One time this woman came up and she said, "I know it's going to be okay again. It's going to be okay because the 60s are coming." It's interesting because I literally just had an interview about the same thing. The guy kept saying, "What happens to her?" What is interesting is that so many people are very concerned about what happens to her. They want to know what her options are. Can't she go somewhere? Elmer Bernstein, who wrote the score, sees the ending as very hopeful. He really believes that this is the best thing that could have happened for Cathy. What Todd does, is he pulls back and you see the car go up the hill, then he pulls back and you see the blossom coming on the tree, because it's spring again. So you could see, yes, maybe now she's going to live an authentic life. Maybe now something will change.

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