Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing.
Speaker 1: It's award season and we're listening back to some of
Speaker 1: our favorite interviews with Oscar winners. Julianne Moore won an
Speaker 1: Oscar in two thousand fifteen for Still Alice. She'd been
Speaker 1: nominated four times before. This is Alec Baldwin and you're
Speaker 1: listening to Here's the Thing. My chance to talk with artists, policymakers,
Speaker 1: and performers, to hear their stories. What inspired their creations,
Speaker 1: what decisions change their careers, what relationships influenced their work.
Speaker 1: My guest today is Julianne Moore. She's been nominated for
Speaker 1: an Academy Award four times for Boogie Nights, The End
Speaker 1: of the Affair, Far From Heaven, and the Hours. David Cronenberg,
Speaker 1: who directed her recently and Maps to the Stars, said,
Speaker 1: more is on her sweet, approachable self up until the
Speaker 1: moment the camera starts rolling. Then she becomes quote this
Speaker 1: character that you wouldn't want to spend any time with unquote.
Speaker 1: I have a flu I need cigarettes American spirit and
Speaker 1: I needed to pick up some prescriptions Avian Facon and
Speaker 1: san X It's soft more plays troubled women with a
Speaker 1: complicated mix of fierceness and vulnerability. I've had the pleasure
Speaker 1: of working with her on two different projects, recently Instill,
Speaker 1: Alice More plays a linguistics professor diagnosed with Alzheimer's have
Speaker 1: good days, bad days, and on my good days, I can,
Speaker 1: you know, almost pass for a normal person. On thirty Rock,
Speaker 1: More was my character's high school crush, Boston native Nancy Donovan.
Speaker 1: I'll give you two words, full final offer. I'll wait,
Speaker 1: not forever, I'll try wicked hard. Julianne Moore's resume is
Speaker 1: an actor's wish list, with films in every genre horror, suspense, romance,
Speaker 1: and comedy. Her acting range more than demonstrates that she's
Speaker 1: comfortable with change. That flexibility springs in part from her childhood.
Speaker 1: You'd be somewhere a year, maybe two, sometimes three, but Germany,
Speaker 1: we were in Panama, we were in Alabama. When you
Speaker 1: look back on it now, you know, yeah, it's weirdness,
Speaker 1: so good, but not so bad either, you know, I
Speaker 1: mean you can't at least your father had a job exactly.
Speaker 1: It's looking on the bird side, but it's true. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know. So we're all kind of a collection of
Speaker 1: our experiences, and in the sense it really gave me
Speaker 1: a something. I had an understanding of where I wanted
Speaker 1: to be in terms of what you do for a living.
Speaker 1: I think, so you were never there long enough to
Speaker 1: connect to people. Did you get into some kind of
Speaker 1: I didn't get into any trouble. I was very I'm
Speaker 1: a very good girl, like very good you only played.
Speaker 1: That's how you get real if you're very sweet, good girl.
Speaker 1: But no, I think I think it's pretty common that
Speaker 1: actors come from an itinerant background, you know, creatures kids
Speaker 1: and IBM kids and military kids and um. For some reason,
Speaker 1: I think it teaches you that behavior is mutable, the
Speaker 1: behavior is not character and once you figure that out,
Speaker 1: you're like, well, that means that I can behave anyway
Speaker 1: I want. That people are choosing to behave certain ways.
Speaker 1: Its speech is a choice, and movement is a choice,
Speaker 1: and accents are all choices. So it's an interesting thing
Speaker 1: to understand. I think at a very young age, I
Speaker 1: lived in the same town my entire life. Why are
Speaker 1: you an enctor them? That's interesting. It just had to
Speaker 1: do with having to entertain yourself. I grew up in
Speaker 1: an era where there was no iPads, and there was
Speaker 1: no HBO, and there was no storytelling, and no one
Speaker 1: would let you watch television. We had a television, but
Speaker 1: it was when I grew up with the age of
Speaker 1: like Fantasy Island and Love Bow Show. They were okay.
Speaker 1: But my point being is that that idea of storytelling,
Speaker 1: playing voices, dialects, watching movies and remembering every line in
Speaker 1: the movie and acting out the movies. That kind of
Speaker 1: think that was really a big part of my That's interesting,
Speaker 1: but we didn't know. I lived in the same time
Speaker 1: my whole life. But you know, it's interesting what you
Speaker 1: say about narrative, because that's what it is for me too.
Speaker 1: I was a big reader, you know, and that's what
Speaker 1: I did from a really early age. And I was
Speaker 1: that kid who won the library contest every summer. You know,
Speaker 1: how many books can you read the library? And would
Speaker 1: say to me, you know, you can't take out twelve
Speaker 1: books at a time. I was like, why not, why not?
Speaker 1: I'll read them. I probably known so I would do.
Speaker 1: I just read them, read and read and read. And
Speaker 1: so with that sense of narrative, did you know then
Speaker 1: you were going to end up doing what you're doing no,
Speaker 1: I thought it'd be a librarian. Yeah, well, I thought,
Speaker 1: when did that start to change? You know? I thought
Speaker 1: I would be a doctor, a lawyer. I thought I
Speaker 1: would go to graduate school because my parents wanted that
Speaker 1: for us. Um. I started doing plays after school in
Speaker 1: the sixth grade because I couldn't do anything else. I
Speaker 1: tried out for drill team. I didn't make it. I
Speaker 1: didn't ever make cheerleading. I couldn't do sorts. I just
Speaker 1: wasn't you're too good. And I couldn't dance. I couldn't
Speaker 1: do any of that stuff. So I went out for
Speaker 1: the play and I got parts in the place, and
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, this is fun, you know, And
Speaker 1: and that was my after school thing. And then I
Speaker 1: had a teacher when we moved to Germany, some named
Speaker 1: Roby Taylor, who said, you know, you can do this
Speaker 1: for a living. And I was like, oh, well, I
Speaker 1: didn't know anybody who did. I've never been to a
Speaker 1: play except for high school players or community theater. The
Speaker 1: people in the movies and on TV didn't seem real.
Speaker 1: So she had to me a copy of Dramatics magazine
Speaker 1: and said, you can choose a school. And I came
Speaker 1: home to my parents, and you know, it was seventeen,
Speaker 1: and said, I'm going to be an actor. Who would
Speaker 1: you tell? My mom and my dad at dinner, and
Speaker 1: my brother and sister were there too. My mother said, oh, Julie,
Speaker 1: did everybody in the family look at you like that?
Speaker 1: Was like, yeah, oh no. Well, my sister was so supportive.
Speaker 1: She she's a year and three days younger than I am,
Speaker 1: and she what does she do. She's a lawyer, but
Speaker 1: she atually works in real estate. And my brother is
Speaker 1: in advertising. Yeah, he's a writer. He's a novelist and
Speaker 1: he works in advertising. But you know, my sister used
Speaker 1: to help me with all my lines and stuff. She'd
Speaker 1: run lines with me, and so she kind of always knew.
Speaker 1: I think that it was a possibility. One of your
Speaker 1: parents more supportive than the other. They were equally aghast
Speaker 1: and and yet equally supportive because we lived in Phase
Speaker 1: and then they were like a couple of Golden globes. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, they were living in Germany. And I've filled
Speaker 1: out all these applications. These are days too when you
Speaker 1: failed out your own college application. So I applied to
Speaker 1: the pen Yeah, Carnegie Melon Boston University, and by accident
Speaker 1: the graduate program at n y U because I didn't
Speaker 1: read the paper, I guess. So my mother and I
Speaker 1: flew to New York City where I auditioned for those schools.
Speaker 1: When I went to in my U one, they were like,
Speaker 1: how old are you? Eighteen? And they said, you know,
Speaker 1: this is a graduate program. We don't accept people out
Speaker 1: of high school. So days try and then oh, I
Speaker 1: you know, I just for the other two schools and
Speaker 1: got into both of them and chose Boston because I
Speaker 1: wanted to go to Boston rather than had you lived
Speaker 1: there before, So you don't have roots. And anyway, no,
Speaker 1: even though people think you think, yeah, yeah, because I
Speaker 1: looked to be Up and Up Lounge and Keimla Square,
Speaker 1: that's where you worked with you with school, you went
Speaker 1: to be you did four years for solid years. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was the program. It was good. You know, it
Speaker 1: was an undergraduate theater program. When you were done with it,
Speaker 1: did you feel that you that it helped you that
Speaker 1: you need or could you have bypassed those four years,
Speaker 1: you know, and still ended up where you are. That's
Speaker 1: a very interesting question because I was for some reason
Speaker 1: thinking about a friend of mine who didn't go to
Speaker 1: drama school in the car and the way here, and
Speaker 1: I wonder what it was like for her, because she,
Speaker 1: you know, it hasn't seemed to need it. And there
Speaker 1: are a lot of things that I didn't drama school
Speaker 1: that I think I didn't need either. But then in retrospect,
Speaker 1: I'm like, you know, it's helpful. Did you go drama school?
Speaker 1: Where'd you go? Okay? Did you go straight on to
Speaker 1: search for tomorrow? The doctors? I can't believe you just
Speaker 1: said that. I can't believe why, because I have in
Speaker 1: front of me. I wasn't going to go there right
Speaker 1: off that window. You were Fanny and Sabrini Hughes. That's right, Franny,
Speaker 1: not Fanny, Franny and Sabrina. Someone else was Fanny Hughes.
Speaker 1: You were Franny, Yeah, I know, I mean, couldn't have
Speaker 1: been Francy. Was Fanny's Hugh? You were? You were Fanny
Speaker 1: and Sabrini used on World Turns And before that you
Speaker 1: did Edge? I did Edge? Were you on Edge? See?
Speaker 1: If you're on soaps? Only when you're on soap, can
Speaker 1: you say egg search World Turns days days? That's so
Speaker 1: funny because I was on Edge when they were on
Speaker 1: East forty Street and that really really tiny studio. Remember
Speaker 1: now Rachel Ray shoots there. Really you're gone. I know
Speaker 1: they're gone. They're gone. Soaps are gone. This is a
Speaker 1: couple of his four soaps left, and I worked with people.
Speaker 1: The guy that played my dad, um Don Hastings, was
Speaker 1: that he was from there. He started that show. He
Speaker 1: started on that show two months before I was born,
Speaker 1: so he had been on that show my entire lifetime
Speaker 1: when I got on, and he when the show was gone,
Speaker 1: he was still on it too. He was the most
Speaker 1: wonderful guy, so funny. But do you feel in some ways,
Speaker 1: I mean, in some ways, I don't want to be exaggerated,
Speaker 1: but he wasn't doing a soap like some of the
Speaker 1: most honest work you've ever done. Absolutely because you have
Speaker 1: nothing to help you there. No, no, there's no dialogue.
Speaker 1: I mean the dialogue is so rough, so basic. All
Speaker 1: you're doing is is establishing story. I used to do
Speaker 1: what they called emotional I called it in any emotional applicate,
Speaker 1: where if I had to say something that was really
Speaker 1: just plot oriented, I try to like cry on top
Speaker 1: of it or laugh on top of it or anything
Speaker 1: just to make it mean something right, Yeah, because it's
Speaker 1: all exposition. Well I read somewhere where you said that
Speaker 1: doing the soap gave you experience and confidence, absolute discipline.
Speaker 1: It was discipline and confidence because I loved that. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Because no one, no one has time to help you.
Speaker 1: You know, the directors are working really fast, the writers
Speaker 1: are working fast, the other actors are working really quickly.
Speaker 1: You're just on your own. Remember Marissa tom May, she
Speaker 1: played my best friend Marcy. She said, we got into
Speaker 1: the we got into the elevator and she looked at
Speaker 1: me and she goes, remember l is for lunch because
Speaker 1: that was where the lobby was, and so in that
Speaker 1: cafeteria and that was like the best piece of vice
Speaker 1: because it was my own. Remember ell is for lunch.
Speaker 1: And then we did a scene together and it went
Speaker 1: by so quickly. You know, we didn't want wanted to
Speaker 1: have takes or something. And because you feel terrible, don't you,
Speaker 1: I said, ah, she goes, It happens all the time.
Speaker 1: You'll get used to it. You're gonna work out from
Speaker 1: the crappy two out of five days of the week.
Speaker 1: I just remember when I did that show, you had
Speaker 1: to show up on time. I didn't know your dialogue,
Speaker 1: and no matter how excruciating it was, if you didn't,
Speaker 1: they fired you. You had to be there at seven
Speaker 1: o'clock in the morning and rehearse you were on camera.
Speaker 1: I would have sometimes thirty pages of dialogue a day
Speaker 1: for three it was like, you know, for three years.
Speaker 1: So it was like a boom boom boom, boom boom,
Speaker 1: and then you finished maybe seven thirty eight nine if
Speaker 1: you go late. You know, it was how long did
Speaker 1: you do this? So for the World turns was your contracts?
Speaker 1: My contract? It was a three year contract for three
Speaker 1: years CBS they gave they would do three years, the
Speaker 1: ABC once we do two years and stuff. But they
Speaker 1: never gave me an option, although they had the option
Speaker 1: to fire me at any time. Right and when you
Speaker 1: finished What You Do? I went to the Guthrie Theater
Speaker 1: actually and I did Hamlet with Hamlet. I saw you
Speaker 1: you did not I saw you come on something. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can tell you right now. I did Loot with
Speaker 1: him on Broadway in you did it with Shelco. You
Speaker 1: did the show the following year, in eight seven, I
Speaker 1: flew to Minneapolis to see I saw you do. I
Speaker 1: saw you do Hamlet at the at the Gut three. Well,
Speaker 1: I was in the hamlet. I was a feeling hamlet.
Speaker 1: I saw you. What did you think? I thought it
Speaker 1: was fantastic. You don't remember me? Do you want to
Speaker 1: know something I do? And Shelkovani, you were very young,
Speaker 1: you were child. He was probably one of the best
Speaker 1: Hamlets I've ever seen because he didn't have to push.
Speaker 1: He seems like a very dark, kind of conflicted and
Speaker 1: he also seemed like a very young man. You know.
Speaker 1: I think that was interesting that both Jelko and I
Speaker 1: are very very small, very slender and tiny, and we
Speaker 1: looked like teenagers kind of, you know. So who directed
Speaker 1: Garland Wright, who I adored. He passed away, but boy,
Speaker 1: I loved Garland. He was great. It was a really
Speaker 1: interesting production. People strained for when they play hammot that
Speaker 1: he has and she did the Gut three and then
Speaker 1: and I went to the Wing to Actors Theater of
Speaker 1: Louisville and did some plays there, and Arthur Coppet play
Speaker 1: and and then there wasn't an idea that you want
Speaker 1: to kind of strap yourself into the rocket sled here
Speaker 1: and get going l A TV movies now now, I
Speaker 1: mean I just did also worked, I worked at the public,
Speaker 1: I did some place, and then I met Andre Gregory
Speaker 1: and I did Vanya and all along though I was
Speaker 1: I was auditioning for stuff, and I got TV movies
Speaker 1: and things, and but it wasn't until I was twenty
Speaker 1: nine that I got my first movie, which was an
Speaker 1: HBO movie called Cast a Deadly Spell. And then I
Speaker 1: did and the Rucks at Cradle, and then I did Shortcuts,
Speaker 1: and I did Safe and then and then my movie
Speaker 1: career didn't really start happening till I was twenty thirty.
Speaker 1: So for it was just theater. Shortcuts was the biggest
Speaker 1: break you out at that time. Well what happened was
Speaker 1: I did Shortcuts, Bonnet Street and Safe. So it's kind
Speaker 1: of the beginning of the independent theater movement, if you will.
Speaker 1: And they all came out within the same year. And
Speaker 1: I went from being an actress who had no profile
Speaker 1: at all in film, none because I couldn't I couldn't
Speaker 1: get arrested doing movies. I mean, I would never get cast.
Speaker 1: I don't know, you know, honestly, I would just didn't
Speaker 1: get him. I didn't get him. And in the eighties
Speaker 1: I can remember, I mean, I just for a ton
Speaker 1: of things remember addition for the lists of merchant Ivory movies.
Speaker 1: I always wanted to get one of those because those
Speaker 1: were such a big deal. I would act for big comedies.
Speaker 1: I just didn't get them. And I was like, you know,
Speaker 1: I remember the same thing. You'd be sitting there going, man,
Speaker 1: I want to give me one of them John Sales movies.
Speaker 1: That's why I liked to be one of the I
Speaker 1: auditioned for him constantly. I never bought them. I actually
Speaker 1: got really close to a few things, but I never
Speaker 1: got anything where I did really well. Wasn't television. I
Speaker 1: kept like booking TV things, but they would put you
Speaker 1: on hold, and then they do pilots for them, and
Speaker 1: that's the other thing to my pilots holding deals. They
Speaker 1: would wouldn't get picked up. Whenever anybody says how do
Speaker 1: you plan your career? You know, I mean, you laugh
Speaker 1: because we don't have any control. There's about it. You
Speaker 1: seem like somebody who's had a plan. Once you started
Speaker 1: making films where the things you just didn't do anymore.
Speaker 1: Did you try to say, I'm going to put all
Speaker 1: my eggs in this basket. No. Most of the time
Speaker 1: we just do with what you're offered. You know, you
Speaker 1: do the best of what you're what you're offered, you know.
Speaker 1: I think after I was on the soap, I did
Speaker 1: you know, I didn't spend a lot of money. I
Speaker 1: kept my money in the bank. So then I spent
Speaker 1: some time doing theater because I really felt like I
Speaker 1: wanted to do that, you know, Yeah, I wanted to
Speaker 1: do that kind of stuff. And then I would do
Speaker 1: some TV movies and try to get you know, and
Speaker 1: then the holding deals to that. You make money doing that,
Speaker 1: but in between short cuts, yeah, and playing Sarah Palin.
Speaker 1: It's not a lot of TV in between there. Once
Speaker 1: you start movies big time, you're making movies. Yes, that's
Speaker 1: you don't go back to TVA very much at all. No, No,
Speaker 1: because also it's kind of it changed, you know, because
Speaker 1: there was a period to where because now now it's
Speaker 1: sort of the called you know, now it's the Golden
Speaker 1: Age or television now. There there was such kind of
Speaker 1: interesting quality stuff until you know, great writing, great acting,
Speaker 1: and you know, so I think things have changed, But
Speaker 1: there was a period when TV was very basic. Network
Speaker 1: stuff was not terribly interesting. What was it like when
Speaker 1: you met Altman? Oh Man, he came to see Vanya.
Speaker 1: You know, we were doing Uncle Vanya and he sat
Speaker 1: there and I couldn't believe he was there. I don't
Speaker 1: even know if I said anything to him that day,
Speaker 1: because he was He's the reason that I feel like
Speaker 1: I'm a film actor, because when I would school in Boston,
Speaker 1: they were all the revival houses. To remember revival houses.
Speaker 1: This is like Grandpa, Grandma Sha remember that, remember take
Speaker 1: your walk? Where would you be? I went to the
Speaker 1: Bridle Theodore in Harvard Square Haad Square. So the Brittle
Speaker 1: was the revival house and used to have all these
Speaker 1: different weird double bills and stuff. And I saw Three
Speaker 1: Women Altman's Three Women, And somehow I made it through
Speaker 1: the seventies without seeing Nashville or or Bruster McCloud or
Speaker 1: Became Mrs Miller, any of those movies. So I'm watching
Speaker 1: mash So I'm watching this movie and I was like,
Speaker 1: who's this? Who made this movie? This movie is incredible.
Speaker 1: And it was the first time, as a young person
Speaker 1: that I noticed directorial hand, you know, where I was like,
Speaker 1: this is a specific kind of storytelling, and it's eliciting
Speaker 1: specific kind of acting. I kind of walked out of
Speaker 1: there and I thought, I want to do that, and
Speaker 1: of course it wasn't in the realm of possibility for
Speaker 1: me the first ten years of my career. So he's
Speaker 1: Alvania and then he met me on the player, which
Speaker 1: I desperately wanted. I remember sitting there talking to him.
Speaker 1: He said, I'm not going to give this to you.
Speaker 1: It's like okay, and that was it. I was devastated.
Speaker 1: And then I got this phone call out of the
Speaker 1: blue for shortcuts. Hi, It's Bob Altman. Do you remember me?
Speaker 1: You know who I am? And I was. I thought
Speaker 1: was somebody playing a trick on me? I really did.
Speaker 1: I didn't think it was possible that he you know.
Speaker 1: That's when we had hard lines to pick up your
Speaker 1: phone and he said, I have this movie that I
Speaker 1: want you to do, and I said, I'll do it.
Speaker 1: I'll do it because no one want you to read
Speaker 1: it first, and then you can tell me if you
Speaker 1: want to do it. You know. But it was really, really,
Speaker 1: really a dream come true to work with him. What
Speaker 1: an amazing man. Did you make a movie with him? No?
Speaker 1: You know, from what I could see, he was someone
Speaker 1: who listen. It's no secret I think when you're in
Speaker 1: the business who were out of it, but especially when
Speaker 1: you're in the business that casting and effective casting is
Speaker 1: six or more of a director's job. They want to
Speaker 1: bring people to the party who know how to hit
Speaker 1: the ball. And he was someone who I'll never forget.
Speaker 1: Someone said to me. They were all gathered there in
Speaker 1: this air sence rehearsals. Some of them were able to
Speaker 1: attend it somewhere, and Bob just turned everybody and said, uh,
Speaker 1: nooka may was in its Yanni and field. And he
Speaker 1: would looked at them and he was like, now a nook,
Speaker 1: you just go ahead and speak French. You speak French
Speaker 1: and tou or English or Italian. Marcello, say whatever you
Speaker 1: want to say, y'all. Just say anything you want to say,
Speaker 1: and speak in whatever language you want to speak in,
Speaker 1: and I'll fix it in the edit, subtitler or whatever.
Speaker 1: He seems so uncontrolling he he was. The thing about
Speaker 1: Bob was that you couldn't do anything wrong, so it
Speaker 1: made you feel like you could do anything, and you
Speaker 1: would do anything for him. You'd be like, oh, what
Speaker 1: can I do? What can I do? It's like whatever
Speaker 1: you want to do. But it wasn't like it was chaos.
Speaker 1: You know, he's set up. It was like there was
Speaker 1: a corral that all the actors were in was his
Speaker 1: corral and something. Even with an improv he'd say, okay,
Speaker 1: you know improv this. He said that a let's do
Speaker 1: it again, but this time you just say that part.
Speaker 1: So he was in complete control of it. But he
Speaker 1: really made you feel so free and so love non judgmental. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a quote I read about you where someone says
Speaker 1: they cast you in shortcuts and you were total known.
Speaker 1: That's right, She's a total unknown, they said. I thought,
Speaker 1: and I think you've been working for most ten years.
Speaker 1: Ten years. However, within that cast, I was the only
Speaker 1: person with thirty people who wasn't famous. So it isn't
Speaker 1: amazing how in the movie business if you haven't a
Speaker 1: movie any of us have seen exactly what changed if
Speaker 1: you did that film? Did you change personally? Did I change?
Speaker 1: I'm ugly and I have no talents, right, and now
Speaker 1: i'm and then I thought, and then I was, and
Speaker 1: then I became yeah, talented and I know everything. You know.
Speaker 1: It was interesting and I think this is it's actually
Speaker 1: very similar to what I felt growing up as a kid.
Speaker 1: You would be In one situation, you'd be at a
Speaker 1: school and maybe you would be a kid who wasn't
Speaker 1: very popular and no one thought you were very interesting
Speaker 1: or something. And then you'd moved to another school that's cool,
Speaker 1: everybody would think you were interesting for some reason. It
Speaker 1: would just happen, and you think, like, well, I was
Speaker 1: the same person. I haven't changed much, So it's a perception.
Speaker 1: Perception has changed. The perception was changed after all, so well,
Speaker 1: and so that's what happened to me too. So after
Speaker 1: ten years of doing television and theater, although people don't
Speaker 1: see the theater, so they don't think you really exist.
Speaker 1: Is she TV? People thought, oh, she's a TV actress?
Speaker 1: And then I do work with Andre Gregory and Louis
Speaker 1: Mall and I work with you, Robert Altman, and I
Speaker 1: work with Todd Haynes, and suddenly I'm a huge film discovery.
Speaker 1: I'm in this amazing yeah. And then I'm like, I'm
Speaker 1: the same, the same thing. So I think, oddly, what
Speaker 1: happens is that you don't change a perception of yourself.
Speaker 1: You're like, well, clearly, it's just other people's perception. It
Speaker 1: solidified my own work ethic that it doesn't matter where
Speaker 1: I'm working. Did you feel that the way you grew
Speaker 1: up fed this in terms of you being because because
Speaker 1: you had to reinvent yourself. Yeah, well you were seen
Speaker 1: by a fresh set of again and again and again.
Speaker 1: You just you have to discover a core self and
Speaker 1: a corpse. Of course, that's the values. And people kind
Speaker 1: of poop poo and say like, oh TV or oh
Speaker 1: this or that. I'm like, you know, it's all valuable,
Speaker 1: all of it. You know. Yeah, when I do radio announcing,
Speaker 1: it's work, it works working, and it's also it's it's
Speaker 1: valuable for you to do your bus no matter where
Speaker 1: you are too. I really really believe that you know
Speaker 1: in everything you do. And I also resent it when
Speaker 1: people say that they can't do something like they can't
Speaker 1: they were terrible waitress, And I'm like why because you
Speaker 1: weren't paying attention. You're supposed to write down. So it's
Speaker 1: it's important no matter what you're doing, to put effort
Speaker 1: into it. I think, did you have a good representation
Speaker 1: during that time? I did? Well. It's interesting I've been
Speaker 1: with the same agent now and the same manager for
Speaker 1: twenty years. My first ten years I did change representatives
Speaker 1: a few times before I landed where I landed. My
Speaker 1: first agent was it was terrible. Was this an agency
Speaker 1: called Hesseltine Baker, you remember them. So they got me
Speaker 1: out out of school. So they put pulled me out
Speaker 1: of school. It was a big deal, have an agent.
Speaker 1: And I had no auditions at all, nothing, absolutely nothing
Speaker 1: an agent. Yeah, no one called my answering service. No auditions.
Speaker 1: And then I got a phone call um Bob Bob
Speaker 1: Hezeltine and what was it? Who was the guy? Anyway,
Speaker 1: I remember the guys. But one of the big guys
Speaker 1: called me and said he had something really really important
Speaker 1: and a great opportunity for me. And I got so excited,
Speaker 1: and he said it was for a friend of his.
Speaker 1: They needed a girl to fit in the costume to
Speaker 1: ride on a float in the Thanksgiving aperade. Do you
Speaker 1: remember what the costume was? I don't. Maybe it was
Speaker 1: a turkey, a super hot turkey. And that's when I
Speaker 1: was like, this is ridiculous, Thank you very much, I'm leaving.
Speaker 1: What advice does an agent give you? Oh, people, they
Speaker 1: don't give you any advice. They don't. They were like
Speaker 1: air traffic controllers. Well, here's the interesting thing I think
Speaker 1: about acting, and I hear this from I hear this
Speaker 1: with young actors and stuff too. And when people would
Speaker 1: say in the press, they say, I didn't choose that,
Speaker 1: you know, my agent chose that for me. And my
Speaker 1: agent said I should do it, or so and so
Speaker 1: made me do it. And I'm like, that's bologney. No
Speaker 1: one makes you do anything. It isn't interesting when you
Speaker 1: run into that type of person who's heavily, heavily coached
Speaker 1: by agents and composes, which is such a foreign thing
Speaker 1: to me. Yeah, I mean it is your life, you know,
Speaker 1: and it's and you make the decisions and you control
Speaker 1: you know, you can totally self determining the material you've done. Yeah,
Speaker 1: ever talked into doing a movie. I've talked myself into
Speaker 1: doing things for money, you know. But but then but
Speaker 1: then I have, but I take responsibility for it. I
Speaker 1: don't think there's anything where somebody said you really should
Speaker 1: do this piece where I did it unless I felt
Speaker 1: like there was an economic imperative. But mostly Julianne avoids
Speaker 1: the money trap. She works instead with some of the
Speaker 1: best in the business. Coming up, she'll discuss her collaborations
Speaker 1: with David Cronenberg and Gus van Zant. Next time on
Speaker 1: Here's the Thing, I talk with tennis legend John McEnroe.
Speaker 1: His idea to improve the game will not surprise you
Speaker 1: if you really want to make the game more popular.
Speaker 1: To me, no umpires on the court, no linesman. You
Speaker 1: don't need linesmen. They've already proven they can't see anything
Speaker 1: over the course of last fifty years. John McEnroe talks tennis,
Speaker 1: family and his love of music. Next time on Here's
Speaker 1: the Thing. This is Alec Baldwin. My guest today is
Speaker 1: Julianne Moore. I have always assumed that Moore picked her
Speaker 1: projects carefully, and that she turned down mediocre films that
Speaker 1: offered huge payots. To be honest with you, I mean,
Speaker 1: I would like to say that I did, but I don't.
Speaker 1: I didn't have a whole like huge, leading leady people
Speaker 1: hiring you. What were they hiring you for? I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean a lot of things that I've done,
Speaker 1: we're smaller but budgeted things. I think, what did they
Speaker 1: expect from you? Acting? Was I have an idea? But
Speaker 1: you tell me? Really, I don't know. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: in the nineties, in particular, when there are a lot
Speaker 1: of people who were working, who are who were writer
Speaker 1: directors and they were kind of, I'm sort of a
Speaker 1: really great, great period for independent film. I think people
Speaker 1: were looking to tell these really unusual stories and there
Speaker 1: wasn't an economic expectation on them either. That's changed. So
Speaker 1: it was about being involved in that narrative and that
Speaker 1: in that vision and stuff. You know. It really was
Speaker 1: bringing that story to life, I think. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean in the commercial films that I've done, I've done
Speaker 1: I've done, yeah, but I had I've had great directors
Speaker 1: like Steven Spielberg and Ridley Scott only did the first sequel. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he did the first one and then they was out
Speaker 1: of it. Does the opportunity to work with him that
Speaker 1: was amazing? But did that take forever? It took six months?
Speaker 1: I guess. Yeah. You know. I did a movie called
Speaker 1: Nine Months that also took six months back in those days,
Speaker 1: you know, But I don't think I ever took off
Speaker 1: as a commercial movie. You could. Really, what do you
Speaker 1: think you did Jurassic I don't know. I don't know
Speaker 1: that I could have. I mean, I did you send
Speaker 1: singles to the business that you were not in that game?
Speaker 1: People do that well, honestly, I don't think so, I
Speaker 1: don't think I did. I think I was, you know,
Speaker 1: I think I kind of was like all Playball. But
Speaker 1: I don't know that any of those movies were hits.
Speaker 1: You know. I was in Hannibal. That wasn't a huge hit.
Speaker 1: I don't know, you know, I really, I really don't know.
Speaker 1: But I do know that I really like what I do.
Speaker 1: You know, I like you made every kind of movie.
Speaker 1: I've made every kind of You've made every kind of movie. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: You've done movies with Steven Spielberg, that's right. You've done
Speaker 1: sequels or Anthony Hopkins chops his own hand off because
Speaker 1: he's so in love with you. Right, I've done independent
Speaker 1: drawing movies Anderson, Yeah, scary movies. Bad did you do?
Speaker 1: I don't know what I have. They didn't remake Psycho
Speaker 1: and Black and whaty did it in color? Did it
Speaker 1: in color? Yet? But that was a remake. That was
Speaker 1: a shot by shot that I know, you know, so
Speaker 1: which which in an interview I read you thought that
Speaker 1: was something you should not have done. I think it failed.
Speaker 1: I don't think that I shouldn't have done it, but
Speaker 1: I do think that when you're doing the film that
Speaker 1: is a shot by shot. I mean not just saying
Speaker 1: this fascinating psychologically when you do a film. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm not just saying this for your benefit. You are
Speaker 1: a very very, very very talented woman. And Van's aunt
Speaker 1: is a good director director. What does van Zant when
Speaker 1: he's remaking a shot by shot one of the greatest
Speaker 1: thrillers in history? Did van Zant have to say anything
Speaker 1: to bolster you to get through that experience? But he's
Speaker 1: like trying to know, and it wasn't like it wasn't
Speaker 1: like we had to be bolster to get through it.
Speaker 1: I think we're all very specifically trying to create recreate it.
Speaker 1: But in a month and now, I wish if if
Speaker 1: we're do it again, I would like to do it
Speaker 1: in black and white. I'd like to do it in
Speaker 1: the same costume. I'd like to do it with the
Speaker 1: exact same information. Let's do the better remake of Psychic
Speaker 1: that that to me, I think that would have been
Speaker 1: that we sort of modernized it but then helped the
Speaker 1: old pacing and it was Yeah. She who's great? Oh
Speaker 1: um um. Vince Vaughan was as a director, he was great.
Speaker 1: He's such a lovely person, very very soft spoken, you know,
Speaker 1: just incredibly incredibly soft spoken. I liked him a lot.
Speaker 1: I'd like to work with him on something that he
Speaker 1: you know that. I loved Elephant Elephant. I always tell
Speaker 1: people see Elephant, which is his Columnbine Films, Oh my,
Speaker 1: what an amazing film. It's been amazing film. It's like
Speaker 1: the most hypnotic film that has a Columbine type of
Speaker 1: theme to it. And I love Gus. I think Us
Speaker 1: is incredible. I think my favorite kind of acting to do. Though.
Speaker 1: We saw Todd Haynes, my friend Todd Haynes, I made
Speaker 1: Far from Heaven and Safe with and we had dinner
Speaker 1: together and we were talking about our experience and he said,
Speaker 1: why did you understand? How did you understand how minimal
Speaker 1: the acting was going to be? And I said, I
Speaker 1: felt like I saw it in the language. His language
Speaker 1: was so spare and so specific, and then I would say,
Speaker 1: let me see the frame, and his frames were also
Speaker 1: I felt like he was communicating so much just in
Speaker 1: the frame. So my favorite things an actor is to
Speaker 1: know what the director's vision is, to be communicated that
Speaker 1: way through the language and in the shot, and then
Speaker 1: I'm like, now, I know what I'm doing. Give me
Speaker 1: an example. Well, like when Todd Todd at a shot
Speaker 1: of a very wide living room, you know, and at
Speaker 1: a baby shower, and there were a bunch of women
Speaker 1: all the way at the right side of the frame.
Speaker 1: I had crossed all the way across and was standing
Speaker 1: up on the left side of frame, and I just
Speaker 1: asked where the lady's room. And my only line is,
Speaker 1: can you tell me where the lady's room is, please,
Speaker 1: or something like that. And I could see it was
Speaker 1: all about this movement of her kind of trying to
Speaker 1: reach over these people. So so once I looked at that,
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, well I can see if I
Speaker 1: hunched my shoulders forward, then my then this little figure
Speaker 1: is kind of bowed in this big wide frame, you know.
Speaker 1: So he's telling the story of alienation. You know, you
Speaker 1: don't have to talk about anything, you just do it.
Speaker 1: It's great. When I was saying before, how I think,
Speaker 1: you know, I know what it is people hire you
Speaker 1: for what they expect from you. I think that the
Speaker 1: ingredient in the meal that you are it is a
Speaker 1: tremendous amount of emotional truth. You have a kind of
Speaker 1: emotional residence but you turn on and off, you know,
Speaker 1: like I always I want to talk to about pet
Speaker 1: Anderson for a minute, Like when you do Boogie Nights
Speaker 1: and that character you played, you played someone who was
Speaker 1: so cut off to that. Then that's what I from
Speaker 1: her reality. What I perceived was was did you make
Speaker 1: a choice with this woman that famous scene you have
Speaker 1: with him where he's going to have sex with you
Speaker 1: when you tell him you can have this to me,
Speaker 1: and you're very do this, do this, do this, you
Speaker 1: can do this to me, go ahead, go ahead, and
Speaker 1: you're kind of holding it. It's like his first day
Speaker 1: at school. Or she's a complete denial about what's going on.
Speaker 1: And she's someone who's made an economic choice. You really,
Speaker 1: she's given up her family, has given up her child.
Speaker 1: She probably was in a position where this was the
Speaker 1: only kind of work she could get. She's a drug
Speaker 1: to meet any of those people, Yeah, she's a drug addict.
Speaker 1: My favorite scene in the movie is when she goes
Speaker 1: to court to get custody of her son. We're talking
Speaker 1: about booge Nights who are listening, and she's all dressed
Speaker 1: up and she's trying to be kind of a straight
Speaker 1: arrow and stuff and she feels very self righteous about
Speaker 1: getting her child back, and the judge looks at her
Speaker 1: and says, Maggie, have you ever been arrested? And that's
Speaker 1: the end, and you go, oh my god, this you know,
Speaker 1: she's she's of course she's been arrested, you know, and
Speaker 1: she's just sobs and sobs and stops, and you go, So,
Speaker 1: this is a woman who in her head thinks that
Speaker 1: she can be a parent, but she's she can't. She's
Speaker 1: not living a life is going to allow herself to
Speaker 1: parent a child, but she won't. It's a huge space
Speaker 1: between what she feels about herself and what the actual
Speaker 1: what was actually happened. That's the first time you worked
Speaker 1: with Anderson. Yeah, what have you been doing before that?
Speaker 1: What did he see you when Safe? I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think he saw me and but I think he
Speaker 1: saw the shortcuts and Safe and Vannie and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: You know. Paul was very young, he was twenty six.
Speaker 1: We met. We met at a party and a friend
Speaker 1: of mine introduced me to him and said, this guy
Speaker 1: wrote this script and he wants you to do it.
Speaker 1: And I was like, I would love to read it.
Speaker 1: And he said, you're going to be in my movie.
Speaker 1: Man got the script and I read it and I
Speaker 1: was like, holy cow, yes, I am, um, this is fantastic.
Speaker 1: He has such an original voice. Was so exciting. It
Speaker 1: was such an amazing story and so emotional and wonderful
Speaker 1: and rich, and yeah, I was lucky to get it.
Speaker 1: You know what you were saying. I was thinking about,
Speaker 1: how let me talk about emotion, you know on camera
Speaker 1: and stuff. You have that too. You have this, You
Speaker 1: have this tremendous vitality, like a real sense of being
Speaker 1: alive and a lot, a lot contained inside you. And
Speaker 1: it's wonderful to work with you because it just permeates
Speaker 1: the scene, like you know, you feel that. That's the trick.
Speaker 1: The trick is how do you live on camera? How
Speaker 1: do you become alive on camera? So there's all the
Speaker 1: stuff about acting, you know, you can kind of create
Speaker 1: all this kind of stuff, you know, yeah, be alive,
Speaker 1: be alive. You did that great thing when we had
Speaker 1: that scene in Still Alice. You know, we had to say,
Speaker 1: remember Santorini, which is always really hard to start a
Speaker 1: scene with that kind of thing, and and you said,
Speaker 1: and then you made these are laughing so hard, And
Speaker 1: then I started laughing and then suddenly it's a scene
Speaker 1: about two people laughing because trying. But you know it's
Speaker 1: it's like, that's what you want, you know. That's why
Speaker 1: I like to talk when I work. What do people
Speaker 1: expect from you or think of you when they meet you.
Speaker 1: I think they think that I'm going to be more
Speaker 1: serious than I am. I guess because all the dramas
Speaker 1: and the crying and stuff, they think that I'm going
Speaker 1: to be really dramatic and Sam motion of the film. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I'm not. As you know, I'm not a very
Speaker 1: serious person and I'm not a very I'm not a
Speaker 1: terribly sad person. You are sure, Yeah, I can be serious,
Speaker 1: but I like to I'm very chatty. I like to
Speaker 1: talk all the way up to action. I do. I do,
Speaker 1: And if you can't talk to me, I'm really disappointed.
Speaker 1: Then I get lonely, and I want to be lonely
Speaker 1: when I won't, I want to be with my buddy.
Speaker 1: I'm going to talk to me. You talk to me
Speaker 1: and my friend. Let's be buddies. Talk to you. What
Speaker 1: did you do this morning? What do you have for
Speaker 1: dinner last night? What are you doing later today? Are
Speaker 1: you cold? You like that sweater. Don't you like my sweater?
Speaker 1: What are you doing? Action acting? I love it. That's
Speaker 1: my favorite part is then you get this great connection
Speaker 1: with other human being and then the scenes like comes alive.
Speaker 1: You know, you think that that emotion is so available
Speaker 1: to you. Why it's inside It's inside everybody everyone, So
Speaker 1: it's like, how do you access that? You know, your
Speaker 1: own story, everybody else's story. You know, what you're getting
Speaker 1: on top is just like the tiniest little like shell.
Speaker 1: Other than that, there's all this stuff. But then, but then,
Speaker 1: like I said, it's easier for me to get into
Speaker 1: it when I'm when I'm shot, you know, talking to
Speaker 1: you about you know how much I like your sweater?
Speaker 1: And you know where you live? And are you going
Speaker 1: to rent or are you going to buy? Or you
Speaker 1: know all that kind of stuff. You know, how are
Speaker 1: your kids? You know? How was seventh grade for so
Speaker 1: and so? I mean, I I love all that stuff.
Speaker 1: I remember when I was younger, I think it was
Speaker 1: even unconsciousness. I would see people acting films, and the
Speaker 1: predominant examples would be like Brando or Gina or something
Speaker 1: like that, where them breaking down wasn't a big deal.
Speaker 1: These are like notes you played in music, like that's
Speaker 1: just what people do. I didn't think about it, like
Speaker 1: like it was separate because I went to Strasbourg where
Speaker 1: they really they put you in the frying pan and
Speaker 1: they really made you get to that. And I went
Speaker 1: to act to school for a year where we basically
Speaker 1: cried for like they will. They try to get you
Speaker 1: used to being able to do. But the funny thing
Speaker 1: is is that that's just a technique to get you
Speaker 1: to tap into it because people don't really behave that way,
Speaker 1: but you have to find it once again. It's all
Speaker 1: about what's true, what's real. It's like guns in movies
Speaker 1: and guns going off and people hitting people. Sometimes, especially
Speaker 1: early on in my career, people be like and then
Speaker 1: someone gets slapped, and I thought, wait, people don't slap
Speaker 1: each other, and if somebody does, it's shocking. So remember
Speaker 1: that when when there's a physical altercation, you're shocked by it.
Speaker 1: When people cry, it's upsetting. You're not trying to cry.
Speaker 1: You're trying not to cry because you don't want to
Speaker 1: be embarrassed, you know. So it's like, so all that
Speaker 1: acting school stuff is about learning how to locate all
Speaker 1: those feelings but then over time, with experience, you learn,
Speaker 1: like the greats like Brando, to modulate them. When you
Speaker 1: worked with PT with Paul Thomas Anderson, Boogie Knights was
Speaker 1: the first film was he helpful to. He was a
Speaker 1: director who did it all basically take care of itself.
Speaker 1: Because it was take care of itself. I have to
Speaker 1: say the great directors, all the greatest directors say very
Speaker 1: very little. Magnolia was harder because it was so emotional
Speaker 1: and I was really trying to plot it, you know,
Speaker 1: because I had to literally cry in every scene, and
Speaker 1: so I had to I'm like, all right, Paul, Paul,
Speaker 1: this is this is like the smaller crying into the bigger,
Speaker 1: crying at the biggest, crying to the big, big, big,
Speaker 1: you know. So it's like I had to find a
Speaker 1: way to not be. It wasn't like the level of
Speaker 1: hysteria had to change, you know. I had to be modulated.
Speaker 1: I couldn't be at ten. I had to be at
Speaker 1: two and you know, get to ten and all that
Speaker 1: kind of There are times when I'll say to director,
Speaker 1: I want you to watch my vocal pattern. I want
Speaker 1: you to watch my level of hysteria. I want you
Speaker 1: to whatever but basically I want them to direct the movie.
Speaker 1: Do you know I feel like I feel like they're
Speaker 1: a It's a misnomer that the director is an acting coach.
Speaker 1: The director is there to direct the audiences I through
Speaker 1: a film. The actor is doing the acting. They shouldn't
Speaker 1: have to say, you know, I think a tough time
Speaker 1: with the director. How was it tough? Without naming names?
Speaker 1: What was tough when they talk to me too much? Well,
Speaker 1: because I always say to everybody, please don't speak to
Speaker 1: me before I've done any acting, I said, because I'm
Speaker 1: just trying to hang onto this. Yeah, see what I
Speaker 1: come up with. And if I'm way off base, and please,
Speaker 1: by all means, come up and say like, wow, that
Speaker 1: wasn't what I expected. But if I hear too much,
Speaker 1: I mean, this is gonna sound really silly and precious.
Speaker 1: But I always say that acting. So it's like this
Speaker 1: little flame and you've got this little thing and you're thinking, okay,
Speaker 1: I want to say this to work, but you don't
Speaker 1: want to blow it out. If somebody comes along and
Speaker 1: says this is what I think, they might just blow
Speaker 1: it out and then you have nowhere you know, then
Speaker 1: you can't reach it anymore. And that was emotional as
Speaker 1: you are, and you have this remarkable emotional residence in
Speaker 1: your work. What do you like privately, to the extent
Speaker 1: that you want to say, You're a mother. Yeah, I'm married.
Speaker 1: Before I was married, I'm married now. But I've been
Speaker 1: with my husband for eighteen years. We have two children,
Speaker 1: they're sixteen and twelve. I have a fantastic, fantastic family.
Speaker 1: I have two dogs. They're black, one is small and
Speaker 1: one is big, a Chihuahua and a lab and uh.
Speaker 1: We live in New York City. I have a really
Speaker 1: nice life. I'm really really lucky. You try to keep
Speaker 1: it simple, oh man, Yeah, I really do. I try
Speaker 1: to keep it. He tag team work because he makes films.
Speaker 1: He makes films and television too. You know, we've been
Speaker 1: very fortunate. I mean, it's interesting because the work life
Speaker 1: balance thing is always an issue for everybody when they're little.
Speaker 1: When they were babies, it was super super easy because
Speaker 1: babies don't know where they are and you can bring
Speaker 1: them everywhere. Yeah, and also we have an incredibly tolerant
Speaker 1: business toward women with children. I have to say thank
Speaker 1: goodness for the movie business. I remember my son was
Speaker 1: when I was doing Psycho. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: my son was nine months old and I was still
Speaker 1: getting used to having a baby, and he was always
Speaker 1: with me and stuff, and he was hysterical in the
Speaker 1: trailer one day and I was nursing him and trying
Speaker 1: to him to calm down. They knocked the trailer door
Speaker 1: and they said, you know, we need you, and I
Speaker 1: was like, I can't come, and this adorable p a said,
Speaker 1: no worries, man, take your time, and I was like,
Speaker 1: holy cow, I'm the luckiest woman in the world, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean so so our business is very tolerant. We're lucky,
Speaker 1: and I have no complaints as an actress. Did you
Speaker 1: turn down a lot of work with your family? So
Speaker 1: you do? You do? I shut you turn things down
Speaker 1: because you can't travel, you know, You're like, once the
Speaker 1: kids are in school, I can't go. I can't go
Speaker 1: in Australia in a few days and I feel terrible. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's tough, and it's tougher on women because when you
Speaker 1: have infants, you know, I mean, it's it's easier for
Speaker 1: you because you can go and come back or it
Speaker 1: doesn't make it mean it's emotionally easy for you. But yeah,
Speaker 1: so I work. I try to work. If I have
Speaker 1: to travel, I do it in the summertime when everybody
Speaker 1: can come. I work in the city when they're in school,
Speaker 1: and I you know, try alright, bunch of things. If
Speaker 1: I have to travel, a bunch of together, and you know,
Speaker 1: and I have a partner who's an equal parent, and
Speaker 1: we alternate. Michael Fox said the time once years ago,
Speaker 1: he said, they send you a script. Into the script
Speaker 1: said open on the skyline of Manhattan. He closed the
Speaker 1: script and say, I'm in. That's it. Absolutely just you
Speaker 1: have no idea. This tax break in New York City
Speaker 1: has been a godsend to me. You gotta keep that going.
Speaker 1: It's amazing because I've been able to do so many
Speaker 1: movies at home. I mean it really and yeah, I'm like,
Speaker 1: it's New York alright, fine, it's great, or at least
Speaker 1: a place that has an airport that's really accessible and
Speaker 1: you can, you know, go in and out for three days.
Speaker 1: Someone who is as well regarded and who's made as
Speaker 1: many great films as you've made. When you're one of
Speaker 1: those people that you look over the list of films
Speaker 1: you've made, it's kind of amazing. The list of movies
Speaker 1: that you've done. Uh, when you think about co stars
Speaker 1: of yours, men and women that you worked with, were
Speaker 1: there times you did films that you just thought yourself, God,
Speaker 1: I'm so lucky that you were really sited. Do you
Speaker 1: get excited to people? Give me a couple of examples
Speaker 1: of people over the years and you work with you
Speaker 1: were really happy? Alec No, no, no, seriously, but tho, Okay, no,
Speaker 1: it's true. It's true. I love you. I always wanted
Speaker 1: to work with you and I had at such a
Speaker 1: great time. That's why I wanted Wash to stop talking
Speaker 1: so I could send The director would come up and
Speaker 1: give us notes and look, I give you this look
Speaker 1: like can't you see that Julie and I are hanging out? Yeah,
Speaker 1: this better be important. Anyways, some other people if I loved,
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, Ray Finds. We had a great time
Speaker 1: together on end of the affair was really really special,
Speaker 1: like a great, really great connection. James Grow, you know
Speaker 1: James le Grow. He's a friend of mine. I've worked
Speaker 1: with him on a couple of movies Single Man. Oh yeah, Colin,
Speaker 1: he was amazing. You know, I've worked at so many men.
Speaker 1: I never worked with women. I mean, Laura Dern and
Speaker 1: I worked together. She played a small part in a
Speaker 1: movie that were I had no women to tell you
Speaker 1: did the hours, You didn't have scenes with that. We
Speaker 1: were all in separate movies. So I remember. I was like,
Speaker 1: so I got to be great friends with Laura. I
Speaker 1: was so excited that she was there and we had
Speaker 1: and she did this beautiful thing. It was a scene
Speaker 1: where I'm supposed to be with a bunch of women
Speaker 1: at a party and it's like the first time I've
Speaker 1: been out and I feel really independent and terrific, and
Speaker 1: and she's this lovely woman I've only corresponded with. And
Speaker 1: we had this big scene all the women are chatting
Speaker 1: and talking and she looked over at me. And this
Speaker 1: is off camera, by the way, too, so you can
Speaker 1: you know you wouldn't you can see this. It was
Speaker 1: just personal and she grabbed my hands, squeezed it and
Speaker 1: like winked, gave me a little wink and I almost
Speaker 1: burst into tears because that's what the scene was. That
Speaker 1: what it was like for my character, like to be
Speaker 1: seen by this other woman, to have this connection, this friendship,
Speaker 1: and Laura just did it, and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I love you so much. It really is remarkable when
Speaker 1: you have that kind of experience with with an actor,
Speaker 1: that sort of connection. I love it. Can you name
Speaker 1: one role you played that It was really hard. It
Speaker 1: was really a challenge, and when it was over and
Speaker 1: you saw the film, you thought, you know, that's a
Speaker 1: pretty good movie. For the hours did The hours was
Speaker 1: really really hard. It was a really hard shoot. My
Speaker 1: son was three, and we worked really long hours. And
Speaker 1: I would get home and he'd be waiting up. Was
Speaker 1: in London and he was waiting up for me. He
Speaker 1: wouldn't go to sleep until I got home, you know,
Speaker 1: because he slipped in my bed for a long long
Speaker 1: time until he was four and a half. Um. He'd
Speaker 1: be mortified to hear that on the radio, but it
Speaker 1: was hopefully you won't listen, you won't listen, but he um.
Speaker 1: So I was worriored about getting home. I was in
Speaker 1: scenes with another little boy who was not easy to
Speaker 1: deal with because he was only six and he was
Speaker 1: kind of all over the place. We kept changing shots.
Speaker 1: It was very hard, and I just couldn't feel like
Speaker 1: I was getting anything right. And I think each and
Speaker 1: all these separate segments and then I saw the movie
Speaker 1: to Get and I was like, Holy Cow's movie beautiful.
Speaker 1: I mean, you just don't know, you really don't know.
Speaker 1: You don't know. Ever, Yeah, you did a film recently
Speaker 1: and you were you can explain the whole travel slip
Speaker 1: up here where you weren't able to accept this award,
Speaker 1: but you won Best Actress and I can film and
Speaker 1: you were there. I did. I was there while I
Speaker 1: was there for an entire week. So I've gotten there
Speaker 1: to do work for Loreal, who I work with, and
Speaker 1: then I had Hunger Games pressed because they were doing something.
Speaker 1: And then I had a film and competition called Maps
Speaker 1: the Stars David Cronenberg. Movie was Cronenberg, the same as
Speaker 1: the other ones. But he didn't say very much. No,
Speaker 1: he isn't saying anything, very very little. Um. So at
Speaker 1: that point, I've been there for seven days. I was
Speaker 1: really exhausted. And we got home and it was Thursday
Speaker 1: before Memorial Day weekend, and Friday we picked our kids
Speaker 1: up from school and we came out to Montalk where
Speaker 1: I have a house, and Saturday morning is when the
Speaker 1: awards happened in Cannes, and I wasn't expecting anything, and
Speaker 1: I figured if they were going to tell me something
Speaker 1: that they would let me know. And I just got
Speaker 1: a phone call while I was folding towels at the
Speaker 1: pool after sweeping out my shed and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: Memorial Day weekend, saying you just I just accepted Best
Speaker 1: Actress for you I can from Bruce Wagner, the screenwriter.
Speaker 1: I was stunned. What kind of movie is it. It's
Speaker 1: a Cronenberg film, you know. It's as a movie about
Speaker 1: all these people in Hollywood. It's it's about families. I think, actually,
Speaker 1: I mean a lot of people think that it's about Hollywood,
Speaker 1: but I really think it's about families and about people's
Speaker 1: desire to connect and be seen and instead of being
Speaker 1: seen intimately by a family member, they want to be
Speaker 1: validated by the outside world, and how destructive that is
Speaker 1: and how cruel it can be. It's really rough. And
Speaker 1: David did this. This is what was cool about seeing
Speaker 1: how director communicates to you. Because my first day of
Speaker 1: shooting and he was setting up these shots and he
Speaker 1: brought me in on a kind of a long angle
Speaker 1: and I sat down at a table and he shot
Speaker 1: Mia Washakuska and he shot me, And then I realized
Speaker 1: that he didn't do a two shot, and that we
Speaker 1: didn't ever come into each other's frame. We never crossed frames.
Speaker 1: At one point I came around, I entered her frame,
Speaker 1: but I never pushed into her frame. There was never
Speaker 1: any physical So everyone in the film is isolated, and
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, I get it. So you know,
Speaker 1: he's kept everybody purposely isolated, and it's really devastating to
Speaker 1: see something shot that way, with that kind of remove,
Speaker 1: and that you think all these people want to do
Speaker 1: is be in a frame with one another. You know,
Speaker 1: that's all we do. We're usually right on top of
Speaker 1: each other, is people, and David kept everybody very separate.
Speaker 1: So it's sort of heartbreaking, very erotic film. No, No,
Speaker 1: you wish it's not. It's it's not erotic. No, why
Speaker 1: did you say that? Are you telling the truth? Why
Speaker 1: did people tell me the Comic Works movie? You're completely
Speaker 1: you have a three way, you went two other people.
Speaker 1: Very it is, but it's comical. It's a comical three way.
Speaker 1: You know those come okay, Well that's a course of
Speaker 1: a different color. Yeah, it's not very sexy, I have
Speaker 1: to say. And funny, the funniest thing about the three
Speaker 1: way is that she's in bed. It's this terrible This
Speaker 1: poor desperate woman is in bed with another man, another woman,
Speaker 1: and the man gets up to answer the phone and
Speaker 1: gets on the phone with a director it's working with.
Speaker 1: And my character desperately wants a part in the in
Speaker 1: this movie. So as she's sort of with this other woman,
Speaker 1: she's just trying to hear him on the phone. And
Speaker 1: he hangs up and the first thing she says is
Speaker 1: mention me when you talk tell me about Oh. I
Speaker 1: love him so much. He's a guy that you would
Speaker 1: expect to be really nutty, you know, because from all
Speaker 1: his films, he's so smart. He's interested in absolutely everything.
Speaker 1: He he can speak eloquently on any subject. He loves people,
Speaker 1: devoted to his family. Has worked with the same crew,
Speaker 1: the same DP for the last thirty years or so.
Speaker 1: You know, lives in Toronto, works in Toronto and makes
Speaker 1: movies about kind of extreme human behavior. But it's all
Speaker 1: within the realm of possibility. Look at a movie like Existence,
Speaker 1: So which was so precient with that kind of crazy,
Speaker 1: with that gaming going inside your head for the virtual
Speaker 1: reality and Jason, the brilliant Jennifer Jason, and with the portal.
Speaker 1: You know that that weird portal they have. But yeah, so,
Speaker 1: I mean he really pushes with the possibilities of the
Speaker 1: imagination are and and and our own, you know, physical possibilities.
Speaker 1: And he's driven I think by his own intellect and curiosity.
Speaker 1: He's a wonderful man. What are your kids? What are
Speaker 1: your kids? My kids are great. My son is sixteen.
Speaker 1: He's very tall, he's going to get even taller. He
Speaker 1: loves basketball, he loves music. He's an accomplished musician. He's
Speaker 1: like his dad. He's like his dad and a surfer
Speaker 1: and snowboarder. And physical, yeah, physical, but also very sensitive,
Speaker 1: emotional boy and hard working. It works very hard. My
Speaker 1: daughter is just twelve. She's tall and slender. She loved
Speaker 1: to ride horses. She loves fashion. She makes close. He's
Speaker 1: a sewing machine. She loves you, Alec. She's always like, hi,
Speaker 1: oh is that Alex God, you look sous. So Gorge's
Speaker 1: like thanks, thanks, She's like, well, thank you for saying
Speaker 1: so funny. Oh my goodness. She is fun She's a
Speaker 1: great spirit. She did this imitation. We were watching the
Speaker 1: vm as and she's playing it for me, and they
Speaker 1: did it. They cut to the Kardashians and the audience watching,
Speaker 1: and then she's like, mom, mom, this is what they
Speaker 1: look like. And then she and it was it was hysterical.
Speaker 1: I was like, you're right, that was really funny. So
Speaker 1: I don't know. So she's already but I don't know, right,
Speaker 1: Actually she wants to be a fashion designer, So we'll see.
Speaker 1: Who knows. You work a lot, and when you're not working,
Speaker 1: and if you have, especially if you have a decent
Speaker 1: spell of time off, what do you like to do
Speaker 1: with yourself? I spent a lot of time with my kids,
Speaker 1: taking them to school, bringing them mom school, Yeah, doing
Speaker 1: all the mom stuff. I'm very interested in my house.
Speaker 1: I like to decorate my house, go to my yoga
Speaker 1: place a lot. I'd love that I've been intermediate in
Speaker 1: you for ten years. I like to say years. She's
Speaker 1: good is really good. And then sometimes like this last summer,
Speaker 1: last winter, I guess we had a friend who could
Speaker 1: teach watercolor. So all my friends from from yoga got
Speaker 1: together and we took watercolor lessons and then we learned
Speaker 1: how to kind of like do deco page. I know
Speaker 1: that sounds crazy, but it was sort of a fun
Speaker 1: thing to do. And I love to read and you
Speaker 1: read scripts, you think about what you want to do next,
Speaker 1: and when you're not acting, are you mindful of that
Speaker 1: and you're grateful for the time and you're glad to
Speaker 1: have time off and be with your family, or do
Speaker 1: you like sitting there going I want to get back
Speaker 1: to working. Well, you know kind of thing. I know,
Speaker 1: I am a workaholic in the sense that I really
Speaker 1: like to be working. I like, I love to be
Speaker 1: at work, Like I love the crew, I love the cast,
Speaker 1: the other actors. I like the idea going to work.
Speaker 1: I like, no, I'm scared of that. I ran into
Speaker 1: Matthew Broderick the other day and I said, aren't you
Speaker 1: scared of the people, And he said, no, I mean
Speaker 1: I like it. It's really helps when it's a comedy.
Speaker 1: And I was thinking about him and Nathan Lane, and
Speaker 1: you know, you know when you watch Nathan Lane and
Speaker 1: he gets a laugh and then he stretches and it's
Speaker 1: like he makes the laugh bigger. And I think Nathan
Speaker 1: has a sense almost like if you were tickling a kid,
Speaker 1: like you know how to tickle a kid a little
Speaker 1: bit and again, yeah, and Nathan like does it like
Speaker 1: he tickles the audience and I don't feel like I
Speaker 1: have any sense, so that I think I have too
Speaker 1: much fear of a live audience. I like to pretend
Speaker 1: that no one's there, which is why I like movies.
Speaker 1: I like to pretend there's no one there, like I'm
Speaker 1: in the book. Julianne Moore continues to step into the unknown.
Speaker 1: She's currently working on Free Held with Ellen Page, Steve Carrell,
Speaker 1: and Michael Shannon. It's based on the Oscar winning two
Speaker 1: thousand seven documentary about two women whose life story led
Speaker 1: to changes in the domestic partnership laws in New Jersey.
Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin.