The Teachings of Juli
Wednesday, January 14, 2015 at 11:00PM
Jose here. Why do I keep forgetting how funny Julianne Moore is? Perhaps because not counting 30 Rock and Maps to the Stars (yes, that is a funny performance) the movies always give us tragic, sad Juli.
Photo credit: Jose Solis
She is the one actress who has perfected the act of onscreen suffering, if you only knew how many times I’ve played that scene with the late night phone call in Far From Heaven to help me cleanse my soul...anyway, once you think of it, outside the movies she always seems to have a huge smile on her face and emanates ginger joy wherever she goes, which wasn’t the exception at a Still Alice press conference I attended yesterday, where she along with Kristen Stewart, Kate Bosworth, author Lisa Genova and co-director Wash Westmoreland discussed the film.
Not one to keep my obsessive fan questions to myself, as Nathaniel has pointed out in the past, I pitched Juli my DVD boxset called “Ill Juli” which would feature Still Alice, The End of the Affair and Safe. She laughed the biggest Moore laugh I’ve had the joy to witness and said “hey, I do comedy too!”
More Juli after the jump...
She composed herself and then explained, “I tend not to think that way. I think that sometimes when you’re looking at somebody’s career and writing about something, you look for threads and you look for references and stuff, but believe it or not, as actors, because we’re freelancers, we literally go from job to job, so you make a movie and then you make the next one and the next one...”
She continued, “especially when you’re referencing something you made ten years ago, I barely remember ten years ago (big Juli laugh), but sometimes people will remember things in my movies and lines they will quote and I’m like ‘what’s that?’”. The Golden Globe winner then shared an anecdote to make her point...
Juli teaches Michael Angarano and Mark Wahlberg
“You know Michael Angarano, right?” she asked, “he’s so great, funny and cute” she continued, “so, we were doing this little comedy called The English Teacher and we had to kiss in it. And so we kissed and he said ‘was that sexy?’ and I was like ‘yeah, Michael, it was great, you were terrific, thanks a lot’ and he then said he wanted to die of embarrassment because he was quoting a line from Boogie Nights and I didn’t know!”
I asked her specifically if Carol White of Safe had informed Alice Howland to which she beautifully replied, “I think that everything you do as a person, everything you do as an actor informs your work, but it’s not really as direct as you might think. It’s just like life, it all accumulates...” and then she gave me that warm smile.
Still Alice opens in theaters Friday.
Reader Comments (16)
The Importance of being Ernest, The Big Lebowski, Cookie's Fortune, Benny and Joon...How anybody would forget she does comedy is beyond me ;)
Love the line about being freelance and going from one job to the other. That's exactly what I imagined it like, though people tend to over interpret.
Now win that Oscar, Juli!
Is there video of this?
My 5 Oscar wishes this year;-
1. Pride getting a Best Picture nomination
2. Ana DuVernay and Angelina Jolie getting Director nominations - a first for female directors!
3. Clint Eastwood and Robert Duvall getting snubbed.
4. Marion Cotillard getting nominated for 2 days one night.
5. Oh and Julianne Moore getting nominated for Best Actress AND Best Supporting Actress - for Maps to the stars and winning for at least one of them...preferably Best Actress.
Oh and just for the hell of it - 'Until the end' getting nominated for Best Song. It's a terrific song and the chance to see Liza perform it would be fantastic. No offence to the wonderful Pink but Liza should have sung 'Somewhere over the rainbow' last year.
Sorry to rain on your parade, but those are some unlikely wishes, Bette Streep! Probably more likely in ascending order (half of #5 is very likely, I can't see #1 or 2 happening at all). I do want Cotillard to get a nomination. I mean, if it wasn't because Moore needs to win I'd want Cotillard to take it home too! Although I think this is a lost cause, much like Rachel Weisz's oscar race for The Deep Blue was for me a couple years ago.
She's literally the warmest human being. You can't help but love her.
I'm so happy she's going to be an Oscar winner. Makes my heart warm. For years I read on this site countless time that we'd all just have to settle for Juli being Oscar-less--"she's just not the type they reward." Her Daytime Emmy would have to do. And then her slew of awards for Game Change would have to do (which people were also skeptical about at first, they thought Nicole would win the Emmy because, again, Julianne isn't "the type they reward").
Now look at things. What a beautiful time to be alive. :')
Lol.
...but really.
Carlos - I second Rachel Weisz sadness. Rachel Weisz for The Deep Blue Sea and Kirsten Dunst for Melancholia are two recent performances that I really wish could've snuck in.
But for me she is better at Drama,just saying,no one cries on cue like GOD.
Carlos - do you think we could add Kristin Scott Thomas ( I have Loved you so Long & Nowhere Man) to your list?
As for Julianne Moore, she is finally getting her due. I am loving this year and can hardly wait to see her pick up a shelf full of awards that have eluded her until now. She is so gracious and warm in interviews, a really well balanced person.
"It's not as direct as you might think." No one answers reductive questions more gracefully. I would certainly hope it's not as direct as the "sick trilogy" comment and your followup question about [safe] would suggest. I mean, really? I guess you had to be there.
I agree with Felix. Moore has a beautiful light touch with comedy. Cookie's Fortune, An Ideal Husband (that's the Wilde adaptation), and even The Laws of Attraction in which she is fresh and charming, even when saddled with some rom-com tropes.
It's fun watching Moore do comedy, because you see how she can do a twist on the dramatic interpretation, so it's funny but still a real person. It's also clearer to me her sense of timing and warm rapport with her fellow actor.
I still enjoy her comedic performances in "Laws of Attraction" and "The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio" from time to time. Loved that she mentioned "The English Teacher" since that was a pretty enjoyable (if overlooked) indie from 2013. Michael Angarano is SUCH a sweetheart (and cutie!).
I would kiss Michael Angarano for free.
Oh, yes Adri, my bad, it's An Ideal Husband, of course. I got confused there:) She's so brilliant Mrs Cheveley.
Based on that still, it looks like Juli filmed The English Teacher right after Game Change and no one bothered to change her styling.
@PeggySue: Me too. His ass is amazing.
Michael Angarano is very cute, and it's not his or Julianne Moore's fault, but that movie...isn't very good.
Safe, though...oh, Safe....:-)