Julianne Moore stays close to home in new movie
Julianne Moore stays close to home in new movie - Yahoo! News
By Claudia Parsons Fri Aug 18, 4:57 PM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Julianne Moore plays an actress whose husband cheats on her and is a self-confessed sex addict in her new film "Trust the Man," which was written and directed by her husband, Bart Freundlich.
But don't go making assumptions about their marriage, they hasten to say while promoting the film in New York, where they live. The movie was filmed on the city's streets and in the restaurants and bars they frequent in Greenwich Village.
"I've never been to a sex addicts' meeting, although I think probably every guy thinks he's a sex addict if you ask him," said Freundlich. He has two young children with Moore, as do the couple in the movie, which opens on Friday. Both of Moore's children appear in the film as her children.
Oscar-nominated Moore plays Rebecca, whose marriage to Tom, played by David Duchovny, is in a rut. Her brother Tobey, played by Billy Crudup, is a lazy slacker unwilling to commit to his girlfriend, Elaine, played by Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Freundlich said there were elements of his character in both men in the film, a romantic comedy about the gulf between the way men and women approach life.
"They're both extremes," he said. "I'm somewhere between the two of them ... I'm sort of freelance like Tobey is (but) I don't sit in my car and make grilled cheese. I don't cheat on my wife, I don't stay home and take care of the kids all the time, but I do some of the time."
Moore said while there was a certain amount of autobiography in the movie, particularly "the affection and the importance of our relationship and our family life," it was a mistake to take movies too literally.
"You have a germ of an idea in something that might be based in a reality but not all of it's true, it's just to illuminate something," she said in an interview. She added that a scene where she chokes while gulping down a slice of cake late at night was inspired by something that really happened.
BEYOND AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Freundlich, who met Moore when he directed her in "The Myth of Fingerprints" a decade ago, said "Trust the Man" was more personal than his previous work because of the subject matter.
"But because it was through a comedic lens, it was really blown up beyond the point of autobiography," he said.
"It was like, OK, I watched Julie choke on a cake once. Imagine if I had to give her the Heimlich maneuver, and imagine if we had just come home and we hadn't had sex for a long time and she was like 'We're going to have sex tonight,' and that happened," he said.
The movie has won a mixed reception in early reviews, with some comparisons to Woody Allen's quirky Manhattan-focused view of the world and relationships, but also some criticism about its failure to break the mold of a "stagnating genre."
Moore, who has four Oscar nominations to her name for films such as "The Hours" and "The End of the Affair," said she can't help taking reviews to heart, especially if they're bad. "It's still incredibly painful," she said. "Someone will always read it to you even if you've managed to not look at it."
But she added, "If you're going to bask in the glow of the good stuff, you have to take the killer stuff."
Moore started her career in daytime soap operas such as "As the World Turns" and she's had her share of misses along with the hits, but she said she didn't regret any of her choices.
"It's a bit like bad boyfriends, how would you know a good one unless you've had a couple of bad ones?"
Reuters/VNU
By Claudia Parsons Fri Aug 18, 4:57 PM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Julianne Moore plays an actress whose husband cheats on her and is a self-confessed sex addict in her new film "Trust the Man," which was written and directed by her husband, Bart Freundlich.
But don't go making assumptions about their marriage, they hasten to say while promoting the film in New York, where they live. The movie was filmed on the city's streets and in the restaurants and bars they frequent in Greenwich Village.
"I've never been to a sex addicts' meeting, although I think probably every guy thinks he's a sex addict if you ask him," said Freundlich. He has two young children with Moore, as do the couple in the movie, which opens on Friday. Both of Moore's children appear in the film as her children.
Oscar-nominated Moore plays Rebecca, whose marriage to Tom, played by David Duchovny, is in a rut. Her brother Tobey, played by Billy Crudup, is a lazy slacker unwilling to commit to his girlfriend, Elaine, played by Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Freundlich said there were elements of his character in both men in the film, a romantic comedy about the gulf between the way men and women approach life.
"They're both extremes," he said. "I'm somewhere between the two of them ... I'm sort of freelance like Tobey is (but) I don't sit in my car and make grilled cheese. I don't cheat on my wife, I don't stay home and take care of the kids all the time, but I do some of the time."
Moore said while there was a certain amount of autobiography in the movie, particularly "the affection and the importance of our relationship and our family life," it was a mistake to take movies too literally.
"You have a germ of an idea in something that might be based in a reality but not all of it's true, it's just to illuminate something," she said in an interview. She added that a scene where she chokes while gulping down a slice of cake late at night was inspired by something that really happened.
BEYOND AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Freundlich, who met Moore when he directed her in "The Myth of Fingerprints" a decade ago, said "Trust the Man" was more personal than his previous work because of the subject matter.
"But because it was through a comedic lens, it was really blown up beyond the point of autobiography," he said.
"It was like, OK, I watched Julie choke on a cake once. Imagine if I had to give her the Heimlich maneuver, and imagine if we had just come home and we hadn't had sex for a long time and she was like 'We're going to have sex tonight,' and that happened," he said.
The movie has won a mixed reception in early reviews, with some comparisons to Woody Allen's quirky Manhattan-focused view of the world and relationships, but also some criticism about its failure to break the mold of a "stagnating genre."
Moore, who has four Oscar nominations to her name for films such as "The Hours" and "The End of the Affair," said she can't help taking reviews to heart, especially if they're bad. "It's still incredibly painful," she said. "Someone will always read it to you even if you've managed to not look at it."
But she added, "If you're going to bask in the glow of the good stuff, you have to take the killer stuff."
Moore started her career in daytime soap operas such as "As the World Turns" and she's had her share of misses along with the hits, but she said she didn't regret any of her choices.
"It's a bit like bad boyfriends, how would you know a good one unless you've had a couple of bad ones?"
Reuters/VNU