Working mom : Part 4
Working mom : : Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4
Page 4 of 4
"If I see everything through the prism of my own experience, than I diminish the character," she says. "You have to approach the story from as neutral a place as possible. I once heard an actress say, 'Well this character would never do that, because I would never do that' and I just thought, oh my gosh. That's just heartbreaking, and wrong. Because what you think does not matter to an audience. It's what they feel."
They feel a lot in Julianne Moore movies. They marvel at performances that can make Amber Waves' sex with Dirk Diggler in "Boogie Nights" seem nurturing, or pepper a romantic comedy like "Trust the Man" with genuine, deeply felt scenes of betrayal. If Moore hasn't yet won the awards of a Meryl Streep, or gained the starry profile of a Nicole Kidman she is every bit their equal -- a fact she proved, effortlessly, in "The Hours," in which they all appeared.
And like all great performers, Moore treats her work as, well, work.
"There's all this emotional stuff going on during a scene, yes, but you still need to have an intellectual awareness of where the camera is, where your light is, where your mark is, where you are in the frame," she says. "You have to be aware because that's part of the job, too, and nobody else is going to do it for you. It's not just all about you and what you're 'feeling.' You have a job to do, and a responsibility to everybody on that set."
The sets she shares with Freundlich have gotten more familial over the years. "Trust the Man" was shot near their home, in Greenwich Village; the cast was drawn from friends like James LeGros and Billy Crudup with whom they've worked before.
"Bart and I work together very well," says Moore. "The stress I feel is at home, because now we're working identical hours, and we have two children and a house and it's like, whoa, wait a minute, how are we going to work this one out? Those are the stresses we face and there are times when I think it'd probably be easier if he cast someone else and I could manage things at home."
Moore's life has changed since she had children although no more, she says, "than any working parent." She prefers projects that shoot in New York, or at least don't involve lengthy location work. Appearances at foreign premieres and chic film festivals depend on "whether I have to get the kids to school that week." She will be doing David Hare's play "The Vertical Hour" in November, and while she's excited about making her Broadway debut, she worries that she won't be home in time to tuck her children in.
But, she says, it's a limited run. And this is the career she's built, step by step.
"You never feel sure about this, ever," she says. "Will you stop getting scripts? Stop getting work? It happens all the time. Maybe sometimes it's for other reasons, but people just disappear. It's a freelance job and you have to make that effort to find that next part, and the one after it. You never know. But you never know about anything these days. So why not at least do what you want?"
You can contact film critic Stephen Whitty at (212) 286-4298 or at swhitty@starledger.com.
Page 4 of 4
"If I see everything through the prism of my own experience, than I diminish the character," she says. "You have to approach the story from as neutral a place as possible. I once heard an actress say, 'Well this character would never do that, because I would never do that' and I just thought, oh my gosh. That's just heartbreaking, and wrong. Because what you think does not matter to an audience. It's what they feel."
They feel a lot in Julianne Moore movies. They marvel at performances that can make Amber Waves' sex with Dirk Diggler in "Boogie Nights" seem nurturing, or pepper a romantic comedy like "Trust the Man" with genuine, deeply felt scenes of betrayal. If Moore hasn't yet won the awards of a Meryl Streep, or gained the starry profile of a Nicole Kidman she is every bit their equal -- a fact she proved, effortlessly, in "The Hours," in which they all appeared.
And like all great performers, Moore treats her work as, well, work.
"There's all this emotional stuff going on during a scene, yes, but you still need to have an intellectual awareness of where the camera is, where your light is, where your mark is, where you are in the frame," she says. "You have to be aware because that's part of the job, too, and nobody else is going to do it for you. It's not just all about you and what you're 'feeling.' You have a job to do, and a responsibility to everybody on that set."
The sets she shares with Freundlich have gotten more familial over the years. "Trust the Man" was shot near their home, in Greenwich Village; the cast was drawn from friends like James LeGros and Billy Crudup with whom they've worked before.
"Bart and I work together very well," says Moore. "The stress I feel is at home, because now we're working identical hours, and we have two children and a house and it's like, whoa, wait a minute, how are we going to work this one out? Those are the stresses we face and there are times when I think it'd probably be easier if he cast someone else and I could manage things at home."
Moore's life has changed since she had children although no more, she says, "than any working parent." She prefers projects that shoot in New York, or at least don't involve lengthy location work. Appearances at foreign premieres and chic film festivals depend on "whether I have to get the kids to school that week." She will be doing David Hare's play "The Vertical Hour" in November, and while she's excited about making her Broadway debut, she worries that she won't be home in time to tuck her children in.
But, she says, it's a limited run. And this is the career she's built, step by step.
"You never feel sure about this, ever," she says. "Will you stop getting scripts? Stop getting work? It happens all the time. Maybe sometimes it's for other reasons, but people just disappear. It's a freelance job and you have to make that effort to find that next part, and the one after it. You never know. But you never know about anything these days. So why not at least do what you want?"
You can contact film critic Stephen Whitty at (212) 286-4298 or at swhitty@starledger.com.