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Background:
“That's the beauty of what actors do, that you only have yourself as a resource.
And so the trick is to find something in them that you connect to somewhere. And
with every single one of my characters, I have to find something that I really
understand and ultimately believe.” Julianne Moore
Petite, porcelain-skinned, red-haired Julianne Moore has built a reputation for
herself as one of Hollywood’s most sought after stars. One of the great actors
of her era, Moore garnered a wealth of critical appreciation and recognition
with her Oscar-nominated, starring turns as Cathy Whitaker, the ignored wife
whose husband (Dennis Quaid) is secretly homosexual, in Todd Haynes’ Far From
Heaven (2002), in which she nabbed a bunch of awards, including a Venice Film
Festival award, a National Board of Review award, a Los Angeles Film Critics
Association award, a Vancouver Film Critics Circle award, a Kansas City Film
Critics Circle award, an Independent Spirit award, a Florida Film Critics Circle
award, a Dallas-Forth Worth Film Critics Association award, a Critics’ Choice
award, a Chicago Film Critics Association award, a Broadcast Film Critics
Association award, a Toronto Film Critics Association award and a London Critics
Circle Film award. She is also famous for her role as Texas housewife Laura
Brown in director Stephen Daldry’s film version of Michael Cunningham’s
Pulitzer-winning novel The Hours (2002), wherein she was handed a Sant Jordi
award and a Berlin International Film Festival award.
Coming to prominence with memorable supporting roles in the surprise box office
hit thriller The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992) and The Fugitive (1993),
Moore cemented her star status during the 1990s with several award-winning
performances. She played the artist-wife Marian Wyman in Robert Altman’s Short
Cuts (1993, won a Golden Globe award and a Venice Film Festival award), Yelena
in Vanya on 42nd Street (1994, netted the Boston Society of Film Critics Best
Actress Award), the eccentric Southerner Cora Duvall in Altman’s Cookie’s
Fortune (1999, won a Dallas-Forth Worth Film Critics Association award and a
National Board of Review award), Mrs. Laura Cheveley in the film version of An
Ideal Husband (1999, netted a National Board of Review award), the worthy mother
in A Map of the World (1999, won a National Board of Review award), Linda
Partridge in Magnolia (1999, picked up a National Board of Review award), and
gained a Best Actress Oscar nomination as the devoted British wife in The End of
the Affair (1999). During 1997-98, she was also handed a Los Angeles Film
Critics Association award, a LAFCA award, a National Society of Film Critics
award, a Golden Satellite award and a Florida Film Critics Circle award for her
luminous supporting portrayal of porn star Amber Waves/Maggie in Paul Thomas
Anderson’s Boogie Nights (1997), a role that also garnered the actress her first
Oscar nomination.
On the small screen, Moore became famous while playing series regular Frannie
and her mirror image, British half-sister Sabrina, in the hit soap opera “As the
World Turns” (1985-88). Because of her bright acting, she took home a Daytime
Emmy award in 1988.
Recently starring with Samuel L. Jackson in the ill-received Freedomland (2006),
the nice-looking actress is scheduled to play roles in the forthcoming The
Children of Men (2006, starring with Clive Owen), Savage Grace (2006), I’m Not
There (2006), Next (2007) and Hateship, Friendship, Courtship (2007).
One of People Magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful People” (2001), Moore criticized
actresses who have cosmetic surgery to look younger. As for her private life,
she has been married three times. She was married to Sundar Chakravarthy from
1983-1985 and John Gould Rubin from 1986-1995 before eventually tying the knot
with her long-term lover, director/screenwriter Bart Freundlich in 2003. Moore
and Bart have two children, son Caleb Freundlich (born 1997) and daughter Liv
Helen Freundlich (born in 2002).
“It is the most wonderful experience of your life. It deepens absolutely
everything. You have a greater understanding of things, so in a way it is a
gift. For me it has made everything much better. I’m so happy; I am extremely
fortunate.” Julianne Moore on son Caleb and becoming a mother
Juli
Childhood and Family:
Born Julie Anne Smith, on December 3, 1961, in Fayetteville, North Carolina,
Julianne Moore had somewhat a traveling childhood. Daughter to Peter Moore
Smith, a military judge and army colonel, and Anne Smith, a Scottish immigrant
who worked as a psychiatrist and social worker, Julianne, whose nickname is Juli,
along with her younger siblings Peter Moore Smith and Valerie Smith, was raised
in countless places, including Panama, Germany and Alaska due to her dad’s
profession. She was educated at the American High School in Frankfurt, Germany,
and after graduation in 1979, she attended the School of Fine Arts at Boston
University, where she received a BFA degree in drama.
Julianne Moore has been married three times. She was married to Sundar
Chakravarthy in 1983, but they divorced two years later in 1985. After the
divorce, she married actor John Gould Rubin on May 3, 1986. They later divorced
on August 25, 1995. She currently is the wife of director/ screenwriter Bart
Freundlich and has two children with him, son Caleb Freundlich (born December 4,
1997) and daughter Liv Helen Freundlich (born April 11, 2002). The couple became
involved in 1996, a year after Julianne divorced her alienated husband Bart, and
finally tied the knot on August 23, 2003.
Boogie Nights
Career:
Frequent moves during her childhood forced Julianne Moore to adapt to new
friends and situations, which led to a love for acting. She began performing in
theater clubs and school plays and had decided to become an actress by the time
she graduated high school in 1979. Returning to the United States to attend
college, Moore began her stage career at Boston University where she was also
registered as a drama student. Upon completing her BFA degree in 1983, she made
her way to New York to give acting a more serious try.
After a stint as a waitress, Moore was discovered in numerous off-Broadway
theater productions, including playing Ophelia in “Hamlet” at the Guthrie
Theatre, and landed her first TV role in 1984 with a small role in the
long-running series “The Edge of Night.” Moore soon received her first
breakthrough when she joined the cast of the popular CBS daytime soap “As the
World Turns” (1985-88), which also launched the career of fellow thespians such
as Martin Sheen, Courteney Cox and Lauryn Hill. Playing the dual role of Frannie
and her look-a-like English half-sister Sabrina, Moore was so convincing that
she was garnered a 1988 Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Ingénue in a Drama Series.
After taking home the award, however, she departed the show to find more
challenging roles.
A string of TV work followed and she was seen in the primetime miniseries “I’ll
Take Manhattan” (1987) and television movies Money, Power, Murder (1989), The
Last to Go (1991) and Cast a Deadly Spell (1991). Moore had her first taste of
the big screen in the little-seen sLaughterhouse II (1988) and then appeared in
such forgettable features as Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990) and Body
of Evidence (1993), while also continuing to appear on stage. However, it was
her supporting turn as the real estate agent friend to Annabella Sciorra in the
surprise blockbuster hit thriller The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992) that
first put Moore in the mainstream.
She went on to build her reputation in the following years as a disbelieving
doctor in the wide screen version of The Fugitive (1993) and Matthew Modine’s
artist-wife Marian Wyman, who offered a confessional monologue while nude, in
Robert Altman’s Short Cuts (1993), wherein she picked up a Golden Globe and a
Venice Film Festival for Best Ensemble Cast. In 1994, she also won a Boston
Society of Film Critics for Best Actress for her bright portrayal of Yelena in
the art house hit Vanya on 42nd Street (1994). Moore’s rising star was further
confirmed with roles in several high-profile Hollywood movies such as the
romantic comedy Nine Months (1995, with Hugh Grant), the well-reviewed
independent Safe (1995) for director Paul Thomas Anderson, Assassins (1995),
Merchant-Ivory’s Surviving Picasso (1996), the Steven Spielberg blockbuster
smash The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) and Bart Freundlich’s The Myth of
Fingerprints (1997).
Moore cemented her position in 1997 with an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting
Actress as porn star Amber Waves/Maggie in the Paul Thomas Anderson-helmed
Boogie Nights. Her performance was widely praised and she won many awards,
including a Los Angeles Film Critics Association, a LAFCA, a National Society of
Film Critics, a Golden Satellite and a Florida Film Critics Circle for Best
Supporting Actress. In addition, she also earned a Golden Globe and a Screen
Actors Guild nomination.
An in-demand actress, Moore next worked with the Coen brothers for The Big
Lebowski (1998), appeared as a distraught woman in Chicago Cab (1998) and
stepped into Vera Miles’ shoes as Lila Crane in Gus Van Sant’s shot-for-shot
color remake of Psycho (1998).
1999 marked Moore’s busiest year with five different movies in the works. She
was first cast as quirky Southerner Cora Duvall, opposite Glenn Close, in
Altman’s Cookie’s Fortune, in which she won a Dallas-Forth Worth Film Critics
Association award for Best Supporting Actress. She was next seen as Mrs. Laura
Cheveley in the Oliver Parker film version of Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband. In
A Map of the World, Moore showcased her adaptability as a nearly-virtuous mother
whose child passes away while in the care of her best friend. Rejoining director
Paul Thomas Anderson in Magnolia, Moore was impressive as the pill-popping prize
wife of a dying TV executive and was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild in the
categories of Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role and
Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Theatrical Motion Picture. Moreover, her
dazzling performances in these four films won the actress a 1999 National Board
of Review. For her fine performance as the devout British wife who enters in a
false relationship with a writer (Ralph Fiennes) in Neil Jordan’s excellent
adaptation of the Graham Greene novel, The End of the Affair, Moore received a
first Best Actress Academy Award nomination, as well as a BAFTA, a Golden Globe
and a Screen Actors Guild nomination.
Although she was extensively appreciated by audiences and critics alike, Moore
had to deal with a career disappointment a year after the new millennium
arrived. She played FBI agent Clarice Starling in the universally panned sequel
Hannibal (2001) and Dr. Allison Reed in the likewise unsuccessful sci-fi comedy
film Evolution (2001, opposite David Duchovny), as well as Wavey Prowse in the
commercial failure The Shipping News (2001, with Kevin Spacey).
However, Moore bounced back in the following year with her high-profile starring
turn in the Todd Haynes-helmed drama-romance Far From Heaven. As Cathy Whitaker,
a deserted 1950s housewife who turns to her black gardener for comfort after
finding her husband (Dennis Quaid) in bed with another man, Moore was so
spectacular that she netted countless awards such as a Venice Film Festival, a
National Board of Review, a Los Angeles Film Critics Association, a Vancouver
Film Critics Circle, a Kansas City Film Critics Circle, an Independent Spirit, a
Florida Film Critics Circle, a Dallas-Forth Worth Film Critics Association, a
Critics’ Choice, a Chicago Film Critics Association, a Broadcast Film Critics
Association and a Toronto Film Critics Association for Best Actress, and a 2004
London Critics Circle Film for Actress of the Year. Additionally, the role
brought her a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild nomination, as well as her
next Oscar nomination. Moore gave additional proof she was back in the saddle
again with her Academy Award nominating performance as one third of a dynamic
trio, opposite Nicole Kidman and Meryl Streep, Texas housewife Laura Brown in
director Stephen Daldry’s The Hours (2002), based on Michael Cunningham’s
Pulitzer-winning novel. Due to her marvelous acting, she nabbed a 2004 Sant
Jordi for Best Foreign Actress and a 2003 Berlin International Film Festival for
Best Actress.
After a two year hiatus, Moore returned to acting in Marie and Bruce (2004),
followed by roles in the uninspired, little-seen Laws of Attraction (2004, with
Pierce Brosnan), the moody, mysterious thriller The Forgotten (2004), Trust the
Man (2005) and Jane Anderson’s The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio (2005), a true
story of Evelyn Ryan, the mother of twelve who keeps her bankrupt household
buoyant by entering and winning jingle contests.
Recently, she starred with Samuel L. Jackson in the mixed reviews film
Freedomland (2006). The 45-year-old actress will soon play Julian, a pregnant
woman, in the sci-fi flick The Children of Men (2006, starring with Clive Owen),
and is set to play roles in the upcoming Savage Grace (2006), I’m Not There
(2006), Next (2007) and Hateship, Friendship, Courtship (2007).
Awards:
- GLAAD Media Excellence in Media Award, 2004
- Sant Jordi: Best Foreign Actress, The Hours, 2004
- Berlin International Film Festival: Best Actress, The Hours, 2003
- London Critics Circle Film: Actress of the Year, Far From Heaven, 2004
- Broadcast Film Critics Association: Best Actress, Far From Heaven, 2003
- Chicago Film Critics Association: Best Actress, Far From Heaven, 2003
- Critics’ Choice: Best Actress, Far From Heaven, 2003
- Dallas-Forth Worth Film Critics Association: Best Actress, Far From
Heaven, 2003
- Florida Film Critics Circle: Best Actress, Far From Heaven, 2003
- Independent Spirit: Best Female Lead, Far From Heaven, 2003
- Kansas City Film Critics Circle: Best Actress, Far From Heaven, 2003
- Online Film Critics Society: Best Actress, Far From Heaven, 2003
- Vancouver Film Critics Circle: Best Actress, Far From Heaven, 2003
- Gotham: Actor Award, 2002
- Los Angeles Film Critics Association: Best Actress, Far From Heaven,
2002
- National Board of Review: Best Actress, Far From Heaven, 2002
- San Diego Film Critics Society: Best Actress, Far From Heaven, 2002
- Seattle Film Critics: Best Actress, Far From Heaven, 2002
- Southeastern Film Critics Association: Best Actress, Far From Heaven,
2002
- Toronto Film Critics Association: Best Performance - Female, Far From
Heaven, 2002
- Venice Film Festival: Best Actress, Far From Heaven, 2002
- Venice Film Festival: Volpi Cup - Best Actress, Far From Heaven, 2002
- Sundance Film Festival: Tribute to Independent Vision Award, 2001
- Dallas-Forth Worth Film Critics Association: Best Supporting Actress,
Cookie’s Fortune, 2000
- National Board of Review: Best Ensemble Performance, Magnolia, 1999
- National Board of Review: Best Supporting Actress, Magnolia, An Ideal
Husband, Cookie's Fortune and A Map of the World, 1999
- Florida Film Critics Circle: Best Supporting Actress, Boogie Nights,
1998
- Golden Satellite: Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in
a Motion Picture - Drama, Boogie Nights, 1998
- National Society of Film Critics: Best Supporting Actress, Boogie
Nights, 1998
- LAFCA: Boogie Nights, 1997
- Los Angeles Film Critics Association: Best Supporting Actress, Boogie
Nights, 1997
- Boston Society of Film Critics: Best Actress, Vanya on 42nd Street, 1994
- Golden Globe: Best Ensemble Cast, Short Cuts, 1994
- Venice Film Festival: Best Ensemble Cast, Short Cuts, 1993
- Daytime Emmy: Outstanding Ingenue in a Drama Series, As the World Turns,
1988
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