Julianne Moore loves life at almost 50. Here, she talks to Elaine Lipworth about family, career, Botox and getting older – plus her latest film, The Kids Are All Right, a family drama in which she plays a lesbian parent opposite Annette Bening.
It’s 8 o’clock on a Sunday morning and Julianne Moore is exuberant when she arrives for our breakfast meeting at an LA hotel, to discuss her new film, The Kids Are All Right. It’s an unearthly hour to be looking presentable – let alone glamorous – but she looks beautiful, dressed in a floaty silk bottle-green top over narrow cargo pants and towering cage sandals.
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Julianne turns 50 later this year, but she looks a decade younger – her glossy trademark red hair swept up into a high ponytail, drawing attention to her high cheekbones and creamy complexion. She has few lines and there are no signs of Botox, either. When she smiles, which is almost constantly, her forehead moves.
Julianne seems to be genuinely happy and philosophical about the prospect of approaching a milestone that would fill most actresses (most women, for that matter) with dread. “December 3rd, I will be 50, yeah,” says Julianne, beaming, when I tentatively broach the subject. “The fact that I have a family and career I love is great. Having a family was really urgent to me and I wanted to be an actor.
“Fifty is an interesting place to be. Middle age is about having more of your life behind you than you have ahead of you, so you kind of have to go, ‘Wow!’. I think you’re really conscious about your mortality. Now, just to warn you, I am going to get really maudlin here. Our life expectancy is what… 80?”
I pull a face at this point, telling her that I am already over 50. “Sorry,” she says, laughing, cheerfully continuing, “So that means you’re lucky if you have 30 years left. Women in their early 40s talk about how they’re not middle-aged. How long are they expecting to live? If you’re lucky, you get to live to your 80s. If you’re unlucky, like my mother, you don’t.” Julianne’s mother, Ann, died last April, when she was only 68, and the actress has clearly decided to live her own life to the full.
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Married to her second husband, director Bart Freundlich, Julianne has two children, 12-year-old son Caleb and eight-year-old daughter Liv. She radiates optimism, which is understandable. One of a handful of actresses over 40 who is constantly in demand, her highly acclaimed films include Boogie Nights, Robert Altman’s Short Cuts, The End Of The Affair, Far From Heaven and A Single Man. She has been nominated for Oscars four times and there is already talk of another nomination for her latest film.
Critics in the US have all praised The Kids Are All Right, a riveting, poignant and very funny story about a middle-aged lesbian couple. Julianne gives an extraordinary performance as an unfulfilled mother, while her co-star, Annette Bening, is equally formidable in her role as a doctor, the traditional and controlling breadwinner in the family. The women have two teenagers who decide to track down their biological father (played by Mark Ruffalo) – their mothers’ sperm donor. They meet him, become friends and the lives of the entire family are turned upside down, with dramatic and unexpected consequences.
Your say: What is your favourite Julianne Moore film? Will you go and see The Kids Are All Right? Share with us below.
Read more of this story in the September issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
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