The comedy works well, says Moore, because
it is authentic. ‘I think marriage is really hard. My husband and I have been
together for 15 years, which is hard for me to believe.’
She shakes her head. ‘We talk about having
to make an effort, go away together, do something different. But you have jobs
and kids and the roof is leaking and then some thing breaks in the basement and
then the dog has got some horrible virus and you suddenly think: this is what
my life has become.’
Her
husband, filmmaker Bart Freundlich
Crazy Stupid Love doesn’t senti-mentalise
sex or relationships — though the notion of soul mates lies at the heart of the
film. Moore is ambivalent on the subject. ‘It’s rare to fall in love, and so
when it does happen it’s a pretty big event. How many of your single girl
friends say, “T can’t meet anybody”? On the other hand, marriage is about the
accumulation of time, an investment in each other and your children, not just
the romantic part.’
But, she adds, ‘I am not saying that unhappy
people shouldn’t split up. I was divorced. I got married too early and I really
didn’t want to be there,’ says Moore of her marriage to actor John Gould Rubin
— they separated in 1994. She met her current husband, Bart Freundlich, on the
set of his film The Myth of Fingerprints in 1996. ‘You have to want to be
married.’
She reminds me of a moment in The End of
the Affair. Her character, Sarah, is married to Stephen Rca and has an affair
with Ralph Fiennes. ‘When Sarah dies, Ralph talks to Stephen about how hard it
is for him. He says, “She could shop and eat and cook with you but she could
only make love with me.” They were in love, but the relationship was incomplete
because they couldn’t share their lives. I was really struck by that.’
Family life in Manhattan, while obviously
privileged, is ‘normal and pretty pedestrian’, maintains Moore. ‘Our son is now
1141. You’ve got to hold your breath and see how they turn out, haven’t you?
I’ve tried not to be invasive — not to sit peering over him reading his texts.
But we do a little “lurking” on Facebook,’ she confesses with a mock-guilty
smile.
Moore says her biggest extra vagance is
travel. ‘We went to Paris with the children for my 50th birthday. We
took a safari in South Africa [two years ago]. When I grew up we didn’t take
holidays. We didn’t even ask that question. We knew we were just going to stay
home and watch television.’
After Crazy Stupid Love came Gaine Chaizge.
‘It involved a tremendous amount of research. My son made fun of me because I
played nothing but Sarah Palm speeches on my iPod, says Moore.
She has not met the controversial
Republican politician. ‘I am never going to be completely comfortable playing a
living person who is almost iconic and very present in people’s minds. I hope
we pulled it off,’ says Moore (an avowed sup porter of President Obama).
Currently, she’s to be seen opposite Robert
de Niro in Being Flynn. Next up is The English Teacher, and then fantasy film
The Seventh Son with Jeff Bridges. She’s also writing another children’s book
dedicated to her mother, My Morn is a Foreigner, ‘about the experience of
having a mother from another country — because so many people do nowadays’.
‘I
am never going to be completely comfortable playing a living person who is
almost iconic and very present in people’s minds. I hope we pulled it off,’
‘Freud says you need work and love, and if
you don’t have one or the other you’re completely out of eat and cook with you
but she could balance,’ says the actress before departing. What’s wonderful, of
course, is when you have both. ‘The best time for me is when Fin with my
family, not working but knowing I’m about to do a job.’
Does she honestly still worry about getting
work? ‘There are always times when it’s stressful and you feel like, “I haven’t
had a job for a while.” I don’t want to fall into that ditch of not working. So
I just try to look straight ahead and hope that the jobs keep coming.’ You get
the sense that even that long awaited Oscar wouldn’t turn Julianne Moore’s
head.
