Julianne Moore

Interview By: Andrea Tuccillo
AndreaTuccillo@TheCinemaSource.com

When your husband writes and directs a romantic comedy, it's probably best that you star in it'that is, if you're Julianne Moore, of course. Her husband Bart Freundlich's film, Trust the Man takes a glimpse into the lives of two New York couples and how they attempt to navigate their messy relationships. Moore plays a successful actress in the film (no stretch there) whose husband is a stay at home dad played by David Duchovny. The flame-haired, porcelain-skinned Moore is animated and talkative, and seems genuinely excited about this new comedic role, a departure from some of the more dramatic turns in which audiences may be accustomed to seeing her.

'You have a different energy when you're working on a comedy,' Moore says. 'It can be just as difficult, sometimes more difficult, because there's a rhythm to it but it's a nice challenge to have. Nobody wants to work in the same vein all the time so it's nice to do something different.'

Trust the Man also gave this proud mother and wife the opportunity to stay close to home. Filmed entirely in Moore's home city of New York, Trust the Man allowed both Moore and Freundlich to continue their normal family life. Balancing work and home is always challenging but Moore and her husband managed to handle it with minimal stress.

'On one hand it was great not to have to go anywhere and not to have to be anywhere on location and not to disrupt your lives at all,' Moore says. 'Our kids continued to do the same things they always do. My schedule wasn't terrible, it was Bart's schedule that was terrible because he was there all the time. On the other hand, both of us were involved in the movie and it was kind of a little crunchy around the house, like how do we get this done, how do we get that done''

Things may have been busy for the couple at times, but working together on set was hardly a chore.

'He's very sensitive in terms of how to direct me,' Moore says. 'He knows me very well he knows what I respond to. I think we're very attuned to each other. There might be times where it's hard for us because I know how he's feeling even if he's not showing it. I can see that he's tense because I know him very well and the same goes for me. But I think for the most part we do really well and really enjoy it.'

Moore adds: 'It's weird though because you do automatically switch into a more professional way of behaving simply because you're working but I trust him implicitly and always feel good about it. I don't criticize or say 'I would never do that!' I mean he wrote it, that's how it is. I still approach the script in the same way I would approach any other script.'

Having your husband write and direct a movie also means inevitably getting some actual experiences from your own life thrown into the film. For Moore, the scene in which her character chokes on a piece of chocolate cake was actually based on a time when Moore had a similar experience. She choked on a piece of coconut cake around the time of the Golden Globe Awards.

'I was so nervous so I kept sucking it in and then I choked on it!' Moore recalls with a laugh. 'So that was the basis of the whole choking [scene]. It's such a consummate actor's moment to be choking on a piece of cake in an evening gown because you're nervous and you haven't been eating much. So we put that in there.'

In addition to being influenced by real life, Trust the Man was personal to Moore in other ways. Moore and Freundlich got close family and friends to all make brief appearances in the film. Moore's parents and in-laws pop up in certain scenes, as well as her young son and daughter. Her son Cal even had the fun task of kicking Duchovny's character in the crotch!

It is certainly evident that Moore cherishes family and her normal home life proves that this Oscar-nominated actress keeps her feet firmly planted on the ground. Next up for the luminous Moore is an independent film directed by Tom Kalin called Savage Grace. Currently in production, the film is based on a book about Barbara Baekeland, heir to her husband's Bakelite fortune and American ex-patriot.

'She was murdered by her son in 1972,' Moore explains. 'The movie takes place between 1946 and 1972. It's all true and it's really interesting.'

But until her next body of work is complete she is perfectly content supporting her husband's film and the message that it seeks to impart.

'There's an element of fantasy to the movie particularly with the way that it ends,' she says. 'It's about how a man can prove to be a hero in his own life and how there can be a happy ending. That's something we all sort of strive for in our families too.'

With Moore's own priorities in check, a happy ending doesn't seem so far off.