Julianne Moore talks about achieving success in both personal and professional fields
You are being appreciated for Seventh Son. What’s the character likeIJ
I’m the head witch and Gregory’s nemesis, someone with whom he has a history. I’m terribly wicked but only because we witches have been persecuted for centuries by humans, hunted down and tortured. She’s angry because somebody put her in a hole a long time ago. She’s not called Mother Malkin because I’m anybody’s mother, it’s because she used to lure pregnant young women with no place to go with the promise that she would take care of them and their babies and then drank babies’ blood. It made her more powerful. I had never played a wicked witch before. I thought it would be fun.
What was it like to re-unite with Jeff BridgesIJ
Jeff’s wonderful to hang around with and as an actor and human being, he’s endlessly creative, thoughtful and curious in the world around him. To be able to work with somebody as skilled, as present and as talented as he is, is a real pleasure.
What motivates you to choose such unusual rolesIJ
I like acting, story and narrative. I like the process of being in movies. I like being in movies more than I like watching them. Contrary to what people might say, I don’t make a point of going for ‘difficult’ parts. I’ve just tried to vary things as much as possible. I felt I’ve learnt something. But then I’ve always felt that you’ve got to try to take the most from everything in life. It’s a bit like when actors say to me that they can’t get certain types of parts. I always tell them, ‘You can never say to yourself, “I’m just doing this movie because it will be good for my career.”’ That’s awful. Of course, I’ve done things that I haven’t liked, but I’ve always tried to learn from them. I’ve thought, ‘Well, now I know. I won’t do that again.’
At this point in my career, that part is always pretty fluid. Certainly on this, we had a lot of discussion about how to point up my character’s contradictions, how to make her both funny and mysterious. What I really liked was that she has a foot in both camps.
How do you balance your professional and personal lifeIJ
If ever I do a film that’s a long way from home, we schedule it for the summertime and the rest of the family comes with me. Other than that, I’m never away for more than a week. If someone says to me, ‘Will do you this film in HungaryIJ’ I just go, ‘Sorry — if you can move it to New Jersey, then maybe it will work.’
looking back at a flourishing career and a happy family life, do you feel like you’ve managed to have it allIJ
You know, I’m very aware of how lucky I am. It may be a pretty crazy life at times, but it’s a very privileged one — being able to earn a good living doing what you love. Not many people have such an opportunity. And sitting in a smart hotel room talking about yourself, that’s not too bad either.