When I meet Julianne Moore, I immediately fall in love with what she is wearing (a gauzy black-and-white Isabel Marant dress), especially her shoes -- a funky pair of black rubber gladiators by Kirna Zabête ("My kids hate them") -- and I make a point of telling her. A week later, Moore appeared in People magazine wearing the very same outfit I'd admired (the photograph dated the day of our meeting), with the words "What was she thinking?" splayed across her picture. We both had a good laugh about it (I told her in a subsequent phone conversation; Moore doesn't read People), but that single-sentence judgment speaks volumes about how anti-individual Hollywood is, and what an extraordinary achievement it is to cultivate your own personal style in an industry where individuality and a subway token will get you a job at Coffee Shop in Union Square ... maybe.
"I like a big shoe," Moore says, adding after I concur, "I think it has to do with being small women -- we need that base." It's heartening to hear this from such a misleadingly delicate woman, who stands all of 5'5," and it also somehow makes instant sense, as if her enormous range and bold, otherworldly talent as an actress really just comes down to a big shoe that serves as the base from which she deploys her mighty skill.
We're here to talk about her new film Blindness, based on the achingly bleak, deeply austere novel by José Saramago, in which an entire city goes blind save for one woman, played in the film by Moore. The New York-based actress has appeared in well over a dozen book-to-film adaptations, including The End of the Affair, The Hours (which earned her one of her four Oscar nominations), and Children of Men. It's a medium that suits her -- an avid reader and lover of words, Moore says she feels lucky to have done what she considers some of her finest work in films that have been adapted from books. And although she goes through several books and scripts a week, she actually wasn't familiar with Blindness when the script first came her way. "I didn't know the book," says Moore, "which was kind of unusual for me." She found the script dark but refreshing: "It wasn't another one of those fucking coming-of-age stories, which I can't bear anymore." Drawn to the unclear boundaries and nontraditional structure of the plot, Moore happily signed on.
Dress by Calvin Klein and necklace by Lanvin.
Makeup: M.A.C Multi-Purpose Glitter, CoverGirl Lash Blast Mascara in
Very Black and Chanel Rouge Double Intensité Ultra-Wear Lipcolor in Nude
Topaz. Fragrance: Dsquared2 She Wood.
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