close
Instep Today

Julianne Moore talks about the power of film and her passion for story

By Instep Desk
Tue, 07, 19

The actress shared her thoughts at the 54th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, where she was promoting her latest film, After the Wedding.

Oscar-winning actress Julianne Moore was present at the 54th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, which kick started on June 28 and will continue till July 6, 2019, where she was promoting her latest film, After the Wedding, alongside the film’s director and her husband Bart Freundlich, and co-star Billy Crudup.

At the opening ceremony of the festival, the actress received the Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema.

Moore’s latest film, After The Wedding, that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, opened the 54th edition of Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

The actress spoke movingly about commemorations at the opening ceremony on the 30th anniversary of the former Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution, which put an end to communist rule.

“It’s important to keep reiterating that history so people understand what it was like for people to live in such a regime. It’s easy to forget,” she said. “And I think now, historically, when we are feeling like there’s lots of hostility and lots of unrest, it’s important for us all to remind ourselves of what was very recent history, in order for it to not repeat itself.”

She added: “When you have physical distance, and things that you don’t understand, it’s very hard to have empathy, unless you see it, unless you know it. And one of the ways to learn about it is through film.”

Speaking at a press conference in the Bohemian spa town’s Hotel Thermal, Moore praised the power of film to promote empathy and warned against the danger of history repeating itself. She further reflected on the ability of film to bridge physical distances and political divides.

After the Wedding is a remake of Bird Box director Susanne Bier’s Oscar-nominated Danish-language movie and marks the fourth collaboration between Moore and Freundlich. This is Moore’s first as a producer.

“At the beginning of your career, as a young actor, you don’t care what you do, because you just want to have a job. You do whatever’s available,” Moore said. “You just keep taking one step after another to grow your career. I’ve always felt that it’s my responsibility to find [great roles], to seek them out, to find the directors I want to work with. Right now, for the first time, I’m starting to develop material for myself.”

When asked at what point in her career she began to have control over her creative choices, Moore laughed. “How about never?” she said. “I would like to think that there’s sort of a trajectory that we can all follow, where you’re like, ‘Now it’s okay’. I don’t know that any of us feels that way. I think particularly when you’re a freelancer, as all of us are you really just go from job to job. Once a job finishes, you feel like you’re kind of back at zero. Now it’s time to find something else and work on that.”

Moore went on to share that she was one of those kids who wasn’t athletic and didn’t have a lot of hobbies. “I liked to pretend, and I liked to read. And I didn’t think those two things would lead me anywhere professionally,” she said. “But when I started doing plays after school… I felt like I was inside the book. And I still feel that way when I make a film: I feel like I crawl inside the story. I always tell our children, ‘Follow your interests, because you don’t know where they’ll lead you’. I never imagined that my interest in language and story would lead me to cinema. And it has.”