Monday, January 12, 2015

Julianne Moore Will Break Your Heart in Still Alice

Golden Globe Winner Julianne Moore on Still Alice

Still Alice opens in the US January 16th and Canada January 23rd
alice2Julianne Moore  in Still Alice
Still Alice’ Julianne Moore won the Golden Globe Best Actress in a Drama award this past Sunday, for taking a journey no other actress has taken.  She plays a 55 year old college linguistics professor diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease and the film follows Alice’ descent into the disease, from simply forgetting words and where she left things, to full blown incapacity.  She loses her words, her ability to communicate and as Moore told us, her sense of who she is.   It’s a devastating portrait of a woman who won’t get well.  The film looks at her responses and her husband’s (Alec Baldwin) and her three children, only one of which steps up to the plate to care for her (Kristen Stewart).  As difficult as it is to watch, Moore’s performance as the vulnerable, confused Alice is a miracle.   We spoke with Moore at the Toronto International Film Festival where the film debuted last fall.
Did you have any fears about dealing with Alice’ story?
I didn’t feel fear. I was fascinated by it; it was something I didn’t have a lot of information about.  What’s interesting is how many people have a deathly fear of this disease and how little information and understanding there is.  It was fascinating to explore this population and talk to the women I met, the clinicians and researchers and the Alzheimer’s Association workers.  It’s a big issue increasing as people are living longer, and it’s more prevalent. It was often misdiagnosed as a condition of ageing when it’s not, it’s a disease.
You spent time with early onset Alzheimer’s patients who was inspiring, but was it at all depressing?
No. I loved working every day.  We worked really, really hard. I love working with Alec Baldwin who has so much heart and soul and chemistry.  It felt like a real marriage. That scene where we have to go to hospital and he helps me put my pants on, that’s what you see, that’s the kind of caregiving you see people doing for one another.  You see this great big man you realise what he’s been living with and what he’s been doing for her and what he’s taken on.  And Kristen Stewart is so extraordinary and has so much compassion in her performance. It was lovely.
alice and kristenKristen Stewart and Julianne Moore
Was it difficult keeping track of how far she deteriorates for continuity?
Hell yah. That’s really hard because for one thing, we were not always shooting in sequence.  They did the best they could but I played the end of the movie when we were halfway through the film. The running at the beginning we shot at the very end.  It was mixed up so (we were) keeping track of where she was and subtly noting her decline,  ....


Read more at  Monsters and Critics

No comments:

Post a Comment