The one movie scene Julianne Moore “hated” filming
The film career of Julianne Moore is one of the most impressive in the film industry, and she’s well regarded by her peers and by cinema fans alike for her brilliant portrayals of emotionally disturbed women in many independent movies as well as a handful of box-office smash hit blockbusters.
Over the years, Moore has starred for the likes of Todd Haynes in Safe, Robert Altman in Short Cuts, Steven Spielberg in The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Paul Thomas Anderson in Magnolia and Boogie Nights and the Coen brothers in The Big Lebowski, showing that she’s one of the most sought after actors in Hollywood.
While Moore has worked with some of the most significant filmmakers in the industry, she was also once afforded the rare opportunity of performing for her husband, the American director Bart Freundlich, in the 2019 drama After the Wedding, based on the 2006 Susanne Bier film of the same name.
After the Wedding tells of an Indian orphanage co-founder, Isabel Andersen, played by Michelle Williams, who travels to New York for a meeting with a prospective benefactor, the wealthy CEO Theresa Young, played by Moore, who delivers yet another impressive character study to her ever increasingly brilliant filmography.
But, of course, the fact that Moore’s husband directed the movie threw up its own set of challenges, particularly when a sex scene was thrown into the mix. It looks as though Moore had a rather difficult time getting intimate with another actor, with her husband looking on from the director’s chair.
In fact, upon reflecting, Moore “didn’t like” being in the movie at all, mostly because she “hated” having to film the aforementioned sex scene, also noting that Freundlich also found it rather difficult to watch. In an interview with the Evening Standard, Moore once said, “I hated it! I was like, ‘Why do we have to do this?’ But I don’t really like to do it with anybody”.
Moore has tonnes of experience to her name, having been adorned with an Academy Award, a Bafta, two Golden Globes and two Emmys and starred in so many excellent movies of varying narratives and production methods, but it looks as though performing a sex scene in front of husband might have been too much to bear.
Moore went on to explain how Freundlich would rather have his wife perform in a sex scene in his own film rather than someone else’s, though, adding, “He doesn’t like seeing me do it in a movie either, but I think it’s not as hard when it’s his movie”. So, at least that particular burden was eased somewhat.
While Moore was certainly made to feel uncomfortable with the After the Wedding scene in question, she still admires the character she portrayed, noting, “Theresa’s someone I’ve seen a lot in real life. I’ve seen women who have built big lives for themselves — they have big careers, and they have families, too. But I don’t feel like that representation is out there.”
