The 2000 cult classic movie Julianne Moore quit at the last minute: “Adds a lot of class to the project”
Julianne Moore‘s talents were evident to anyone who had caught up with the films that she made with Todd Haynes, but it wasn’t until the latter half of the 1990s that she ended up getting the attention that she deserved.
Despite having smaller roles in commercial films like The Hand That Rocked The Cradle and The Lost World: Jurassic Park, her popularity skyrocketed when she earned an Academy Award nomination for ‘Best Supporting Actress’ in the Paul Thomas Anderson film Boogie Nights.
The two would collaborate again in 1999’s Magnolia, which, although well received, was absolutely dwarfed in popularity by a smash sensation from writer/director M Night Shyamalan that had seemingly come out of nowhere. Even with two prior directing credits on smaller films, The Sixth Sense was the one that announced him as a major filmmaker who could tell high-concept, intelligent genre stories in a manner that appeased critics and audiences, to the point where it seemed his involvement in a project made it worthy of being sought out.
Given Moore’s reputation for professionalism, she was able to land a part in his new film, Unbreakable, for the role of Audrey Dunn, who learns that her husband David (played by Bruce Willis) might have superpowers, and Shyamalan spoke highly of her before the film went into production.
“Julianne is on a very short list of naturalistic actresses working in the business,” he told The Guardian, “She is able to emote and really connect with audiences, and will be a great match with Bruce. Julianne adds a lot of class to the project.”
However, despite the initial announcement, Moore was forced to drop out of Unbreakable when she officially signed on to play Clarice Starling in Hannibal, the sequel to the ‘Best Picture’ winner The Silence of the Lambs. Both the original Clarice actress, Jodie Foster, and director Jonathan Demme had turned down the opportunity to do the sequel, but Anthony Hopkins agreed, so Ridley Scott took over as director and selected Moore to play the brilliant FBI agent.
Her Unbreakable role was recast with Robin Wright, another highly respected actor, who’s also part of Shyamalan’s book of admirable names. The two films seemed to be antithetical to each other in terms of success and performance, wherein Unbreakable was a box office flop that earned strong reviews and was claimed as a cult classic in the years to come, and Hannibal was one of the most successful films of 2001 that most agreed that it was a significant step down from The Silence of the Lambs.
Worst of all, many critics singled out Moore’s performance as being the weakest aspect of the film, as she simply couldn’t fill the shoes of the role that Foster had made so iconic.
Hannibal didn’t end up harming Moore’s career too badly, as she went on to receive several more Oscar nominations, including a ‘Best Actress’ win for Still Alice, but Unbreakable became so beloved that Shyamalan was able to continue its story with the film Split, which took place in the same universe, and combined both of their characters in the crossover project Glass. Wright did not reprise her role in Split or Glass, so perhaps Moore didn’t miss out on too many possibilities.
