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‘Far From Heaven‘ Interview with Todd Haynes and Julianne Moore
www.mymovies.net

Director Todd Haynes and Oscar nominated star Julianne Moore discuss their new movie ‘Far From Heaven‘ at its recent London press conference

Q: Is this the film Douglas Sirk would like to have made?

Todd Haynes: It‘s a wonderful projection to make and an impossible one at the same time. When his book ‘Sirk on Sirk‘ was republished in its complete form after Rock Hudson died and was able to talk about Hudson‘s sexuality; it‘s a nice edition, Jonathan Demme does an introduction of the John Holloway interviews from 1971. He talks about a story of a gay man; the struggle a gay man goes through in coming out that he wished he could of made in the fifties but he couldn‘t at the time, so perhaps it was a theme that not only interested him intellectually but was something he found himself in the midst of in real life.

Q: Did you have qualms with portraying two fifties American women within a short space of time?

Julianne Moore: The fifties thing has been an unfortunate co–incidence for me because they were very far apart; I shot one at the beginning of the year and one at the end of the year and initially in the novel that segment in ‘The Hours‘ takes place in 1948. They simply moved it to 1952 in order to accentuate that period of American post war opulence and optimism. So the fifties thing is a bizarre coincidence and it wasn‘t important to me as an actor because they‘re both extremely different pieces. The other thing about ‘Far From Heaven‘ is that it‘s not a movie about the fifties; it‘s a movie made in the style of a particular kind of film, these [Douglas] Sirk films, so it‘s not commenting on a particular decade of American history, it‘s just a kind of filmmaking.

Q: How long was this project in the planning?

TH: I wish I could locate that moment of absolute decision to do this because I love the Sirk films and have been carrying them around in my head ever since that first moment in college and Julianne reminds me of the time I brought them up to her.

JM: In 1994. We were doing the looping for ‘Safe‘ and I was shooting ‘Nine Months‘ in San Francisco and we took a break to go for lunch and we were walking down this street and Doug said to me "Do you know who Douglas Sirk is?" and I said no and he rattled off a list of Sirk movies that I‘d seen on TV and that was the last time he mentioned it to me until he called me to tell me he‘d written a script so it‘s really funny you realise this idea was germinating for such a long time.

TH: I don‘t remember that but I didn‘t say I‘d like to do a film like that.

JM: No, but you just said "Do you know who Douglas Sirk is?" That‘s all you said!

TH: Yeah, but they‘re beautiful films and very specific films in the history of films about women in domestic environments and repressive settings, but during ‘Safe‘ I guess it was on my mind during production or post–production. I thought that after taking a little break I‘d get back to a project and maybe do that melodrama; try and really get inside the Sirkian world of melodrama and it was blatantly an incentive to work with Julianne. I wrote the script completely with Julianne in mind, which I don‘t usually do or like to do because it‘s scary to think of a specific actor, but when you think of Julianne Moore you can‘t think of a specific face, a single dominant face; there‘s something completely unfixed about imagining her in a role because there‘s no consistency that I see from performance to performance. It‘s freeing for a writer to think of someone like Julie.

Q: Was your reaction immediate?

JM: Todd called me and I thought it was just to say hello! So he called me and asked if he could send me the script that he wrote, would I look at it? I was so excited and he faxed it so I read it on the Subway and called back and we were in production the following year. It‘s interesting because what you said about writing for someone; I am often uncomfortable when someone writes for me because when people write to what they feel your strengths are you lose the tension between yourself and the writing, yourself and the character because a character happens somewhere in–between but Todd doesn‘t do that; I didn‘t feel that when I was reading it he wrote to the things that he knew I could do, that‘s why it was such a great gift that he wrote this beautiful, full embodied character that I would be lucky to play.

TH: It was huge assignment that I got all of us to undertake; it was a risk and an experiment, absolutely.

Q: Which one of your characters from ‘The Hours‘ and ‘Far From Heaven‘ are you most like?

JM: Neither I think! It‘s interesting because we were at the Venice Film Festival and someone said "Was it hard to play Cathy [Moore‘s character in ‘Far From Heaven‘], how did it feel?" but I found her to be amazingly uplifting and there‘s something marvellously utopian about Cathy; there‘s that optimism and that positively that she has; that idea that she can really change the world, just in the way she looks at it and I love that about her. She‘s a realist and she‘s almost like this idea of American optimism and once we were like that but now we‘re not as much anymore. It‘s a very timely character in a sense she completely changes her view of the world but her sense of herself doesn‘t change. I found that character very easy to play. Laura [Moore‘s character in ‘The Hours‘] by contrast is somebody who is not even present in the world that she‘s living in and doesn‘t want to be; she wants to be in the book, she doesn‘t want to be in her life. That was a very difficult, very tenuous kind of existence and she chooses life but I think at great cost.

Q: What‘s it feel like to be Oscar nominated in the same year for two different movies?

JM: As my mother said, never look a gift horse in the mouth; any time you get a nomination it‘s so exciting and it doesn‘t change, the analogy that I use for awards is it‘s like having your second child; it‘s different because you have some kind of experience but it doesn‘t make it any less exciting or meaningful, it‘s still thrilling. I have to say that given my relationship with Todd and that this has been such an important project for us personally as friends it would mean a tremendous amount if I won an Oscar for ‘Far From Heaven‘. It‘s a personal project so it‘s very meaningful.

Q: And you‘re nominated for best original screenplay… What‘s it feel like?

TH: It‘s a strange out–of–body experience. It‘s easier for me to concentrate on Julianne and Elmer Bernstein who was nominated for best score. This whole reception for ‘Far From Heaven‘ is very unlike anything I‘ve ever experienced for films so the Oscar part of it is just as surreal and wonderful, it‘s really an honour.

Q: Does it feel like you‘ve been embraced by the establishment and directors you admire?

TH: Yes, absolutely. Also this year was very interesting. There were a lot of interesting films in the critical spotlight and a lot of younger directors whose work has been acknowledged alongside Scorsese and people I‘ve admired for years. It was very nice to be in that company. Going to award shows; it‘s not competitive at all, you feel like you‘re part of a real fraternity of craftspeople, artisans and creative people you keep checking in with and I don‘t feel any competitiveness with Alexandra Payne or Spike Jonze; it seems Scorsese and him love ‘Far From Heaven‘. It‘s been very nice.

Q: How hard did you work to give the film that fifties aesthetic?

TH: I‘d love to go with the documentary; it‘s such an embrace of the beautiful artifice that‘s part of cinema but we really get past that and allow those forms, those styles which ultimately form the dramaticness of part of the film and I think that was the key to it; always knowing what purpose the stylistic experience was serving and what it was all about. It‘s almost like the best love stories are the ones where the love is almost too big for the characters to handle and so it spills out into the music, the costumes, the colour, it fills the whole cinematic experience, which then becomes part of your experience watching it. I can safely say I made excellent choices in the people I put around me in this film but the performances were ultimately that burden of translating from a stylistic experiment to something truly genuine.

JM: The surprise of that is that we did adopt a fifties acting style and within a framework of this genre you needed to use that technique and the surprise of that style is that it is very emotional; that you had this expectation because it‘s artificial, presentational or something, somehow it‘s going to be removed but what you have is this very strenuous shape to it but incredibly emotional content and it‘s almost like its on top of the acting style so rather than having any subtext its all textual and emotion rides it and it‘s completely un–ironic and fulfilling because every time you say something it‘s filled with emotion so I found it thrilling to work that way other than the style we‘re used to which is this nationalism of today this was very ‘out there‘. The love spills over into the language and is full and very satisfying.

Q: I don‘t think you‘ve ever made a bad film; how do you manage your career?

JM: My career has been incredibly incremental; I started out in American daytime television and did some theatre then movies, like a little step at a time and was initially driven by the desire to have a job and then I became more material driven so it‘s just been about doing things I really wanted to do and I feel incredibly fortunate with my career. I‘ve worked with some tremendously talented people, particularly people who write and direct their own pieces so I think that‘s been my great fortune. There hasn‘t been a lot of incredible design to it but it has been defined by what I find to be interesting writing; I think that‘s where I have been most fortunate.

Q: What do you see in each other; why do you work together?

TH: I‘m just so incredibly lucky. The thing about Julianne‘s career that is incredibly remarkable is that she makes choices that go against most expectations of building a solid career as a movie star; which she is, but she has garnered this respect but the choices she has made from role–to–role, even in Hollywood movies, are not about these winning, charming, gorgeous characters, which of course she could play as you can see. Instead she continues to challenge herself and is drawn to people who are struggling and people who don‘t have an easy time of it. You think most people don‘t want to see that on the screen these days, that that goes against the traditions of film but I think she‘s raised the bar in terms of what‘s possible for actors; to be successful and well respected. Also, when looking at her filmography she‘s split down the middle, she‘s done many independent films and studio films so you can‘t really put her in a box and I think that‘s so inspiring to actors today and younger actors starting their careers.

JM: When I think about Todd… People always see Todd as a critical darling, certainly amongst the intelligentsia. Todd‘s intellect is so enormous and he‘s so thoughtful and that I feel is almost a given with him but what struck me about his work and I noticed it with the first script I saw, ‘Safe‘ that he is a humanitarian of great extent that what you have is you have this shape; he uses a style and a genre to explore these different notions about what it is to be alive and who you are, who you love and how difficult it is just to be somebody in and among all that. He chooses someone who is un–heroic and could be your sister or next door neighbour or somebody you sit next to at lunch and not remember; he chooses her to follow and you follow her struggle for identity. He‘s also got an insane visual style combined with an incredibly articulate linguistic style, so he‘s got it going on all over the place. He‘s a very singular filmmaker and I‘ve been fortunate to have a collaboration with him.

Q: Are there times when you‘ve wanted to give up your career for the sake of your children?

JM: No, but that‘s something I want to address because I don‘t have to make that choice; I‘m incredibly fortunate in that I have a very flexible career and my children have just gone out to the toy store. There are not a lot of people who can take a business trip and be able to bring their kids along, there are not many women who have that so I have the ability to work and combine it with my family life so I haven‘t been forced to make that choice. You talk to any working mother and there are so many things you have to consider but at the end of the day you hope you don‘t have to make that choice, you want to have both and it serves us as individuals that you can have all these experiences.

Q: With a Scottish mother, did you have an Celtic influences on your life?

JM: My mother used to tell us to remember that we weren‘t really Americans! That‘s what she told us! She didn‘t become a citizen until she was older, she held onto her UK citizenship for a long time because she‘d thought she‘d go back. We visited, not a whole lot, but I went back with my mother a few times and it‘s a wonderful country that I‘m sorry I didn‘t spend more time there when I was younger because I don‘t know it as well as I‘d like to. She did impress upon us that we were Scottish people.

Q: Will you be taking your own children to Scotland?

JM: I hope so, some day. They both have red hair; it‘s not my colour, my daughter‘s is very dark auburn and my son‘s is very light so it‘s incredible that their dad is so dark so it‘s a very persistent gene.

Q: When you worked with Anthony Hopkins were you able to get over you ‘fan‘ worship?

JM: The first time I worked with him was on ‘Surviving Picasso‘ and I had to do this crazy ridiculous scene on my first day on the movie and I was terrified; not only was I with Tony but I had to do a lot of acting – big scary acting! And he was so phenomenal he gave me the whole scene and he would come in, he‘s so big and strong, and he did what somebody would have done if you‘re having a breakdown; he held me and he gave me so much room within this scene while he contained it and I thank him for that every time I meet him. He‘s a magnificent actor and a wonderful person.

Q: And then as Clarice in ‘Hannibal‘…

JM: It was then easy because I had already been through it with him. I spent my birthday with him in Paris and he persuaded me to have dinner with him!

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