Julianne Moore: Fashion, Friendships and the Film "The Room Next Door" by Pedro Almodóvar
The Oscar-winning actress talks about her role in Pedro Almodóvar's “The Room Next Door" alongside Tilda Swinton and emphasizes the importance of female relationships on screen.
Text by TYLER M c CALL
Photography DAVID ROEMER
Styling SARAH GORE REEVES
Julianne Moore is one of the most stylish women on the planet. She’s walked for Chanel , has a close relationship with Tom Ford , and is a front-row fixture for brands like Bottega Veneta and Dior . So it should be a relief to know that someone with her access to couture faces the same dilemma as the rest of us: finding comfortable yet fashionable footwear. “I’m happy to wear an uncomfortable shoe on the red carpet, but I refuse to do that in New York. I can’t do that,” she says. “And it makes me angry! I’m like, ‘Why can’t I find shoes?’ Then I end up wearing an ugly pair of sneakers, or the same pair of boots until I’m bored.” It seems wrong to reduce a woman like Moore—an Oscar-winning actress with nearly four decades of experience in the industry—to her wardrobe choices. But the first thing she does when our Zoom meeting starts is cheerfully comment on my red hair, immediately putting me at ease.
She’s down-to-earth, thoughtful, and real. All of which is to say that—shoe opinions included—Moore is clearly the kind of woman who deeply values female friendship in her life. “A friend is a person who is a witness to you. A romantic relationship is driven by something else, in a way; you can feel a pull toward someone and a drive to start a family together. It’s a different kind of bond. But a female friend is a person who just decides that she likes you, that she’s going to go along for the ride. She reflects the other’s experience in the world. I’ve had female friendships at every stage of my life, and they’ve been incredibly important and impactful; the companionship and joy and centering you get with another woman—the idea that you’re not going through something alone, that someone else has had a similar experience and is there to support you and care for you and tell you that you’re not crazy.”
Which brings us to Moore’s latest project, “The Room Next Door,” an adaptation of Sigrid Nunez’s novel “What Are You Going Through.” It’s Pedro Almodóvar ’s first English-language film, and Moore co-stars with Tilda Swinton . On the surface, “The Room Next Door” is heavy: Swinton plays Martha, a woman diagnosed with terminal cancer who decides to take a euthanasia pill rather than undergo further treatment; Moore plays Ingrid, the close friend Martha asks to be by her side in the days before she dies. “The wonderful thing is that it’s so rare to see a film about a female friendship. Often when you see women in movies, they’re mothers and daughters, or sisters, or lovers, or antagonists, but you never see a real friendship,” she says. “And yet, for most of us, this is one of the most important relationships we have, outside of our family. To see it dramatized, I think for both me and Tilda, was really moving. It was profound, as women, to recreate that on screen.” Watching Moore and Swinton act together in “The Room Next Door” is, in internet parlance, a mother-off (to witness two iconic women simultaneously giving the greatest performances of all time).
Most of the film is a two-person story, with the actors deftly delivering Almodóvar’s signature formal dialogue in a completely natural way. Moore’s Ingrid, in particular, is almost brutally real in her grief and discomfort with death, often refusing to allow Martha to finish pessimistic statements, or presenting a relentlessly optimistic face until the end. These lived-in tics and glimpses of humanity were crucial to Moore’s portrayal of Martha. I liked her optimism that decided, “Oh, it’s going to be okay. You’re going to try. It’s going to be okay. We all do that. We say, ‘You broke your leg. Don’t worry, it’s going to take six weeks to heal. In the meantime, I’ll show up and watch TV. It’ll be fun,’” Moore explains.
"I've had female friends at every stage of my life and they've always been incredibly important and impactful." Julianne Moore
“I also loved her grumpiness and irritability. The not wanting to be there! It’s hard to deal with mortality, it’s hard to deal with illness, it’s hard to deal with grief, and I thought it was interesting that Pedro explored that discomfort.” Of course, it helps that Moore has Swinton as a point of reference for scenes. The two actresses had only met briefly at industry events, but Moore says she admired Swinton’s work and hoped a project would bring them together. The reality was even better than she could have imagined. “She’s been incredibly open, incredibly helpful, really curious and interested; she’s a very, very committed performer. She has a great sense of humor. She’s an incredibly beautiful actress,” Moore says. As soon as the SAG actors’ strike ended in 2023, Moore and Swinton headed to Madrid to begin work on the project. Almodóvar likes his films to be rehearsed extensively, to ensure a precision of language, a clear vision of how the characters interact with each other, and how the production should look and feel. “Our first meeting was in Pedro’s apartment, and we went through the script, scene by scene, and we read it, and we reread it, and we reread it,” Moore explains.
But most of all, those months together before filming allowed Swinton and Moore to connect as scene partners, creating a space in which they could play out these emotionally charged and incredibly intimate scenes in a vulnerable and honest way. “I never felt alone,” she says of working with Swinton. And working with Almodóvar was a dream, too. Moore never thought she’d have the opportunity, since all of her previous films were in Spanish. “It was a big surprise when I opened my email in the morning and saw a note from Pedro saying he was making a film in English with Tilda and wanted me to join them,” she says. “I was absolutely amazed that I had been asked.” Moore has worked with the best directors: Steven Spielberg, Paul Thomas Anderson, Ridley Scott, the Coen Brothers, Todd Haynes, Julie Taymor.
She’s starred in indies and Hollywood blockbusters, in heartbreaking comedies and tragedies, in period dramas and modern thrillers. And she doesn’t limit her talents to the big screen. As we debate what the streaming era means for entertainment in general, Moore is all about one thing: the opportunity to be part of a great story. “When it comes to movies or streaming or theaters, for me it’s always something. There’s always stories. There’s always places where people can see themselves, whether it’s in theaters or streaming or television,” she says. “We keep making stories, and the stories keep getting better and more complicated, for me. I’m excited that it’s still something I can do, that I’m still finding a lot of material, that I feel like there’s still a lot of avenues to explore,” she continues. “I didn’t think that the fact that I liked to go and play after school would lead me to do this all my life, but it did, and it was also so easy. I was really very lucky.”
"It's very difficult to deal with mortality, illness, pain, I thought it was interesting that Pedro explored that discomfort." Julianne Moore
For her, acting is still very much about play. The joy of her career is having the opportunity to try so many different things. I ask her what she’s learned for the roles, and the list is varied: American Sign Language, opera singing, flower arranging, horseback riding, playing the guitar, cooking. ( “I don’t have any of that,” she adds with a laugh.) “I love teachers. I love experts,” she says. “I’m really touched by teaching, by the generosity of people who say, ‘This is a skill I can share.’ ” That love of learning, by the way, extends to her personal life: She recently went swimming with her family, including her daughter’s boyfriend, and took the opportunity to brush up on her aquatics skills. “He’s a really good swimmer, and I asked him to watch my stroke, because I’m not a great swimmer—I learned to swim late and I hadn’t had anyone watch me swim for a long time. He was so generous. She said, ‘You have to keep your arms straight, because I noticed you’re bending over’ — I was swimming, drifting. It was a huge help.” In a career retrospective for Vanity Fair, she compared getting acting roles to eating a candy bar: You’re having a great time eating it, and then when you’re done, you’re already thinking about the next candy bar. “I’m excited because this next project is original, funny, really human, and with someone I adore. It was a real surprise. It was a real gift. It was another one of those things where I got a script, I read it, and I was like, ‘Are you kidding? It was so much fun … it’s so full of life, so incredible.’”
But first there’s the press launch of “The Room Next Door,” which many are predicting Oscars for the two stars. Every red carpet appearance Julianne Moore makes is a gift to fashion fans: So far this year she’s worn a liquid gold Bottega Veneta gown to the Venice Film Festival , a silver-sequined Valentino gown to the Governors Awards , and a sculptural Schiaparelli number to the premiere of “Mary & George” in London. “I think I have a weird relationship with fashion: I really like fashion in real life, but I don’t like being looked at in real life. I don’t like drawing attention to myself in New York, and I want to look normal and like everyone else. I don’t think fashion is armor. On the contrary. I feel exposed. If what I wear draws attention to myself, it makes me feel more exposed, not more protected, and that’s why, in real life, I don’t like wearing anything that exposes me.” That’s part of Moore’s way of returning to her everyday life: by slipping off her stilettos and into her comfortable shoes. She uses her downtime to reconnect with that self, catching up on things like sleep and reading, going for walks, spending time with her husband, kids, dog, and, yes, her friends. “That’s where I get my strength and inspiration,” she says. “Going for a walk with my friend and saying, ‘No, you’re not crazy.’ ”
HAIR: Orlando Pita @ HOME AGENCY
MAKE UP: Romy Soleimani
MANICURE: Pattie Yankee
SET DESIGNER: Jacob Burstein @ MHS ARTISTS
PRODUCTION: Dana Bosland
CREATIVE CONSULTANT: Mariana Suplicy
DIGITAL TECH: Ernesto Urdaneta
PHOTO ASSISTANTS: Harry Kong and Mike Sikora
SET DESIGN ASSISTANT : Arthur Majano
STYLIST ASSISTANTS: Daniel Zepeda, Ashlyn Brooks and Izzy Lenoff
