Julianne Moore Interview, Blindness

MoviesOnline sat down with Academy Award-nominee Julianne Moore at the Toronto International Film Festival to talk about her new film, “Blindness,” a psychological thriller about the fragility of mankind. The film also stars Gael Garcia Bernal, Mark Ruffalo, Sandra Oh and Danny Glover.

When a sudden plague of blindness devastates a city, a small group of the afflicted band together to triumphantly overcome the horrific conditions of their imposed quarantine. Adapted from Nobel Laureate José Saramago’s masterwork, the film is directed by Academy Award-nominee Fernando Meirelles (“City of God”) from a screenplay by Tony Award-winner Don McKellar (“The Drowsy Chaperone”) and shot on location in Guelph, Canada.

Here’s what Julianne Moore had to tell us about “Blindness”:

MoviesOnline: How did this movie come to you or did you come to it?

JULIANNE MOORE: I got a phone call saying “Hey, Fernando Meirelles is offering you his next movie” and I’m such a fan of his that I would have done anything. I loved City of God and The Constant Gardener and thought he was so incredibly talented. I had no idea it was this and I didn’t know the book. A lot of people knew the book. So I read it and I thought this material is insane. It’s great. So I just got kind of doubly lucky that it was him and he came with this material. And oddly, my son’s guitar teacher had come back from vacation saying he had just read a book and thought I’d be perfect. He said, “I read this book and you’re going to be perfect in this part.” And I was like, “Jeff, you’re not going to believe this. I just got offered that part.” Isn’t that weird.

MoviesOnline: You’re the only character that can see in the movie. Were there moments when you wanted to change the script and free all those people from the guards because you were the only person who could do it?

JULIANNE MOORE: No, this is not a traditional action film. This is not a film where there’s a hero that saves the day or something. This is a film about behavior within catastrophe and how do we react. The ability to kill someone, I don’t know if that’s a characteristic that you want to have and that’s explored. That’s absolutely explored in that. She kills him and then has this emotional reaction and comes to her husband and says “I did it. I did it.” Instead of saying, “Whew! That’s over with.” He says, “Now look what you did.” And they start saying there’s going to be a war and now we need that person to sacrifice themselves and all this kind of stuff happens. It does happen in that traditional way where somebody comes in and kills the bad guy and says “Now we can all live peacefully.” She doesn’t slay the giant in this horror so, for me, it was just important that I keep her within what I thought was possible for her, to let her have whatever reaction she was going to have even like…sometimes I surprised myself…even when I get all the people [together] and I say “Get in the thing, get in the thing, stay here, stay here,” and then the people come up and I say “Hey! Get out of here!” Like suddenly you’re like who’s that nasty lady. So it’s like she encompasses all of it. All of it is her and it’s not necessarily what we think of as the normal movie arc.

MoviesOnline: Was it the book or the screenplay that you read first?

JULIANNE MOORE: They just send you the screenplay.

MoviesOnline: So you went to the screenplay first and read the book afterwards?

JULIANNE MOORE: Yeah.

MoviesOnline: The rape scene is especially disturbing in the book and also in the movie. Was it disturbing to shoot it?

JULIANNE MOORE: Not as much as you’d think. We were very much a group and Fernando was really specific about how he was going to shoot it and what he was going to do. So you were just kind of concentrating on that at the time and also these are my colleagues. They’re working with me, not against me, so it’s not the same kind of …I mean we’re all simulating a situation so it’s not that kind of thing. Sometimes there were some women who had come in specifically for those scenes who had not been there the whole time. I think it was harder for them because they didn’t have the reassurance of being with this group of people the entire time. But for somebody like me who had been working with Gael (Garcia Bernal), you know, then it’s not. You’re just grateful that you have a colleague that you want to be with.

MoviesOnline: What were your thoughts when you watched that scene in the finished film?

JULIANNE MOORE: I think actually it’s an important thing to see. I remember a few people in Cannes were like “But that wouldn’t happen. People wouldn’t suddenly become rapists.” And I’m like “Do you read the paper? Really? Because it’s a violent crime and it’s a crime of war, it’s a crime of power.” Somebody said “What’s the basic difference between men and women?” I said, “Well, basically men are stronger than women. That’s the basic difference.” If that weren’t the case, then rape wouldn’t happen. It happens because they’re physically stronger. I think that this is something that just occurs and yet we still have this idea that only bad people do it. Or it only happens if somebody is aberrant or whatever. You know, it happens routinely in war. And that’s kind of what this is. Yes, obviously it’s disturbing to watch but I liked the way…something about hearing people’s voices, like hearing Maury Chaykin talking with a normal sound and some of the punches, once again it lacks theatricality and so it seems sort of horrifying. You’re like “No one’s screaming.” There’s none of that. There’s just this quiet. It’s kind of horrific.

MoviesOnline: When you read the script, did you wonder if this would indeed happen to people in real life if this bit of civility was taken away from them and suddenly society was struck blind?

JULIANNE MOORE: I don’t think in a literal sense because actually it is sort of a fable. But I think what he’s saying and one of the things people are beginning to realize is that all of this stuff is a construct, that society is a construct, civilization is a construct. We like to say somebody else is in charge and somebody’s going to fix this and this is going to happen or why did that happen. Well it all happened because we did it and we have agreed to behave a certain way. We have agreed to have lawns and tall buildings and traffic lights and this and that and the minute somebody says “I’m not doing that” or “It doesn’t work,” it will fall apart. We only do well if we agree. The whole thing explodes and then they go back to that actual social connection, that idea of community and responsibility towards what you see around you being the thing that is what makes you civilized, not the government or God even. There’s nothing like that. You know, it’s us.

MoviesOnline: It’s interesting that we stop seeing the outside world for most of the film. I didn’t even realize that was happening until maybe 45 minutes into it.

JULIANNE MOORE: Right.

MoviesOnline: I curious your reaction to watching this film. Are you able to get caught up in the whole thing as a regular viewer?

JULIANNE MOORE: No. [laughs] I wish.

MoviesOnline: Are you watching anyone but yourself?

JULIANNE MOORE: Yes.

MoviesOnline: A lot of people don’t like watching themselves because they see their mistakes.

JULIANNE MOORE: You do. You see your mistakes. You see other people. It’s not like you can’t appreciate the work of everybody else because you do and there are certain things that you get to be very moved by. But I don’t know that you can ever watch a movie where you’re absent from the equation when it’s one of your movies which is why it’s not fun to watch your own movies. It’s never fun. You’re just like “Oh!”  It’s fun to watch somebody else’s movies. Then you can lose yourself in the experience and have something happen to you but I don’t know if it’s ever possible with your own. You can’t separate yourself from your own work. Even my daughter does it. She says “I don’t know, mommy. I want to be better at drawing.” And I’m like “You’re really good at drawing.” She won’t or can’t appreciate what she’s done. She only sees herself wanting to get better. I think that is an instinct in people.

MoviesOnline: Did doing a film that’s so emotional and speaks to humanity change you or your point of view?

JULIANNE MOORE: Honestly I feel fortunate that I work in a place where I’m in touch with that stuff all the time because it’s very easy to stop thinking about stuff or get caught up in it, but we’re forced to as actors. You think of people making unconscious choices or living the wrong life or… You know movies are always exploring these different kinds of emotional dynamics and we’re kind of forced to explore them so, because of that, I’d like to think that it helps keep me more conscious. You hope it does. Otherwise, why would you do it? Because you’re chasing fame? That’s a horrible thing. So yeah, you hope that’s the benefit that you get, is being able to or trying to do that.

“Blindness” opens in theaters on October 3rd.