Julianne Moore Children of Men (2006)
Julianne Moore (born December 3, 1960, Fort Bragg, North Carolina) played Julian Taylor in Children of Men (2006).
Moore took a small part in a film she believed in
Julian Taylor — Theo's ex-wife and the leader of the Fishes refugee-rights militia — is killed roughly thirty minutes into the film. The role is short, the second-billed name on the poster shot through the throat in a moving car. By 2006 Moore had four Academy Award nominations (for Boogie Nights, The End of the Affair, Far from Heaven, and The Hours) and could pick her work. She took the part because of Cuarón (in Children of Men) and the script.
"I had a small part in something I felt was extraordinary." — Julianne Moore, Variety (2006)
Moore plays Julian in the brief time she has as a woman who has spent twenty years moving forward without her husband. Her scenes — the warehouse interrogation, the warm and slightly bitter back-seat reconciliation, the death — are calibrated to do the structural work of establishing why Theo can be motivated by her loss without pretending the marriage was anything other than over. Cuarón has said the casting was strategic: Julian's death needed to land, and only an actor with that kind of name could land it.
"I needed Julian to be a major presence so that her loss would be felt for the rest of the film." — Alfonso Cuarón, The Guardian (2006)
The car ambush sequence — see The Long Take — was the technical challenge of her role. Moore was inside the rigged Doggicam vehicle for the full take, and her death had to register at a specific moment within the unbroken shot. The version in the finished film is take six.
Moore's career around 2006
| Year | Film | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Boogie Nights | First Oscar nomination |
| 1999 | The End of the Affair | Second Oscar nomination |
| 2002 | Far from Heaven | Todd Haynes; third Oscar nomination |
| 2002 | The Hours | Fourth Oscar nomination |
| 2003 | The Forgotten / Laws of Attraction | Studio work |
| 2006 | Children of Men | Supporting role |
| 2009 | A Single Man | Tom Ford |
| 2014 | Still Alice | Best Actress Oscar |
| 2014 | Maps to the Stars | Cronenberg |
| 2023 | May December | Todd Haynes |