Julianne Moore has been nominated for an Oscar four times before this year and went home empty handed each time. However, based on all the awards she has racked up during awards season and all of the acclaim she has received from audiences and critics for Still Alice Moore’s fifth nomination looks like it could very likely be her first win. Shortly after winning the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role for her role in the film, she spoke to New York Daily News about how she prepared for the role and how she’s handling the Oscar buzz.
In the film Moore plays a woman diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, so portraying her character’s condition accurately required research. She says, “In New York I went to support groups with women who were so helpful and really explained to me what it felt like (to suffer from Alzheimer’s, or have a family member suffer from the disease). A lot of what was in my script was taken from them. What was most meaningful is that I’ve gotten a lot of feedback from people in these communities saying that they felt seen and they felt understood, and that was really, really important.”
Moore confesses that the Oscar buzz is getting to her even though she’s trying to maintain focus on how proud she is of the movie. She explains, “It’s hard not to think about it when people keep bringing it up. Honestly, this has been wild. We made this movie last March — it hasn’t even been a year since we finished it. So that any of this has happened has been an anomaly and truly a surprise every step of the way. I’m trying to remain as calm and present as possible. I’m incredibly grateful for everything that’s happening with this. And I don’t take any of it for granted.”
