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«I always find myself in the spotlight in public situations with people who listen to me, just like today, and this is a beautiful thing about my life, but in reality I love taking off make-up much more, putting on any dress, taking the subway and going to the supermarket to do the shopping, in short, being invisible, normal». Thus Julianne Moore, 65 years old, American actress who won an Oscar in 2017 for “Still Alice”, at the Rome Film Festival to present “The Debut. The big occasion” by Jesse Eisenberg and receive the lifetime achievement award tonight.
In the film, in theaters from January 1st with I Wonder Pictures and Unipol Biografilm Collection, and set in the 90s, Moore plays Mona Friedman, a housewife from New Jersey who decides to participate in the auditions for a local theater production, centered on the eccentric inhabitants of a dilapidated apartment building. A person invisible to her husband (Patrick Fabian) and children who consider her just a woman who cleans. Mona, however, will find her freedom by joining the cast of a second-rate musical where she will meet Jerry (Paul Giamatti), a very charismatic director at least among these amateur actors. He will mistreat her to the point of bringing out everything that is good in her.
“It’s never too late or too early to find yourself – says the actress in Rome – and I have to thank Eisenberg for having had a middle-aged woman like me represent her youthful experience.” And again Julianne Moore: «He gave me a great gift with this double role. In fact, I knew that Mona would transform together with the character she plays, Miss Danielle. In fact, she begins as an amoeba, and then becomes a complete and strong woman. In short, Mona grows and at a certain point manages to enter into her character, a process that I know very well. It’s that moment when you find yourself saying, ‘Oh, my God, I found it! I found his way of walking, the right wig, the right tone of voice!’. In fact, it’s about understanding how to build something, assembling it starting from your imagination.”
Eisenberg confesses: «I built the character of Mona starting from my experience as a shy and isolated child, who in amateur theater had found a place in which to feel welcomed». For Julianne Moore, the encounter with the film’s script was dazzling. “The first time I read it I had to get up and walk around the dining room table to catch my breath. I couldn’t believe I was given this opportunity.” Eisenberg admits that he wrote with her immediately in mind: «I imagined Julianne’s voice, her body, her face on every single page».
On the tones of the film, between real and fantastic, the director explains: “First of all, The Debut is set in the world of a community theater which is often already surreal in itself, something that allowed me to accentuate the tones. So the rules on set, given to the director of photography, set designer, costume designer and editor, were: the film must reflect Mona’s feelings. If she is happy and feels welcome, at that point the world is more beautiful and must be, for example, full of fruits, flowers and colors. If, however, he is afraid, the city becomes ugly. I wanted to tell a truly subjective story that would reach everyone.” The cast of the film, produced by A24, also includes Halle Bailey (The Little Mermaid, The Color Purple) and Jesse Eisenberg himself.