Julianne Moore: 5 Things You Didn’t Know About the Oscar-Winning ‘Still Alice’ Actress

Born in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, she moved 23 times before she was 18. “I was always new in school,” says Julianne, 58. “If you’ve ever done that, you know what it means to not matter in a room. It’s a good experience for everyone to have, to feel like they’re not noticed, because it teaches you to be empathetic.”

Julianne toiled for years in obscurity and on soaps (she played twins on As the World Turns) before landing a breakout role in 1992’s The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. “I was an excellent waitress,” she says. “I’m very impatient with people who tell me they’re not good at waiting tables. I’m like, ‘Well, you’re just not paying attention!’”

“All I wanted was to be a regional-theater actor, to be in a company,” says Julianne, who earned a degree in theater from Boston University. “I thought it would be a great life. I don’t think I understood how difficult it would be.”

After the Wedding marks the fourth time Julianne has worked with her husband, director Bart Freundlich, 49. Together they have son Caleb, 21, and daughter Liv, 17, who was a production assistant on the film, opening August 9. “Usually when I’m at work, I go back to my room and have time to focus on my lines,” Julianne says. “In this case, Liv would come back and I’d be like, ‘Did you get any lunch? Are you OK?'”

“We’re all aging,” Julianne says. “That’s what life is, and we have to accept that there’s a beginning, a middle and an end.”

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