“You guys ran a headline that misrepresents my interview just for click bait.”
Julianne Moore is “deeply hurt” over headlines that claim she “regrets” playing a queer character in The Kids Are All Right.
In a recent interview with Variety, the Oscar-winning actress reflected on the legacy of the 2010 queer classic, which starred Moore as Jules, a lesbian raising two children with her partner Nic (Annette Benning).
Although the film received wide acclaim and is notable for being one of the first mainstream movies to show a same-sex couple raising two teenagers, it received backlash for casting two heterosexual actors as queer characters.
“Here we were, in this movie about a queer family, and all of the principal actors were straight. I look back and go, “Ouch. Wow.” I don’t know that we would do that today, I don’t know that we would be comfortable,” opined Moore.
“We need to give real representation to people, but I’m grateful for all of the experiences that I’ve had as an actor because my job is to communicate a universality of experience to the world. The idea that, rather than othering people, we’re saying we’re all the same. Our humanity is shared.”
Director Lisa Cholodenko, who is openly gay, said it was a “super interesting argument” and that it’s “of the discretion of the director who’s the most compelling for that job.”
“I don’t think it’s mutually exclusive,” she explained. “While I want to promote gay people representing gay people, trans people, all the rest, queer people — it’s also a commercial prospect. It’s all those things.”
Publications were quick to pick up on Moore’s comments, a majority of which said in their headlines that she “regrets” taking on the role.
The star specifically called out culture publication IndieWire on social media, writing: “I was deeply hurt and disappointed by your headline.
“It was a privilege and an honor to work on #TheKidsAreAllright and I said as much in the @Variety interview I gave. You guys ran a headline that misrepresents my interview just for click bait.”
Hey @ZSharf and @IndieWire I was deeply hurt and disappointed by your headline. It was a privilege and an honor to work on #TheKidsAreAllright and I said as much in the @Variety interview I gave. You guys ran a headline that misrepresents my interview just for click bait.
— Julianne Moore (@_juliannemoore) July 31, 2020
In the interview, Moore also addressed the controversy around her character having an affair with her sperm donor Paul (Mark Ruffalo), saying she can “see why” people took an issue with it.
“On the other hand, I think that Jules’ character was someone described as being very fluid, sexually and personally,” she added. “She was floating, in the sense of her entire identity — as a woman, as a person, in her career.”
The Kids Are All Right also starred Mia Wasikowska, Josh Hutcherson, Yaya DaCosta and Zosia Mamet.
The film was nominated for Best Picture at the 83rd Academy Awards and won Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (Bening) and Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.
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