Marshall Julius celebrates the well-behaved life and scene-stealing career of four-time Oscar® nominee Julianne Moore, star of sci fi thriller Next.

Julianne Moore is an actress who likes a challenge. Diligent and tenacious, she's clawed her way up the entertainment ladder from daytime soaps to a-list movie stardom. Attacking her roles with a similar fearless vigour, there's nothing she won't try, no chance she won't take, to breath life into characters so believable, it's like they're in your living room. She's also a rather pretty redhead, which doesn't hurt. By all accounts a thoroughly decent person, Moore betrays not even a hint of ego, often sharing the spotlight with large ensembles in films like Short Cuts (1993), Boogie Nights (1997), Magnolia (1999) and The Hours (2002). The thing is, no matter the size of her role, and regardless of the talent around her, Moore always finds a way to shine, surprise and sometimes shock, in the case of her bottomless monologue in Robert Altman's Short Cuts. Bottomless, as in completely naked from the waist down. I forget what she said in the scene, but I know for sure she's a natural ginger.

The daughter of a military judge and a Scottish social worker, Julie Anne Smith was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina on December 3, 1960. The same day as Darryl Hannah, who I believe is a natural blonde. As a kid she traveled the globe with her parents, moving home to locations as diverse as Juneau, Alaska and Frankfurt, Germany. Forever the new kid at school, Julie Anne's appearance and personality guaranteed she remained an outsider. "In grade school I was a complete geek," she remembers. "You know, there's always the kid who's too short, the one who wears glasses, the kid who's not athletic. Well, I was all three." What's more, "I was a goody-goody. I was one of those kids who played by the rules. I used to have to take people to the principal's office. Isn't that awful?"

Fortunately by her teenage years Moore's looks and social skills had caught up with her smarts, and she found her place in life at Boston University, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in acting from the School of the Performing Arts. Originally Julie Anne had planned to act under her own name, but the Actor's Guild insisted she change it as every variation of her name was already taken. Combining her first two names with her father's middle name, Julie Anne Smith became Julianne Moore.

After graduating in 1983, Moore moved to New York and did lots of off-Broadway stage stuff, turning to daytime soaps as a better source of revenue and winning an Outstanding Ingénue Daytime Emmy Award in 1988 for her role in As The World Turns. Following a brief spell in a number of forgettable TV movies, Moore made her big screen debut as the victim of a mummy in 1990's Tales From the Darkside: The Movie. Pressing on, Moore secured small but increasingly memorable roles in films like The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992), Short Cuts (1993) and The Fugitive (1993). Apparently her role in the Harrison Ford thriller made such an impression on Steven Spielberg that he later cast her Jurassic Park sequel The Lost World (1997) without an audition.

It was director Todd Haynes who gave Moore her first leading role, that of a comfortable L.A. housewife stricken with a sudden and terrible immune disorder, in 1995's Safe. Keen to convince in the role, Julianne lost a further 10lbs from her already slender frame. Impressing audiences and filmmakers alike with her can-do attitude and impressive acting chops, Julianne hopped from genre to genre, playing Hugh Grant's pregnant girlfriend in comedy Nine Months (1995), a security expert with a price on her head in action thriller Assassins (1995), one of Anthony Hopkins' numerous lovers in biopic Surviving Picasso (1996), and for Spielberg, The Lost World the following year.

Cautiously accepting the role of a porn star with a heart of gold in Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights (1997), Moore was sensational on screen and received a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nomination. "You never have sex the way people do in the movies," maintains Julianne. "You don't do it on the floor, you don't do it standing up, you don't always have all your clothes off, you don't happen to have on all the sexy lingerie. You know, if anybody ever ripped my clothes, I'd kill them."

In 2000 Moore was nominated for another Oscar®, this time for Best Actress, for The End of the Affair (1999). Alas, she didn't win. Still, she reasoned, ".only five people got nominated in that category, and that's not very many people. So I did all right." 2003 garnered two further nominations, one for Best Supporting Actress (2002's The Hours) and another for Best Actress (2002's Far From Heaven). Moore is one of only ten top thesps ever to be nominated in both categories in a single year. Not that it helped her on the night: to date her mantelpiece remains Oscar®-free.

Quite why, I can't imagine. She's made so many memorable films, and though some were less than exceptional, and I'm referring specifically to 2001's Evolution, she's got a pretty high average of outstanding work. Looking over her credits, apart from the many great movies I've already mentioned, there's The Big Lebowski (1998), Cookie's Fortune (1999), An Ideal Husband (1999), Hannibal (2001), The Shipping News (2001), Laws of Attraction (2004), Children of Men (2006) and now Next (2007), available now to add to your list.

As a Vegas magician who can see just a little bit into the future, Nic Cage is pursued by FBI agent Moore to assist in the takedown of nuclear terrorists in Next, a big time sci fi action thriller. "Julianne is someone I've always admired because she's always doing something different," observes Cage. Adds co-star Jessica Biel, "Julianne has made such smart and diverse choices in her career. I was just so eager to watch her and figure out how she acts so brilliantly and effortlessly." Let's hope she picked something up.

Three times married, Julianne insists her greatest achievements are her kids. That's probably because she hasn't won any Oscars® yet. "It's the most wonderful experience of your life," she enthuses, though some might say gushes. "It deepens absolutely everything. You have a greater understanding of things, so in a way it is a gift. For me it has made everything much better. I'm so happy. I am extremely fortunate." That's she is, but she's earned it all, and deserves every bit of her success. Here's to lots more Moore.

By Marshall Julius, Blockbuster.co.uk

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