Great Acceptance Speeches: Julianne Moore, "Still Alice"
Thursday, February 21, 2019 at 4:06PM We asked Team Experience to share their favourite Oscar acceptance speeches as we countdown to Hollywood's High Holy Night. Here's new contributor Eurocheese...
If you were a Julianne Moore fan in the 2000s and the 2010s, you had learned to live with disappointment. After four nominations years, ending on a double nomination for the one-two punch of her performances in Far from Heaven and The Hours (2002), her momentum suddenly stalled. Her Golden Globe nomination for A Single Man (2009) didn’t translate to an Oscar nod, and when Best Picture nominee The Kids Are All Right (2010) began to break out, it was clear co-stars Annette Bening and Mark Ruffalo would be getting the lion's share of accolades. So why was an actress who had received so much acclaim coming up short?
There was was an inkling that she could still have a shot at major trophies when she received an Emmy for Game Change in 2012. Of course, as it often is with the Academy, it proved to be all about timing...
The Toronto Film Festival in 2014 not only brought news of Julianne’s magnificent performance in Still Alice, but finally had the press asking what her fans had wondered for years – why doesn’t Julianne have an Oscar yet? What followed was a season that most fans could only dream would happen, a coronation of one of our great modern talents in cinema. Interviews turned into fawning sessions, used as an excuse to praise past performances as well. The Actress nominees posed in a lovely picture with her in the middle, and its radiant joy warmed the internet’s heart. Finally, it seemed, everyone had decided it was her time.
As the names were finally read on the night of the Oscars, and Matthew McConaughey paused to open the Best Actress envelope, the expectation on Julianne’s face was palpable. The joy in the room was just as palpable when her name was read, and as she approached the mic for her speech, the standing ovation erupted. What a glorious moment it must have been to see that room respond to her.
The speech was well thought out and movingly referenced both victims of Alzheimers and her director's failing health from ALC. Married co-directors Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland couldn't be there that night due to Glatzer's health and Glatzer would pass away only weeks later, thankfully he got the chance to hear Julianne's tribute to their work.
In the final moments of Julianne’s speech, with her husband’s face beaming with pride from the audience, she ended with a gorgeous tribute to her family:
Thank you for my life. Thank you for giving me a home.”
One of the things that I love most about this win is the idea that putting in the work, and continuing to build a legacy based on consistently impressing, really does pay off in the end. We’ve seen it in recent years with Nicole Kidman, who’s been vocal about being grateful to have ongoing opportunities and loving her craft. We may see it from the stage this year, as Glenn Close has been very aware in her speeches of what this moment in time means. For all the frustrations the Oscar night can sometimes bring, moments like these remind us that these awards matter to people who seek the respect of their peers, and they matter to those of us who have so much respect for the talent that most moves us on screen.
Reader Comments (34)
There was definitely the sense by 2014 before Still Alice came out that her time had passed. That's been multiplied in Glenn Close's case. I wonder if Close loses if the overdue storyline will go into overdrive and she starts landing some more plum roles to get here there in the future. Because it's against the odds that she's even gotten this far this year.
She could have played her part in the dull dull dull Still Alice standing on her head. For a great performance to see just why she is one of the great actresses of our time, check out the near-contemporaneous Maps to the Stars. Now that's an award-worthy performance.
Definitely a great speech for an actress who should've won it years ago.
This always brings a beaming smile to my face,after watching her since 1992 it was just great to see her win,It may not be her best performance but she is such a deserving winner for her career and totally dedicated to her craft.
@ken s: I thought she was much better in Still Alice than Maps. And I thought Maps was an annoying, overblown thing to boot.
It was a thrill to see her Best Actress for Maps at Cannes eight or so months prior to her Oscar win. She is one of a small handful of actors to have won the film festival triple crown, having won Best Actress at Berlin, Venice and Cannes... and deservedly so.
She certainly should have been nominated for A Single Man, and it was odd to see her left out of the conversation for The Kids Are Alright. Her performance in Game Change was a big hit across the board, though.
This really was a dream Oscar season to be an actress lover, starting from the raves in Toronto and ending on Oscar night. Everything went perfectly.
It boggles the mind that she was not nominated for Magnolia or Safe, and if pushed I could make a strong case for Vanya on 42nd Street, Short Cuts, The Big Lebowski, Savage Grace, A Single Man, What Maisie Knew and Map to the Stars......so YA...she was way overdue!
I said it when she won it - that was for Amber, Sarah, Cathy, Barbara, Jules and every other triumph that came before it. My favorite Oscar moment of all time.
@Ishmael: She was so good in both Magnolia and Safe. Those might actually be my top 2 performances of hers. Safe was too artsy and unknown at the time, plus it's a difficult movie for many especially on first viewing. Magnolia didn't have the overall impact. I'm curious how close people think she was to being nommed for that one though. The "don't call me lady!" scene alone...
if that's her husband, why did she need another trophy?!?
get it, julianne!
Like Meryl in 2012, a rotten win but a fabulous speech. I wish Glenn made a clean sweep of the precursors -- on the basis of her performance alone, she deserved it! I've no time for parrot gays on Twitter, repeating the myth that "The Wife" was critically reviled and/or made no money at all.
Agree, this is a beautiful, intelligent and emotional speech. Loved it!
I never got the A Single Man snub.
We will get this again with GLENN CLOSE!
The quality of the image is astounding.
One minor thing that has always irked me about the camera work on this is that the powers that be decided to abruptly cut to Moore's husband as she wraps up her speech and is about to raise her Oscar up victoriously. Sad, rude, homophobic and despicable - we were robbed of the last few glorious seconds of Moore basking in her moment!!
I also like to pretend that she for both Still Alice and Maps to the Stars a la Janet Gaynor's packaged win...because her work in Maps is astounding.
Everything you write is correct. I love reliving that moment. One thing to add - the music! I think the score was a perfect backdrop to her win, and added to the emotion. Granted, the emotion would have been there anyway, but certain scores help add to what's being felt ..or don't. For example - the emotion of Gwyneth's win was helped by that wonderful score .. and Jessica Tandy's wasn't. Some scores help push it all a bit further.
“....Really does pay off in the end”
I love when a terrific proven actor wins but NOT at the expense of a better pwrformance from someone who “hasnt put in the time”.
By the same token, I’m 100% fine with enduring stars like Close or Moore remaining oscarless due to less talented actresses giving superior performances during “their” years.
@Anonny: It's a good thing that didn't happen in Moore's year and won't in Close's if she wins.
The narrative this year was that she was overdue, but the performance really was there. Only Marion Cotillard was in the same league, and even then Julianne anchored her film with so much emotion without ever being manipulative.
Truly one of my favorite wins of the century, and so glad she's got an Oscar.
@Joe: Yeah Cotillard was great, but I thought she should've been nominated for The Immigrant instead.
While the idea for this series is really nice, I think it's time that we highlight some non-acting winners as not to confirm the academy's reasoning that the actors are all we remember.
Love her. I wish she had won her first Oscar for The Hours.
Like Close this year, she ranks third on my preference of the nominees, but it was an excellent performance and I was rooting for her. A great Oscar win that I had before given up ever happening for her. And a terrific speech.
I also think the film is shockingly better than it needed to be and much better than most people give it credit for. Moore is so good, yes, but STILL ALICE was the film that made me really have to take notice of Kristen Stewart’s undeniable talent. She blew me away, and it’s her role that elevates the film beyond just an Oscar vehicle for Julie.
Roger - I completely agree about Kristen Stewart. She would not have been out of place as a Supporting Actress nominee. (I also think it's fun that Alec Baldwin played the husband to Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine in 2013 and Julianne Moore in Still Alice in 2014, both Oscar winners.)
I am totally fine with this win, even though it’s not her best performance. And her speech is radiant. But Marion Cotillard gave the performance of her life in Two Days, One Night. Although, it’s a miracle she was even nominated in the first place.
All 122 cuts during this speech were clearly necessary.
Seriously. Guy in the control room: STOP IT! This has only recently become an issue and it annoys me to no end.
Great performance in a very TV movie of the week film...
I will never understand people talking trash about this film. I fully expected to be underwhelmed by it, and when I watched a screener initially I was like "ok" but then I saw it in the theater and I thought it was really thoughtful and beautifully done.
I much preferred this to The Wife, but neither are bad or even underwhelming performances. The movies are good, too. People just love to hate.
I thought Still Alice was great actually. I think it required a sort of mundane, even successfully boring life as the counterpoint to the tragedy that befell Alice. Julianne played her beautifully. Sorry haters.
@Dave in Hollywood: I liked it too and chalk it up mostly to Moore's sterling performance. It's a masterclass of nuance. I actually also like it better than The Wife, which isn't as focused on Glenn Close as Still Alice is on Julianne Moore. There's more for supporting players to do.
It's funny when people say that the actress deserved the Oscar more for a previous performance. That's not the question at hand. It's about if she deserves it vs. her current competition. And I'd put Moore's and Close's performances on at least equal footing with any other in their respective years.
RIP Richard Glatzer, who died soon after this momentous triumph for his leading actress.
Nah, Moore was like Close and Bening. Inevitable winners that only cynical folks would write off.