Julianne Moore Talks Playing Gloria Steinem, Talking Down the NRA in WSJ Magazine November 2019

Actor, activist and children’s author known for portraying emotionally troubled women in many of her over 70 films, Julianne Moore is among the cover stars in WSJ Magazine’s November 2019 Innovator’s issue. Moore, who shares the spotlight with seven other “trailblazing talents” is styled by Alex White in images by Lachlan Bailey./ Hair by Serge Normant, makeup by Mark Carrasquillo

Julianne Moore will play feminist icon Gloria Steinem in the January 2020 film ‘The Glorias’, based on Steinem's best selling memoir, ‘My Life on the Road.’ Alicia Vikander plays Steinem ages 20-40. Then Moore takes over, in an exciting cast that also includes Bette Midler as Bella Abzug; Janelle Monáe as Dorothy Pitman Hughes and Lorraine Toussaint as Florynce Kennedy.

Moore says she’d never met Steinem before but came away inspired. “She’s just as glorious as you’d imagine,” Moore says. “She’s very smart, which goes without saying, but she’s also incredibly thoughtful and patient and tolerant. Her ability to not be rash, and to speak to people who are very different than she is and not judge is really exemplary. You literally think, OK, what would Gloria Steinem do? How would she handle this situation? Because she’d handle it beautifully.”

Among creatives and activists Julianne Moore became known as a front-line gun-control crusader, when she joined Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety in 2015. In the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre, in which 26 people — including 20 small children at school — Moore helped form the Everytown Creative Council, a group of 80 Hollywood-type activists including. J.J. Abrams, Judd Apatow, Ellen DeGeneres, Jennifer Lawrence and Spike Lee.

Everytown, with its six million members, combined with Michael Bloomberg’s billions is credited with turning Virginia all blue in last week’s elections. Bloomberg spent over $100 million on electing Democrats in 2018 midterms — resulting in Nancy Pelosi becoming the Speak and Democrats taking control of the House of Representatives.

AOC’s international readers may not know that the NRA is on the ropes in America, and Moore can be credited as part of a very successful solution that has turned public sentiment against the organization.

“Culturally, people were loath to speak about the Second Amendment and guns, because somehow it was taboo,” Moore says. “It was taboo because the [National Rifle Association] has made it taboo, claiming people were un-American if they were talking about this kind of stuff. So, I was like, “All right, so if [the NRA] has managed to wage this public relations campaign from their end, why don’t I have the people in my community—our community—speaking up?”

Moms Demand Action, led by Shannon Watts, is part of Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety and has become a powerful political force in American politics. Speaking about Walmart’s public appeal to customers in open-carry states not to bring weapons into stores after El Paso, Moore tells WSJ:

“That’s success,” Moore says. “That’s Moms Demand [Action], people saying, ‘Hey, we would like to shop in your stores.’ If you have an opportunity to effect change by what you purchase, why not? We’re in a capitalist society. I felt like I was following all these activists and moms—Shannon Watts in particular,” she says. “I feel like I’m an acolyte: How can I help her; how can I help them?”

If Bloomberg does decide to formally launch his 2020 presidential bid, his superb work and money invested against America’s epidemic of gun violence will make him attractive to a wide range of American women (and men) that includes educated, anti-Trump Republican women, as well as Democrats and many Independents. Watch this political space and Moore’s potential place in it.