With all the celebrity breakups, scandals, and chaos we hear about all the time,
sometimes it seems like Hollywood relationships can never last.
However, a lucky few have been able to not only have long, but also happy and healthy
marriages that make us… really proud of these couples! That's the case of 61-year-old actress
Julianne Moore and her hubby, 52-year-old film and TV director Bart Freundlich.
The two met in 1996 on the set of The Myth of Fingerprints,
a movie in which Moore was starring and which Freundlich was directing.
When talking about this time in her life, Julianne explained to the Hollywood reporter:
"We were shooting about a week before we became involved. It seemed unlikely that it would last
when we met." It's safe to say the star was wrong since it has now been 26 years since that moment.
Freundlich has opened up about what made him choose Moore to play the character of Mia in that
film. "I was looking for someone who had a lot of complication, a lot of sadness under the surface,
and portrayed very, very little of it in her face," he told The New Yorker.
He also spoke about the first moment he and the star connected. It was during filming,
when Moore was enduring the cold wind without a coat. Freundlich didn’t want her to be cold,
but was afraid to smother her, since he didn’t know her that well.
"We connected in that moment on an unspoken level, where she knew I saw that flame in her, and
understood it, and was willing not to suffocate it but to protect it," the director explained.
Julianne has confessed that she herself finds the long time they have known each
other shocking. In 2020, she was interviewed on The Drew Barrymore Show. She told Drew:
"What's really funny about that is that it was 24 years ago,
that's what's shocking to us." And it's been two years since then! "That's what's been nice
about it. It doesn't feel like a long time," the actress went on to say. She sure is a lucky lady!
Although she has been with the director for a long time, Moore had been married
once before. When she was 25, she tied the knot with stage director John Gould Rubin,
whom she had been dating for two years. Julianne confessed that her own mother
warned her she wasn't ready for that marriage. “ I remember my mother said to me that I was
too young and I was like, "No, I'm not!" Then, of course, yes,
I was. I didn't take the time to think about what I wanted or what I needed," she told You magazine.
Julianne and John separated in 1993 and finally divorced in 1995. Their marriage lasted 9 years!
The actress has opened up about how this first marriage left her
feeling unhappy. She felt lonely, and she didn’t have the personal life she wanted.
She also opened up about how her therapist helped her handle this situation.
"One of the things she said was that everybody always knows the answer," the star told the
Hollywood Reporter. "She said, 'We all know the answer.' And I think we all do, don't we?"
A year after her divorce, Julianne met Bart. However, the couple confessed they had doubts
about the relationship at the beginning. In an interview with Good Housekeeping,
Bart confessed he initially tried to ignore his attraction to the actress. "I remember looking
at myself in the mirror and thinking, 'Don't even think about doing this!'"
the director said. At the end, he was unable to resist. And we are very happy about that!
Moore has also opened up about her worries regarding their 9-year age difference at
the beginning of their relationship. "It was a huge difference! He was 26,
and I was 35! But he seemed much older than his years, and age evaporated over
time." she told Good Housekeeping. In that same interview, the star's makeup artist,
Scott Barnes, gave his opinion on this subject. "Age isn't an issue," he said. “She's so young
and vibrant. You know that energy you see from her on-screen? She's 10 times more so at home."
Julianne has explained what she finds so attractive about her husband. 'He is very
friendly. He's a great person. He's a really wonderful person," she told You Magazine.
In a different interview with the Hollywood reporter, she described Bart saying:
"He's an extraordinary individual, and he's always made me feel good
about myself and about my work, and I hope I make him feel good, too."
Of course, when two members of a couple are celebrities, some challenges are bound
to come up. In the case of this couple, it was explicit scenes. The actress has
confessed that her husband doesn't like it when she films sex scenes. However,
she understands and even likes that he feels this way! "It literally is
work… But I understand it and I think it's healthy. If you felt it was OK for people to
kiss your wife it would be sort of weird. But yeah, he doesn't love that," she explained.
And, even if some obstacles arise, having a director husband also has its perks when
acting is your job! Moore told You magazine that Freundlich helped her realize she was
behaving like her characters when she was at home. For example, when she was doing
Boogie Nights, she didn’t wear a bra. And when she worked on The Lost World,
a part of the Jurassic Park franchise, she started dressing like a palaeontologist! It
sure is nice that this couple can notice these little things and help each other!
The actress and director married in 2003 and have two kids,
Liv and Caleb. Julianne has opened up about the experience of raising her children,
explaining that their childhood feels like it’s such a long time compared to adolescence.
And then, suddenly, they're in college. It's like, "Wow, how did that happen?" she told You magazine.
Moore has also talked about how good of a team she and Freundlich make when
it comes to raising their kids. 'We're both available as parents,
and we're a pretty great unit,' she told The Hollywood Reporter. 'And that's not to
say it's all been a breeze, because it never is. There's always stuff.'
For the Hollywood star, marriage and family have always been a priority. She defined marriage as
the "container" for a family, and a way of letting the world know of two people's commitment to one
another. The actress has also confessed that she found it weird that women were taught to
work only on their careers and assume that their personal and love life would just fall into place.
She felt like it was antiquated to wait for a guy or romantic partner
to come along. I was like, "I want to be married. I want to have kids," she
explained to You magazine. "So I want to invest in that, too."
She explained that part of the reason she felt lonely during her 20s was focusing too much on
her career. “I'd spent my 20s working hard and trying to get to wherever "there" was,
which wasn't really anywhere. It was just a job, and I really wanted a family," the star confessed.
In her 2020 interview on The Drew Barrymore Show, Moore talked further
about her opinions on marriage. When Barrymore asked the actress for some marriage advice,
she answered: "The only thing that I can say is, I think that you both have to really want
to be married. I do feel like I've seen situations where things aren't working
out for people; one of the members of the couple doesn't want to be there.″
When asked what one can do to make a relationship last, the star explained further: ″I think
if you're both invested in it working out, you really have to have a good time. My God, I think
they really have to make you laugh. If they don't make you laugh, it's just deadly." Judging from
the decades they have spent together, it sure looks like this couple knows how to have fun!
It's very refreshing to see a happy, long-term couple amidst all the Hollywood drama,
especially when they have such a great family and work so well together! We appreciate her
wise input on marriage, but in the meantime, we are happy just watching her and her hubby
thrive! Here at Rumour Juice, we wish Bart and Julianne many more years of happiness.