Broad Appeal

Julianne Moore is a Movie Star... but before that, she was a working actress. In the early to mid-90s, eagle-eyed viewers could spot her unique redheaded luminescence on the margins of Hollywood movies and daytime soaps. With the release of a string of acclaimed indies, however, the world took notice - and the first was VANYA ON 42ND STREET. It's a love letter to the theatre in which a company of character actors gather to rehearse in a crumbling Times Square theatre. With nothing but their street clothes, some makeshift props and the presence of Our Greatest Living Actress, Andre Gregory's company put on the best rendition of Chekhov EVER. Also immediately apparent are the nascent qualities we'd come to know as Julianne trademarks: fearless sexuality, heartbreaking vulnerability and a mercurial spontaneity. As Yelena, an unreadable beauty who turns the head of Wallace Shawn and every other man she encounters, the former Julie Ann Smith announces to us all that we'd better pay attention because this woman is