Freedomland isn't merely the title of
Julianne Moore's new movie. It also describes how this former
Army brat feels about the home she (finally) discovered in
Manhattan two decades ago.
Moore had come to
New York from a roustabout life. Moore, born
Julie Anne Smith in Fayetteville,
North Carolina, had a father who
was a judge in the U.S. Army's Judge Advocate General Corps who
moved his family from base to base:
Alabama,
Georgia, Texas,
Virginia,
New Jersey,
Nebraska, New York,
Alaska,
Panama, Germany -
all in all, they had two dozen temporary homes around the
world.
After a life on the road, his smart, red-headed, well-read daughter
was able to blend into any surrounding and, later, into any part,
from those in off-Broadway plays to an Emmy-winning dual role as
two half sisters on the
CBS soap
As the World Turns to
Oscar-nominated performances in several hit films, ranging from
Boogie Nights to The Hours.
This month, she stars alongside Samuel L. Jackson and Edie Falco in
Freedomland, portraying a suburban woman plunged into a highly
charged and gritty mystery involving her missing child, which tears
her New Jersey neighborhood apart. On the other side of the Hudson
River, in Manhattan, Moore remains the wide-eyed girl getting off
the bus with the suitcase in her hand, marveling over the Big City
where she found a home after a lifetime of traveling.
With her husband, native New Yorker Bart Freundlich, whom she met
when he was directing her in The Myth of Fingerprints, and their
children, Cal, eight, and Liv, three, Moore has settled into the
"way West Village" neighborhood that she dreamed about living in as
a young girl. Here's Julianne Moore's story about the home she
found in the city known for opening its doors to immigrants.
Let's start with the bus. Where did you first arrive in New York
City? Where do buses come into? Port Authority. I stayed with a
friend. There were four of us in a studio apartment with a big dog
while we looked for an apartment. I found a studio on the East Side
and a job at a restaurant waiting on tables. It was called Mumbles,
now called Benjamin's, on 33rd Street and Second Avenue. Basically,
it was one of those things where I just walked into every
restaurant I passed on Second Avenue and asked for a job until I
finally got one.
Then you started getting off-Broadway jobs, right? Actually,
I got my first one after about four or five months of living in New
York. It was a regional-theater job. First, I was in
Buffalo, New
York. Then I went to
Boston to do a job there. Then I came back to
the city and I had some little jobs on TV. Then I ended up on a
soap opera, As the World Turns, for three years. That was my first
big job. I guess I started in 1985.
So you've lived there since? Except for, like, four years, when I
lived in Los Angeles.
Is there one place where you went in the beginning and still go
to now? When I was still a senior in college in Boston, I got
an [acting] job in the city. It was my first trip to New York
alone. I was terrified. I flew to New Jersey, took the bus into
Port Authority, took the subway down to Sheridan Square, and walked
to the theater. This was all at the crack of dawn. I think
rehearsals started at 11 or something. I got there so early. I
didn't have anywhere to go and I found myself in the way West
Village, so I started walking. I walked down Bank Street and there
was this place called Café Sasha Sasha on the Hudson. I went in and
had a cup of coffee. I was so excited and thrilled by the area and
I thought, Wow, if I ever live in
New York City, I want to have a
house in the way West Village. Finally,
Christmas 2004, I moved
into my house in the way West Village. So, it took me a long
time.
Tell me about your neighborhood. It's very small in scale. A
lot has happened to it since the
Meatpacking District has become
more popular. There are more restaurants. It's always been a very
community-oriented place, a very tolerant place. There are a lot of
families here. It's very quiet. Now that the river has been
developed, they are doing this whole program with the walkway. It's
a beautiful place to walk. There is a children's water park right
off of Horatio, if you go all the way west on Horatio. My kids love
it, and in the summertime they turn the water on and all the kids
run through it.
Okay, what about neighborhood restaurants? We are very
conventional. We go to Pastis all the time. The food is
consistently good; the atmosphere is nice. They are great with
kids. We go a lot for brunch. It's sort of a big place for us to go
for brunch. They have this bread basket, and if you feel like
throwing caution to the wind, you can order that. Their french
fries are always good. It's a nice kind of family place, like I
could bring my parents there when they come into town. We also go
to a restaurant called Piccolo Angelo, which is a wonderful place
on Hudson and Jane. It's family-owned. The man who owns it is named
Renato. His wife, Pauline, comes in on Sundays, and his son and
daughter, Peter and Maria, are there working all the time. They are
such a lovely family. The food is delicious and you never order off
the menu. Renato will do this sort of spiel. They also make their
own wine.
Where would you go on a typical weekend day? I love to go to
Union Square to the Greenmarket. All the produce is great, and it's
kind of a fun scene. They have a lot of people and dogs, and
there's food. You can buy doughnuts and produce and flowers and
wool - there is a person who sells wool. They raise their own
sheep, and they dye and spin their own wool. The Coffee Shop is
right there, and it has really, really
delicious food. It is
another place that is great for kids, although there are a lot of
young people there and it's kind of a hip spot. The owner is a
friend of ours. Actually, our little boys are best friends at
school. I always have the coconut shrimp or a tuna salad, which is
really good. My husband always has the barbecued-chicken sandwich.
The Coffee Shop is right across the street from
Union Square Café,
which is also delicious, but you shouldn't take the kids there.
What are your kids' favorite places? If we go uptown,
there's a slide on the east side of
Central Park at East 67th
Street, right above the children's zoo, that my kids love. It's
sort of crazy and almost bordering on dangerous. I always catch my
breath when I go there because it's like polished stone. The bigger
kids sit on cardboard and they just go whipping down it. It's the
fastest slide I have ever seen. You even see adults going down it
sometimes. One day, when the Gates were still up, we walked across
the park, and we went to Shun Lee. We always go to the dim sum café
there. The restaurant is great, but the dim sum café is a lot of
fun because they come around with these carts, the steamed cart and
the fried cart.
Sounds like you're a serious Central Park fan. There's
Wollman Rink, where you can go
ice skating. Also, people don't know
this: In the summertime, in the area where Wollman Rink is, there
is a little kids' carnival that operates all summer long. My
children love this. It's a very big deal. You could have a great
children's day in the summertime where you go to the children's
carnival, the children's zoo, the slide on 67th Street, and then
you can take them to Serendipity, which is a famous restaurant
where they have frozen hot chocolate, a slushy, milk-shaky kind of
chocolate drink that children love. It's famous for its
desserts.
What are the sites in New York that mean something to you?
Yesterday, my sister and I drove into New York. We took the Third
Avenue Bridge, which is at the very top of Manhattan, and then you
get on FDR Drive, which you can take all the way down around the
lower tip of Manhattan, and then it turns into the West Side
Highway. You can just keep going straight up to Westchester. You
can see the whole city that way. My sister is not from New York. I
would say, "Oh, look, there is the hospital where my daughter was
born," and when we passed
NYU, I'd say, "Look, that's Sutton Place,
and it's a really lovely area with these old-fashioned houses." We
went around Manhattan in a loop and you can sort of see
everything: Brooklyn,
Brooklyn Heights,
Wall Street. I love
driving all the way around Manhattan because it is so small and you
can do it; it takes no time at all. The other thing I always say to
people in New York is don't be afraid to ask people for directions.
People here are incredibly friendly. They might seem blunt, but
usually they are just fast. New Yorkers love to give their
opinions. They love to tell you where to eat; they love to tell you
which is the best way to go. They love to do that.
Where's the best place to see the Manhattan skyline?
Brooklyn Heights is a lovely area, very picturesque, and you can
kind of see Manhattan from the Promenade. That's another nice walk.
If you decide to go to Brooklyn, you could walk along the Promenade
and see most of the Manhattan skyline. From Flatbush Avenue, in
Brooklyn [where the skyline scene from Saturday Night
Fever was
filmed], you just see all of southern Manhattan. The other view of
New York that I love is when you are coming in from Kennedy Airport
on the
Long Island Expressway toward New York. You sort of see all
these buildings, and then the city starts getting bigger and bigger
and bigger. New York literally looks like Oz. It truly does.
After you arrived, what did you discover that people don't
know? The big misconception about New York is that it's a tough
city to get to know and a tough city to belong in. Having lived all
over the world, I discovered that the contrary is true. It is a
city of great community, a tremendous sense of belonging. People
live in these really kind of tightly focused little areas. It's
like living in a small town. People always say that New Yorkers are
the most provincial people in the world. In a way, we are, because
we care so much about our city. It's a place where everybody is
incredibly tolerant, like everything goes here. You can kind of do
and be whatever you want, and yet you are able to have community
and also a certain amount of anonymity at the same time. There is a
tolerance, like, hey, be who you want to be no matter what, but you
can still belong.
Where do you send your friends to stay when they come to
visit? There's a cute little guesthouse in my neighborhood, the
Abingdon Square Guest House. It's a little town house. The other
place I love is the Inn at Irving Place, in a beautiful area of New
York, Gramercy Park, which is just incredibly charming. That is
just a lovely place to walk around.
Where do you do your shopping? Well, I try not to leave my
neighborhood. I mean, Stella McCartney is on 14th Street. Scoop is
on Washington; that's a great place for casual clothes and stuff.
There is kind of an interesting place called Dernier Cri, which
[has clothing by] young, offbeat designers. There is a jewelry shop
that I love called Ten Thousand Things. I have a lot of their
jewelry. The designers are two guys. They are in Chelsea, near
where my son took
karate, so that's how I discovered the store. In
SoHo, Marni is great for women's clothing.
Marc Jacobs is there.
The
Prada store is fantastic. I'm a big furniture shopper, and
there's a place called Lobel Modern on West 18th Street, just off
Seventh Avenue. There is a store on Franklin Street that I also
love, called Antik. They have beautiful Scandinavian furniture. One
good shopping place in SoHo is Kirna Zabete. They have great taste
and really interesting clothing. And the Strand Book Store is an
amazing place. They have all these used books and also review
copies for less than what you pay in a normal bookstore. It's a
different experience than what we are used to with Barnes &
Noble. You can actually find a first edition.
In 1998, you hosted Saturday Night Live, which is, of course,
filmed at Rockefeller Center. What are your favorite buildings in
the city? What I love about New York the most are the
residences, the town houses that were built all over the city in
different styles: Greek Revival, Italianate, Victorian. You see all
these different kinds of houses next to each other, on the Upper
West Side and the Upper East Side. I love all of them. And I love
the Chrysler Building; I love the
Empire State Building. I even
love Wall Street, which I think is kind of glamorous-looking. I've
always had this fantasy that someday I would have an office in a
great big building. Trinity Church is a gorgeous building way
downtown. It looks complicated, and it's dark. There is a graveyard
right next to it.
If you read Michael Cunningham's book Specimen Days, the first
section of it sort of deals with New York in the industrial age,
when Walt Whitman was around. You really get the feeling of what
the city was like as a working city and as a place. You know,
Whitman evidently walked around my neighborhood when he worked on
the docks on the West Side.
What's your favorite walk? There's a lot of stuff on Hudson
and 14th streets. Hudson Street is always a great street to walk
down. You could start at 14th Street and Ninth Avenue and follow it
all the way down through the Village, then loop around and come up.
Or you could zigzag your way through the West Village. We haven't
even talked about the East Village and Tompkins Square Park, which
is also a cool place, a great playground and very, very green.
There are a lot of vegetarian restaurants and places that are great
for college kids.
You would eventually wander into a museum, right? Well, you
have to go to the
Metropolitan Museum of Art. I remember going to
the Met when I was a kid. It's just a magnificent museum. You can
always do a special show there, or you can just choose a classic
and go see the Egyptian stuff and the armor. The Museum of Modern
Art is spectacular, too, and they have just finished their
renovation. There's also a great restaurant in there, called the
Modern. But if you feel like going somewhere really casual, there
is a place called Burger Heaven in the East 50s. The Frick is kind
of fun. Way uptown is the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum,
which gives you a different way to look at things.
Okay, what about New York nightlife? I have no nightlife -
but I know Broadway! After the theater, Orso is great. The food is
always delicious. The people are lovely. You know what? This is
actually funny: In my neighborhood, there is this place on Ninth
Avenue called Pop Burger. I've been there both at 12:30 in the
afternoon with my kids having a hot dog and french fries and at
12:30 in the morning when it is a complete club scene, when people
are coming in to get milk shakes and they're hot after having been
in a bar all night. It's just another example of how there can be
all these different lives in New York that don't intersect. They
have a whole daytime life and a nighttime life. For sushi, we like
Bond Street. We also go to Japonica, on University. The other
restaurant we love, love, love - and we go there probably at least
once a week - is Bar Pitti, which is on Sixth Avenue. Bar Pitti is
another great Italian place. It's just a wonderful restaurant with
great people in it. I think we are going there tonight, as a matter
of fact.
Is there a nightlife place you love from your past? I didn't
go out then, either. I just kind of worked and came home. Pastis is
good late at night as well as during the day. I told you about
Orso; that's a great place to go before or after the theater. Also
good is Joe's Pub, which is right next to the public theater where
I worked when I was younger. They have a lot of interesting
cabaret shows, and it's a cool place to go.
After having moved around so much as a kid, when did you really
feel like you were a New Yorker? It takes about a year. The
first six months, the shock of actually being there and getting
used to the pace starts to wear off, and then once you've been in
the city for a year, you feel like you are kind of officially a New
Yorker. It's when you go away and you come back and the guy who
sells magazines on the corner asks where you've been. That makes
you feel like you really belong to a community. That's what New
York is like. I know the people in local restaurants. There are
people I just say hello to when I pass them on the street. There
are people I know from various playgrounds. There is a kind of
great sense of community. New York rewards people who return.
she said...
where julianne moore disappears into her role as a new
yorker
lodging
abingdon square guest house, (212) 243-5384
inn at irving place, (212) 533-4600
dining
bar patti, (212) 982-3300
benjamin's restaurant, (212) 889-0750
bond street, (212) 777-2500
burger heaven, (212) 685-6250
japonica, (212) 243-7752
joe's pub, (212) 539-8770
the modern, (212) 333-1220
orso, (212) 489-7212
pastis, (212) 929-4844
piccolo angelo, (212) 229-9177
pop burger, (212) 414-8686
serendipity 3, (212) 838-3531
shun lee & shun lee café, (212) 595-8895
shopping
antik, (212) 343-0471
dernier cri, (212) 242-6061
kirna zabete, (212) 941-9656
lobel modern, (212) 242-9075
marc jacobs, (212) 343-1490
marni, (212) 343-3912
prada, (212) 334-8888
scoop, (212) 929-1244
stella mccartney, (212) 255-1556
the strand book store, (212) 473-1452
ten thousand things, (212) 352-1333
galleries and museums
the frick collection & frick art reference library, (212)
288-0700,
www.frick.org
the metropolitan museum of art,
(212) 535-7710,
www.metmuseum.org
the museum of modern art, (212) 708-9400,
www.moma.org
smithsonian cooper-hewitt, national design museum, (212)
849-8400,
www.ndm.si.edu
attractions
billy johnson playground in central park,
north of the tisch
children's zoo at east 67th street
cbs building (the black rock), 51 west 52nd street at sixth
avenue
chrysler building, 405 lexington avenue
the cloisters, fort tryon park, (212) 923-3700
empire state building, 350 fifth avenue,
www.esbnyc.com
madison square garden, (212) 465-6000
midtown east & sutton place, from east 42nd street to
east 59th street, and from fifth avenue to the east river
trinity church, (212) 602-0800,
www.trinitywallstreet.org
the greenmarket at union square, east 17th street and
broadway, open mondays, wednesdays, fridays, and saturdays
year-round, eight a.m. to six p.m.
wollman rink at central park,
(212) 439-6900
we said...
where we disappear into our roles as visiting new
yorkers
lodging
incentra village house, expensive, (212) 206-0007. at this
former greenwich village town house (which dates back to 1841),
each of the 13 rooms has a different theme. the tranquil india
room, for instance, is decked out with buddhas. with our brood,
though, we prefer the bishop suite, which is a little larger.
washington square hotel, expensive to very expensive, (212) 777-9515. stylish art deco architecture, modern amenities like
high-speed internet, a lovely sunday jazz brunch in the restaurant/lounge — this landmark lodging has much to offer. first and foremost is its location (across from the arch in washington square park) and its proximity to nyu.
dining
corner bistro, inexpensive, (212) 242-9502. this popular west village eatery’s name is rather misleading, because there are no wine carafes or white linen napkins. rather, you’ll find a no-frills setting where belt-busting burgers are served on paper plates with slices of pickle on the side.
moustache, inexpensive, (212) 229-2220. if you’re not a fan of communal seating or service that can sometimes be, um, relaxed, then skip this place. but if you’re a fan of authentic, affordable middle eastern food like lamb sandwiches, leek-and-scallion pizza, and baba ghanoush, then hop to it.
shopping
bespeckled trout, (212) 255-1421. remember the old five-and-dime? the one with apothecary jars full of penny candy and a soda fountain serving up malteds and egg creams? well, the candy may not be a penny anymore, and we may now worry about how many calories those egg creams have, but the bespeckled trout is as close to the old-timey general store as you can get.
flight 001, (212) 691-1001. the idea for this clever luggage-and-more store was conceived in-flight, so it’s only appropriate that it carries the airline motif through from the design (cash register as ticketing counter) to the inventory (most of its bags fit into the overhead bin).
entertainment
fat cat billiards, (212) 675-6056. since it’s in the basement and sports all that neon, this manhattan pool hall may seem a little seedy. far from it. everyone from lawyers to lunch ladies come for its friendly prices ($5 an hour per player) and well-stocked jukebox (frank sinatra to franz ferdinand). eight ball, anyone?
rose’s turn, (212) 366-5438 (after four p.m.).
woody allen,
joan rivers, stiller and meara — these are just a few of the names who’ve played this legendary piano bar and cabaret club.