Julianne Moore slammed after declaring she now hates ‘explosions and guns’ in movies
The Oscar-winning actress is facing backlash after revealing she has become increasingly uninterested in violent, “high-stakes” films, prompting social media users to point to the violence in some of her own most famous movies.
Julianne Moore has sparked fierce online debate after saying she no longer enjoys watching films filled with “explosions and guns”.
The 65-year-old actress made the remarks during a conversation with Variety at the Kering Women in Motion Talk during the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, with critics then accusing the Oscar-winning actor of dismissing the kind of violent dramas that helped define parts of her own career.
Julianne – whose acclaimed career includes roles in Still Alice, Boogie Nights, Far from Heaven, The Hours and Hannibal – was attending the festival as the recipient of Kering’s Women in Motion Award, which honours women who have advanced the role of women in film and society.
She said: “Particularly now at a time when things are really rough globally, it’s very difficult for me to invest in a story that I think is pretend, where I feel like the depth of the emotion, the measure of it, doesn’t measure up to what’s happening in the world.
“And I don’t feel like I want to engage in it.”
Julianne added she often notices “when something is there for stakes”, saying: “I don’t like easy stakes.”
She said: “I don’t like someone being murdered. I don’t like explosions and guns. I don’t like histrionics. I don’t like things that raise the stakes without real feeling underneath.
“I mean, that actually bothers me because that’s like noise. I don’t know how to play it. I don’t want to watch it.”
After clips of the interview circulated on X, formerly Twitter, social media users quickly pointed to some of Julianne’s best-known films, including Hannibal, in which violence plays a central role.
One user said: “I’ve lost count how many movies she’s done with guns.”
Another commented: “Funny how artists forget their own catalog until it’s time to virtue signal.”
A further post read: “That’s great! Now playback all the degenerate, violent entertainment Julianne has happily participated in throughout her career.”
Another viewer referenced Hannibal, writing: “A man had his skull removed in Hannibal, and brain eaten.”
Others defended Julianne’s comments.
One supporter wrote: “Julianne Moore choosing emotion over chaos is exactly why she’s respected worldwide.”
Another added: “I actually agree with her! We already have enough violence in the world! We need good family values in movies back!! Good family fun!! And the movie theaters will be full again! We want to go to the theaters but there’s not enough quality movies going out! That’s why The Devil Wears Prada was great.”
The backlash echoes criticism Julianne previously faced over May December.
The film, directed by Todd Haynes, centred on a relationship between an adult woman and a teenage boy and drew comparisons to the real-life case involving Vili Fualaau and former teacher Mary Kay Letourneau, who died in 2020 aged 58.
Vili criticised the film publicly, calling it a “ripoff” of his life.
Speaking to Entertainment Tonight in January 2024, Julianne addressed the criticism directly.
She said: “(Todd was) always very clear when we were working on this movie that this was an original story… a story about these characters.
“So that’s how we looked at it too. This was our document. We created these characters from the page and together.”
Julianne won the Academy Award for best actress in 2015 for Still Alice, portraying a linguistics professor diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
She previously received Oscar nominations for Boogie Nights, The End of the Affair, The Hours and Far from Heaven.
