MY CHERI MOORE ACTRESS WINS ADORATION OF DIRECTORS AND CO-STARS - AND 2 OSCAR NODS - THROUGH A FEARLESS APPROACH TO ROLES.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Writer

Julianne Moore isn't afraid to sob. In fact, she rather likes a good cry - at least, she does when she's acting. At home, we get the impression it's a far different story. Or as Todd Haynes, who directed Moore in ``Safe'' and ``Far From Heaven,'' puts it: ``I've never seen the real Julianne Moore in any of her films.''

And considering the messed-up women that Moore specializes in, Haynes' observation can only be a good thing for the actress and her family.

Consider how many times we've seen Moore weep. There are the Haynes films in which she played housewives on the verge of a nervous breakdown. There's ``The Hours,'' where she plays a suicidal housewife looking to escape reality. There are the two movies she made with Paul Thomas Anderson, playing a fragile porn queen in ``Boogie Nights'' and a distraught young wife in ``Magnolia.''

And that's just a short list of the heavy-hearted. Space - and concern for your mental health - precludes us from continuing.

``Tragedy is my metier, what can I say?'' Moore offers with a lovely smile. ``I know it's true. I've played a lot of tragic women. It's always a relief when I don't have to cry.''

Moore is 42, although with her youthful freckles, she can easily pass for a woman 10 years younger. She's polite and thoughtful in conversation, modest about her achievements and quick to spread credit for her work. She's aware that she has reached a career pinnacle this year with Oscar nominations for both ``Far From Heaven'' (best actress) and ``The Hours'' (supporting actress), but she's also aware of her tenuous place in a motion-picture industry preoccupied with creating theme park rides instead of smart movies.

All to say: She's happy, but she's not getting carried away, you know?

Moore made her film debut in 1990's ``Tales From the Dark Side: The Movie,'' but it wasn't until 1993 with a brief turn in ``The Fugitive'' (and a turn with no briefs in Robert Altman's ``Short Cuts'') that Moore began to attract notice. Her big professional break coincided with the dissolution of her first marriage, to actor John Gould Rubin, an older man she had married when she was 26. Looking back, Moore says, ``It was at this point at which I truly began living my life.''

Playing both sides

Moore's presence was firmly established in Haynes' disturbing social satire ``Safe,'' in which she turned heads as a hyper-allergic Valley housewife who all but disappears within herself. Moore suffered for her art, losing 10 pounds for the role. The buzz surrounding her performance led to high-profile parts opposite Sylvester Stallone in ``Assassins'' and Hugh Grant in ``Nine Months.'' All three movies were released in 1995, and set the tone for a career that has been equally divided between indie and studio films.

``She's never been pegged as one thing,'' Haynes says. ``Some actors go back and forth, but usually you think of them as a mainstream star or indie character actor. With Julianne, she's comfortable wherever she is and tailors her work to the project. She transforms whatever she's in and takes it to a higher place.''

Says Moore: ``I've kept a foot in both worlds. It's been important to me. You do have to have some commercial viability to have a career. You have to be realistic. You just don't make a living making independent films. Some of them I've done for nothing. 'Short Cuts' I made for very, very little. 'Boogie Nights,' very little. 'World Traveler,' I made nothing. 'Far From Heaven,' I got paid, but not like when I make a commercial movie.''

She makes no apologies, then. As Moore notes: ``Sometimes, you simply need the cash. It's very difficult the way the film industry works these days to find a commercial film that's about something meaningful. They almost don't exist.''

That's not to say that Moore wouldn't like to help make them exist. It's just that nobody will finance them. She has spent years trying to make a movie about the life of fabled aviator Amelia Earhart, but now seems resigned to it never happening because she can't find a big enough male co-star willing to accept second billing and a smaller paycheck.

``George Clooney was the only one who wrote her a nice note,'' Haynes says. ``Nobody would touch it.''

``It sucks,'' Moore says. ``But it doesn't surprise me at all. Guys don't want to be No. 2. If they're not No. 1 on the call sheet, they have a hard time. They think it's not worth their time. Parity in the movies doesn't exist.''

Not that she's bitter. She does have two Oscar nominations this year, after all, which means that the parts are there, even if, as was the case with ``Far From Heaven,'' the financing takes some time to come together. And even if she believes that Hollywood has a low opinion of so-called ``women's films,'' she's shrewd enough to ferret out the small bits of wheat in the mountain of chaff in her slush pile of screenplays.

``You get these scripts and it's all about the girl who is perfect,'' Moore says. ``They talk about her legs and her hair and her sharp wit and her ability to do this and that and the other thing. I don't know what the human connection is. I don't know what I'm revealing. I like to play women who are complicated, who are real, who are confused or are just human.''

The acid test that determines if she'll do a film: ``If I get to a point in the script where something makes my chest catch or I gasp or get upset or moved by it, then I know I'm on to something,'' Moore says.

'Our best actress'

Moore's ``Far From Heaven'' co-star Dennis Quaid says it's that willingness to delve into darkness that makes her a great actress.

``I had wanted to work with Julianne for a long time,'' Quaid says. ``Now, having done so, I'm amazed at the way she makes it so effortless. This sounds like hype, but I really do believe she is our best actress around right now.''

That doesn't make it any more likely that she'll win the Oscar popularity contest. Last month at the Golden Globes, she stood on stage alongside ``Hours'' co-stars Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman. They had statues; she didn't. (Streep won hers for ``Adaptation.'') Again: Not that she's bitter. Moore is too busy for that, filming a thriller with Richard Gere (``Without Apparent Motive'') and preparing to star in Richard Price's racially charged ``Freedomland'' this fall.

Oh, and this summer, she and longtime love Bart Freundlich will officially tie the knot. They've been together since 1996 and have two children, 5-year-old Cal and 10-month-old Liv. And, as Moore herself notes, kids have a way of making even the Oscars seem pretty silly.

``There's nothing that makes me feel more accomplished than my children,'' Moore says. ``Being a mother is a magnificent experience, a privilege.''

Haynes, one of her biggest fans, says the privilege comes from watching Moore act.

``I'm a consumer of her work,'' Haynes says. ``I love to go to films and watch the complete transformation. She takes the roles nobody else seems interested in - the bitches, the bad mates, the retards - and challenges the type of sentimentality we're used to seeing. I can't wait to work with her again.''

JULIANNE MOORE

Age: 42

Nominated for:

Best Actress in a Leading Role for ``Far From Heaven''

Best Actress in a Supporting Role for ``The Hours''

Previous nominations:

Best Actress in a Leading Role for ``The End of the Affair'' (1999)

Best Actress in a Supporting Role for ``Boogie Nights'' (1997)

Moore great performances

Want to see more of Moore? Here's where you should start.

SHORT CUTS (1993)

The role: A high-strung, unhappily married artist in Robert Altman's ode to Raymond Carver.

The moment: Moore confesses to Matthew Modine that she's been unfaithful. Adding insult - and context: Moore is naked from the waist down as she tells her husband the story.

SAFE (1995)

The role: Hapless housewife who leaves the Valley to cure the thousands of environmental illnesses that plague her. Moore's first collaboration with filmmaker Todd Haynes.

The moment: Moore's frightening coughing fit on Santa Monica Boulevard.

BOOGIE NIGHTS (1997)

The role: Lost soul turned porn queen Amber Waves.

The moment: Amber's first encounter with Dirk Diggler (Mark Wahlberg). Never have lust and maternal feelings been more tightly bound together.

THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998)

The role: Moore shines in a rare chance to display her comic chops, playing feminist avant-garde artist Maude Lebowski.

The moment: Tough to choose. Is it Moore's big entrance, flying in a leather harness, splashing paint from her nude body on a canvas? Or is it the big Busby Berkeley number with Jeff Bridges where she's dressed like a Viking goddess?

FAR FROM HEAVEN (2002)

The role: Moore reunites with Haynes, playing a ``perfect'' housewife whose life crumbles around her in this heartbreaking homage and update of Douglas Sirk's 1950s melodramas.

The moment: A small one: The radiant look on Moore's face as she watches a boy and girl kiss outside a hospital, where she waits for her estranged husband.

- Glenn Whipp

CAPTION(S):

7 photos, 2 boxes

Photo:

(1 -- cover - color) twice MOORE with feeling

With a double shot at Oscar, Julianne Moore seeks quality, not quantity

Donato sardella/Wireimage.com

(2 -- 7) no caption (Julianne Moore)

Box:

(1) JULIANNE MOORE (see text)

(2) Moore great performances (see text)