The Kids Are All Right’s Julianne Moore and Annette Bening Reunite in Variety’s Actors on Actors

For this year’s Variety video series Actors on Actors, Annette Bening (who recently starred in Nyad) and Julianne Moore (who recently starred in May December) sit down to talk about themselves and their work. The conversation also marks a reunion for the two iconic actresses, who starred together as moms in Lisa Cholodenko’s Oscar-nominated The Kids Are All Right. 

The two reminisce about making the film—creating a family album for the set design, the humor in Cholodenko’s writing, and the significance of the subject matter. Bening shares a poignant anecdote about being approached by a stranger in an airport in Cuba years later who simply wanted to express, “That movie really helped me in my community.”

Watch The Kids Are All Right on Apple TV or Amazon.

In the 2010 family comedy, written by Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg, Nic (Bening) and Jules (Moore) are in a committed relationship raising two kids—Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and Laser (Josh Hutcherson)—in Los Angeles. When the children decide to track down their biological father (Mark Ruffalo), who turns out to own an organic restaurant not far from where they live, the cozy life that two moms have created from their family begins to unravel. While Cholodenko had cast Moore early in the process, the film really came together when Bening signed on as her partner.

Critics raved about the actresses' dynamic. Roger Ebert wrote, “Moore and Bening are superb actors here, evoking a marriage of more than 20 years, and all of its shadings and secrets, idealism and compromise.” What makes their connection so extraordinary is the way they so perfectly play off each other. “The acting here is really interacting,” writes Slate. “Bening makes Nic a force to be reckoned with: an acid-tongued workaholic who loves her wine a little more than she should but who's such lively company you understand what Jules sees in her.” And the Los Angeles Times notes, “Where Nic is brittle, Jules is the bough that breaks and in taking her there Moore is fearless.”

Together the two deliver an acting masterclass, playing their roles, writes Entertainment Weekly, “with the kind of exquisite precision that would guarantee them both awards if they didn’t make it look so easy.” Both actresses were nominated for Golden Globes and BAFTAs, with Bening garnering an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.