Julianne Moore plays Sarah Palin in the HBO film "Game Change."
Love her or hate her, you have to admit that Sarah Palin played a significant part in American political history. If the 2008 election had turned out differently, the former Alaska governor would have been the first female vice president. Why that didn’t happen is the subject of the HBO movie Game Change, premiering March 10 at 9 p.m. and starring one of our favorite actresses, Julianne Moore, as Palin. Ed Harris portrays presidential candidate John McCain, and Woody Harrelson plays campaign manager Steve Schmidt.
Moore says, “It’s a daunting task to play somebody who is not only a living figure, but a hugely well-known one, so for me the most important thing was accuracy.” She started by hiring a vocal coach, because Palin “has an incredibly idiosyncratic way of speaking and I felt I needed to capture that.” She watched hours of Palin footage, including the Sarah Palin’s Alaska TLC reality show, listened to tapes, and “read absolutely everything I could get my hands on” to replicate Palin’s mannerisms and movements. Two and a half hours in the makeup chair each day and replicas of everything Palin wore, including her glasses, completed the transformation. Moore then endeavored to capture the emotional journey of a woman suddenly thrust into — and unprepared for — the spotlight.
“It was a tremendous amount of pressure,” Moore says. “What does that do to somebody psychologically? What was it like, that pressure-cooker atmosphere? She was incredibly charismatic, and in a country where most of our leaders have been Ivy‑League‑educated white men, suddenly, here was this working‑class mother who just popped out and seemed to be able to command the world. But, of course, upon further inspection, she didn’t necessarily have the experience necessary to be able to lead our country as vice president or potentially President of the United States.”
Moore discovered eye-opening aspects of Palin and the political machine that are portrayed in Game Change, which is based on the bestselling book by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann. “She was sequestered, essentially,” Moore says. “She was only allowed to talk with certain media outlets. Everything she said was prescribed. She didn’t understand why they had brought her in as a vice presidential candidate for her abilities and then did not let her use them. I was not aware that campaigns were conducted that way. And I certainly wasn’t aware that people are educated, dressed, made up.”
An advocate for children’s, environmental and poverty issues, Moore recently made a public-service video for the Moms Clean Air Force to rally parents to fight air pollution by speaking up to public officials about it at the time when the 1970 Clean Air Act is in jeopardy. “Clean air should be above politics,” she says. “We don’t have to choose between a healthy economy and a healthy environment. We can have both.”
After seeing Palin portrayed in a comedic way by Tina Fey, will it be difficult to adjust to seeing Moore take the dramatic role?
Photo credit: Philip V. Caruso/HBO