Early in the film “Still Alice,” the Columbia University professor played by Julianne Moore is the picture of health taking a jog through campus, until she realizes she is completely lost. Miniscule movements in her pale face betray the panic racing through her brain, but it will be nothing compared with what is to come for Alice, or for the audience for that matter. At 50, the brilliant lecturer and beautiful redhead will be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and the audience has a front-row seat to her terrifying decline. Moore is known for meticulously researching her roles, a penchant that paid off with her uncanny, Emmy-winning portrayal of vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
For “Alice,” she told the directors, Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, that she would not represent anything she hadn’t witnessed in her work with Alzheimer’s patients.
One woman in particular, who used to have a big job and prided herself on her intellect, shared the difficulty of being redefined by people after she was diagnosed.
