Julianne Moore plays feminist icon Gloria Steinem in The Glorias, directed by Julie Taymor. When HFPA journalists interviewed her, Ruth Bader Ginsburg had just passed, two months before the presidential election, and she wore a tee-shirt that said, “Vote like a mother.”This is what she said about motherhood in 1995 and in 1999, after having her first child with director Bart Freundlich.

color:black”>”I’d really like to have children, very much. I think as women we do because it’s physical, it’s biological. I mean, we have so much going on in our bodies all the time, that it’s something that comes naturally to us. But it’s not only men who fear having children, all of us are afraid of being subsumed by a child or by a family; we fear that when you have this great responsibility you are no longer yourself, that you somehow leave yourself behind to become a parent.I don’t think that it’s true necessarily, but that’s a big fear that people have, men particularly feel that, once they are a father, they have to become somebody else.

color:black”>I think that you have to know very clearly what you want because it’s important to be clear and to be on the right path. There came a point in my personal life when I realized that I wanted a family very much. So, you make that a focus, a priority. At the end of the day, you care about your relationship, you care about your family, you care about your children and your friends.That’s what is bringing real meaning to your life. color:black”>Ever since my son Cal was born, I’ve been elated, I mean, I haven’t had a moment of unhappiness. Children give you access to all different kinds of feelings, they give you your parents back because you suddenly know how they feel about you. When you have a child, you understand something which you didn’t understand before, and it’s wonderful. What a great gift to know that. A child gives you a sense of connectedness and it adds a balance to your life that you don’t have if you just work.

color:black”>Once you have a child, that’s it, it’s forevermore, you’re an adult, and it’s great, you know that there isn’t anything in the world that you wouldn’t do to ensure their well-being. It gives you a place in the whole life cycle, and it opens up realms of possibility emotionally.

I define myself as a feminist, most certainly as a humanist. I’m a Democrat, I’m pro-choice, I support certain charities and women’s reproductive rights are very important to me.”