Julianne Moore says someone in the film industry once told her to 'try to look prettier': 'There's still a part of me that would rather be a tanned blonde'

• Julianne Moore has won many acting awards during her career, but Hollywood hasn't been easy on her.
• The actor admitted an industry insider once told her to "try to look prettier."

With a slew of awards to her name, Julianne Moore's illustrious acting career is undoubtedly the envy of many in Hollywood. But the actor hasn't always had it easy, she admitted recently.

In an interview with The Times UK, Moore recalled a moment early in her career in which a film-industry insider offered her some sexist advice.

"Someone in the film industry said to me, 'You should try to look prettier,'" Moore said. "I was like, 'I don't know if I can.' Obviously, ours is a business where there is some physicality involved, but beauty and prettiness are subjective."

The actor, who currently stars in "When You Finish Saving the World" with Finn Wolfhard, which premieres January 20, said that her red hair made her feel like an "outsider" growing up.

"Redheads are two percent of the global population," she said. "Nobody wants to feel like they're in the minority, particularly as a young child. Now, I feel very identified with my hair and freckles, but there's still a part of me that would rather be a tanned blonde."

Moore has been vocal in the past about Hollywood's harsh attitude towards women, describing the phrase "aging gracefully" — a phrase frequently applied to older female celebrities — as "totally sexist" in an interview with As If magazine in July 2021.

"There's so much judgment inherent in the term 'aging gracefully,'" Moore told the publication then. "Is there an ungraceful way to age? We don't have an option, of course. No one has an option about aging, so it's not a positive or a negative thing. It just is."