next>>moore guides us through one of her most powerful performances. here is the trailer for still alex. thanks>> i hope to convince you by these baby steps into -- >> alice where were you? >> i need to talk to you. >> what is going on. >> i have alzheimer's disease.

i can see the words hanging in front of me and i can't reach them and i don't know who i am. i would like to see you go to college. >> can't use your situation to get me to do everything. >> like anti-? >> it's not fair. >> on your mother. >> we have to keep the important things in our life going. we have to try or we are going to go crazy. >> i am not suffering. i am struggling. struggling to be a part of things. stay connected to who i once was. so lived in the moment, i tell

myself. it is really all i can do. live in the moment. >> i spoke with the julianne moore earlier this year in new york. >> there is a lot of buzz about the stone. he went to toronto. all of a sudden i was no distributor. now there is a distributor because there is a sense that this was a special film and the right actress at the right time. >> we felt so fortunate. when you go into this you never know what will happen. we had a screening on a monday which is you know not a normal screening time. so you hope people will go and respond. in terms of the response, we

felt good. >> tell me about the film and your character. >> the characters name is alice and she is a 50-year-old professor of linguistics at columbia university. she has been married since she was quite young in her early 20's. she has three adult children. she starts noticing little slips. in her memory. she doesn't mention it to her husband or anyone. she gradually begins to realize something is going on. she is diagnosed with early onset alzheimer's. >> that means what? >> it means that -- when you are diagnosed under 65, it is considered early onset. it is generally a different more potent form. it is sometimes faster acting. so she is completely compromised

at that point in her life. she ends up having to quit her teaching position. she tries to spend time with her husband. she actually ends up being in a decline rapidly. >> said that is the arc of the character? >> yes. and about who she is. who are we when we lose how we define ourselves? this is someone primarily defined by her intellect and she is no longer able to do this. >> what do i do when i cannot do the things i do? >> yes. how does she preserve herself? how did she preserve a relationship? >> when i was a little girl in second grade, my teacher told me that butterflies don't live a long time. maybe a month. i went home and told my mother. she says yes, they have a nice life.

a beautiful life. >> how did you prepare? >> it was pretty extensive. i was so struck by the generosity of everyone i spoke to. starting with the national alzheimer's association, they put me in touch with three women who i skype with. one woman was diagnosed at 45. she looks very much like me. she was redheaded. she started noticed difficulties. >> she was diagnosed at 45? >> yes 45. so i spoke to them and then i went to mount sinai. i took the memory test to give to people when they come in. my results were normal. easily. then i -- thankfully. then i went to new york and talk to women who were unbelievably helpful. when asked them what they wanted to be depicted, what would i --

what wouldn't i know? they talked a lot about the isolation. how difficult it was to find people to understand. the feeling of people not knowing who they were. people who did know them when they were so-called normal functioning, they felt like they did not understand how to communicate. one woman felt she had always been defined by her ability with language and intellect, so once it was gone it was difficult for her to speak to people. what i came away with, was how hard people worked to communicate and to maintain where they were. that senses -- not that sense of fading away people --. people kind of move forward. >> that there is a terrible moment where someone living with

alzheimer's cannot recognize even a child. >> yeah. >> friends of mine say it was the worst moment of their life. >> it is really awful. anything that people fear and more than that lack of recognition. what is interesting is that there is so -- not just memory loss, there is a different kind of neurological reaction. people have facial issues. they may not understand which way doorknob turns. there are many symptoms we don't know about. >> it requires some sense of empathy. >> yeah. >> some would say you have empathy. i think it was your husband. >> did he? i think that is what is great about acting. it forces you to put yourself in someone else's seat -- choose. and say what is universal? how do i enter into that life and

try to understand it? i went to a long-term care facility and i was sitting in a thinking circle and the window is open. the woman in five me says you better get out of that draft. i said i'm ok. later on i went -- ran into her daughter and i was telling her. >> she said yes that is my mom, always caring. she still is worried about people getting out of a draft. >> it is a bit of a call to action to. you watch this film and you let -- understand what is like. one of the executive producers is maria shriver. >> yes. she has quite a bit of experience in her family. i think she has made it a mission to educate people about it and raise awareness and hopefully money to fight it. >> also, playing your husband --

>> alec baldwin. >> was that your idea? >> yes. we'll work together on 30 rock. i adored him. i would e-mail him and say would you do this with me. finally on one occasion he said that you have a drama for me yet i said well, i do but i'm worried you won't get a part. so i sent it. he said yes immediately. >> did he say why? >> he didn't. he did not say a word. he said i will do it. i was so fortunate to have him. he is -- has such a huge passion for life. so much vitality. to see someone like that, in a real married people have to depend on each other. you try to hold onto that.

i think it is beautiful. >> the interesting thing about you as well as that people say you have chosen roles well. here you are getting to star in costar, in the hunger games. mocking j, part one and two. a huge film. but you have chosen films like this throughout your career. almost as if he said this is a role i want to play. this is something i could really add now you too. >> i never know what i want until i see it on the page. that is what is interesting. your ideal world what you want to play? i don't know. but when i read something, i say that is it. i think the first time i had seen the disease to take it from the in side -- the inside, from

the perspective of the person. so often we see it from the part -- point of view of a caretaker. this is about what it means to experience this loss. >> someone said to me that you are a literalist. you really like the scripts. people look for the original, as they call them. you are a literalist in the sense that you like the script as written. >> yes i do. >> you do. >> unless it can be better. i have worked with some magnificent writers. then you don't want to -- you're like, no i don't want to touch this. then you say, let's figure out the language. but i am someone who is language specific. i feel like every word you use means something. there is power and meaning.

so, i want to give it that authority. it is really important to me. the words people choose to express themselves. >> have you been aggressive about your career or do you let it come to you? x>> i don't know -- there's not a lot you can do in terms of control. you can't make someone offer you something. >> it has a collaborative meaning. >> yes, they offer it or don't. but it is ok that you want to admit you want to play something. >> but it's because of your children that you ended up -- >> absolutely in the hunger games. my son had read the hunger games. he read the docs. -- the books. i actually bought him this the

third book. a few years later my daughter, started reading them. we were on vacation. i had nothing to read. they were playing ping-pong. i think that my daughter spoke and i tore through it. i downloaded the other books on my ipod. the great -- they are great. i finished it. a phenomenal political allegory. i called my manager and i said who is playing calling --coin? >> at your stage of being nominated for an academy award for times and maybe another, would you test for it if they ask you? >> share. they gave me the part, which was nice.

francis is so great and so generous. we had a meeting and i said -- this is how i see her and this is how i would like to see her develop. on the page she is a little bit of a cipher. i wanted to see a political evolution with the character. he agreed with me. luckily i got the job. i loved it. my kids were so happy. >> you could brag now. >> the games destroyed her. >> we need to unite the people. she is the face of this rebellion. >> your character -- are not the main characters. >> know we are ancillary. >> i think there is something interesting about that too. i love the fact that -- this is a political allegory with adolescent overtones.

with utopia and utopian stories it comes down to whether or not you have free will. >> which is what teenagers are about. >> yes. they will be like i will make my own choices. what will happen to me? mi and control? >> these are all the questions. >> these are all the questions. i think after, and a parent, it is interesting to be in that situation and to be in -- ancillary. you are representing an adult in that world. i thought it was fun. >> you actually performed with philip seymour hoffman three of four times. >> magnolia, yeah. >> it is hard to take the loss of someone who is so talented. you can't necessarily understand their pain. but you can understand the loss

of such an enormous talent. >> i think we all felt -- we were all devastated. everyone was completely devastated by him. he was so tremendously talented and empathetic, and really special. and clearly in pain, which i think is heartbreaking. we all felt like we wish there was something we could have done. our reached out and made a difference. >> when you look at your life, why did you become an actress? >> because i like to read. [laughter] because i love to read. >> from books it lead you to film yet the >> i loved reading because i like stories about people. i like the feeling of being inside the book. i like that transforming -- transformative thing literature does. when i started acting, i said

that when it is working and when it is the best it can be you feel like you are inside of the book. i am in the bubble. you are telling stories about who we are as human beings and what we can accomplish. how we can help one another, how we damage each other -- it is all behavior. it is fascinating. >> because, it is something about you that make you think something. my parents had a country store. i was an only child. it was a world of adults. so you had to understand their world. most important thing you could do is ask smart questions. >> that's right. >> date -- you can about politics and sports and gossip. >> you tell me what is important. >> exactly. it seems to me -- your dad was in the military? >> yes. and my mother was a psychiatric social worker. >> and they moved a lot.

so you had to adjust. >> different people, different cultures. yes, you are always thinking who are you? what are you like? you learned that is character. >> and you learn with a keen eye. but once you decided, was it instant love onstage? and hear your voice and react to another character? >> it was pretty much -- you know, i couldn't do sports i wasn't athletic. i did not plan instrument. there weren't any clubs i was in. all i did was -- i read. so you end up trying out for the school played. i did that. it was also something that for some reason i could do. so i was like, other than school it is the one thing i can do. people tend to go to things that come easily. it became easy.

it was just like reading. it was sort of one step after another. suddenly i'm like, oh i think i want to be an actor. i like this. >> what is the best advice you ever got? >> i'm trying to think. just be percent -- be persistent. it was less what i heard more what i saw. >> be persistent interns of getting the right roles? >> work work, work. take opportunities. a lot of the actors i admired were always working in different genres and places, nothing seemed to bother them. they just worked. >> i assume meryl streep was one. >> yes. merrill's number one. she was on the cover of time magazine when i was at teenager. -- a teenager. i held it up and said i want to

be like her to my father. she was on the cover of time magazine. i think vanessa redgrave also. she -- >> you know what is great about her, she is still doing it. >> that is what i mean. she is an example of someone who is continuing to work. that is -- oh my gosh. it is great. >> the consider yourself a late bloomer at all? either in terms of not so much skills, but being appreciated? most people would say she brings intelligence gravitas, and an inner self. that they say about meryl streep two. --too.

you also seem to have a wider range here it >> i think my career has been incremental. i was talking to another -- someone the other day, i said my first movie was 29. which is pretty old. i was at a soap opera, i did have a lot of broadway television, movies of the week. i couldn't get my first roll until 29. >> everything was very incremental. there was never any big surge. >> insulates is it better -- in some ways it is better? >> it is great. one tiny bite at a time. eventually you have eaten it it all. >> it not only build experience but it builds talent. >> right. >> you continue to learn and be

exposed to new people. all of that becomes who you are. >> and, there is no there there. there is nowhere to go. it is interesting about life and death, although we are in such a hurry but if you hurry through it all -- you don't want to get to the very end. [laughter] i think everything you do has something you enjoy at the time. >> when you look at this, is this something you do for the rest of your life? there is no input. there is a sense it is the filling. >> right. >> the hunger games, still alice maps to the stars. >> i can't take it anymore jacob. i'm tired. >> he is wonderful. what a great person. he is a lovely person. very family oriented.

intelligent. amazingly prepared. just incredibly precise about everything he does. soft-spoken and easy-going. >> what is great about being a director, is to see what an actor adds to your own sense of the character. they add to what ever the script says with their own interpretation. >> my husband said something interesting. he said is when an actor surprises you and they start doing something after you've written it. he feels that excited. you feel like you're holding dynamite. that's a really wonderful way to put it. >> i heard mike nichols say what do you want from an actor, he said i want them to surprise me. >> that is great. it's about creativity. you want to have a shock of creativity. i have it when i work with

another actor. you will start doing a scene and you don't know what they will do, and you will be excited. >> nominated for an oscar for times. you feel good about this? >> yes i feel great. i feel really gratified that people are so moved by it. that is what has been wonderful. it is very human. he wanted people to feel the humanity. people to connect and have insight into what this disease was like. >> let me do a round robin with you. self-image. >> good. [laughter] >> sessions. >> furniture. >> what are the earliest moments you remember? >> the first thing i remember is my mother told me yet, we

weren't -- we were supposed to take off our shoes. i ran down a hill and i got a big thorn in my foot. i came running back up and asked her to take it out of my foot. >> what has been the biggest achievement, i assume family? x yes. i can't believe i'm so wonderful -- lucky to have such a wonderful family. >> career also because it is something you made and created yourself here cut yes. i have gone from being a school who like to read to someone who is still getting parts and getting to work with so many really amazing and creative people. i have a lot of gratitude and amazement. >> any disappointments?

>> losing my mother. >> yet. --yeah. you are close to her? >> yes. >> when you do a film like this, you realize how important it is. >> to have a relationship. working with kristen stewart was extraordinary. she is a very soulful earl and a wonderful actress. -- soulful girl and a wonderful actress. it is the mother-daughter relationship and how they communicate. even though both of them are well intentions. it is not about having a bad relationship, it is about somehow not seeing things the same way, but not for a lack of love. that is what you see. watch these two people who are

like this and then meet at the end. >> if you weren't doing what you do, what would you do? with your obsession serve the same kind of -- >> that's the thing. being an actor there is so much to experience. i say what if i were a librarian? with that be enough? but then you have access to all of these stories. i love interior design. i have always wanted to be a doctor. i like the midst -- mystery of medicine. and also there are people. >> and you go to interesting paces -- places. you don't like to cook? >> no. mark does the cooking. i clean, and organizing.

x family schedules. >> yes. and doctors appointments. >> so if a young actress comes up and says what would you give for a last lecture, what would you say about acting? what would you say about this profession that is so interesting? >> you have to love it. i always say, if you don't like actually doing it, don't do it. if you don't like the process of sitting down and doing scenes, and being onset or state -- stage, then don't do it. >> someone once said don't tell me what to be a writer. tell me you want to write. be somebody. >> right. you get so wrapped up in making stuff that you don't even know -- it is not even like you like people watching. you just like the actual doing.

i used to love being in acting class. i love rehearsal. i like going to a film and seeing everyone saying hello and having everyone kind of come together and bring their own strategic. -- expertise. i like all of it. afterwards, sometimes i don't want to see it anymore. >> how many times do you watch your best performances? >> twice at most. >> if you know it will be on television or netflix? >> no. sometimes my family will see it and i will be like, turn it off. every once in a while i will see something now because i'm older than i was when i started, i went to see about -- documentary and they had clips in their. there was a scene with me.

i was like, who is that? that was a long time ago. just seeing how much change. alice interesting. >> thank you for doing this. >> thank you for having me. ♪

>> robert is here, the artistic director of the alvin amy dance theater. he was posthumously awarded the presidential medal of freedom last month. >> alvin was born during the depression and small-town texas. he had founded a dance company of his own in new york city. this became a place where artists of all races came together. the dances he choreographed where a blend of ballet modern, and jazz. he used blues and spirituals as well. to him, african american was told in a way it had never been told before. with passion. his performances transfixed audiences. >> the theater staged performances in more than 70 countries.

u.s. congress -- he will present the young performances beginning december 3. this is a look at some of those performances. ♪ ♪ >> i sometimes think dances are the most gifted athletes in the world. >> i would agree. >> there was once a famous wide receiver who took dancing lessons in order to make his own agility on the field better.

>> i have heard of that and basketball players. i think movement is a time old expression. it helps when you can tap into that physicality. >> when did you fall in love with dance. >> when i was little. >> music was your first love. >> yes. i always go back to thinks that i don't -- things that i don't remember. [laughter] but i was born completely bowlegged which meant i had restrictions in terms of having braces on my legs to make them straight. i could eventually sort of walk normally. i think there's something in that that is the reason i became a dancer. there is something in those restrictions. i feel that people are driven to certain things. if they are shy, they end up being a public speaker. movement started then for me as

something urgent and necessary. i have to say, though, it was through seeing soprano when i was little and then my mother played piano. we went to an applicable zion church. that is what i learned to speak to people. my first: was a lie. i was tiny. i had to stand up in my white suit, and i said my name is robert battle. i am six feet tall. [laughter] and then, i studied martial arts because i love in a somewhat tough neighborhood in miami florida. i needed to learn how to defend myself. it gave me a physical discipline

and confidence. then, i found dance through imitating michael jackson. my mother would find fred astaire and ginger rogers. i would imitate that i'll always -- i always want to please my mother. dancing found its way to my heart. that's what happened when you saw this? >> before julliard. i instill in miami. going to high school. we were busted their--bussed there. the same way we do now. young people are taken to the schools to see a performance in the morning. i sat in this dark theater, and my whole world was illuminated when i saw revelations. >> we will see some of that later. >> yes. i saw that and i knew i had to follow this. i did not know i would follow it

all the way to new york and the helm of the company. >> you said you knew you had to follow it. did you try to set yourself on that course? >> partly by instincts, i think. i was already taking dance classes. but it made me take it more seriously when i saw people on the stage to look like me. a dance that had to do with my up bringing in the church. a dance that had to do it the history i was learning about my people. my breath -- mother had a group called the african-americans they did poetry and song. when i saw a revelations, it felt like my whole life up to now was realized in that dance. i think something about that drove me. julliard came to do auditions. i auditioned. i got a full scholarship. went on to julliard. julliard, at the company that

time was rehearsing on 61st street. in the summer i would go and study at the school summer program. i was getting closer and closer to this vision that i had. then it just continued. i ended up dancing with a smaller company. i started to choreographed for a second company. jamison saw my work and asked me to do something for the first company and brought me back. eventually he asks me to take the company. >> this was what year? when you first came into contact at julliard? >> this was 1991. >> soa ailey had been done for a year. >> yes, i just missed him. >> so you get to know more about

the work but -- not only the work but the man. >> he personified this notion of what we think of as the good of humanity. he was a humanitarian. he was completely open to different languages. different sounds. different music. poetry. open to the poetry in each individual. he was all about giving one an opportunity to express themselves. there was something valid in that, and freeing in that. the fact that when he started this, he make it a repertory company. this means it is not just the choreography and one person. he had that inhibition --envi sioned early on.

before it became a buzzword to create funds, it was a mission for him. he wanted this to connect with all people. it wasn't a highbrow form. i think that spirit to -- i carry. >> have been only three? >> amazing. >> take a look at this. this is judith jamison talking about him and revelation. this is back in 2008 at this very table. >> to celebrate the african-american culture and the tradition in this country, that rolls off my tongue very easily but that is exactly what it is. he was so specific about what we were supposed to be about that it became universal. when you see it work like a

revelations, you see that and you realize is about all of us. it is not just about the african-american experience but all of us. it is about life death hope, spirit joy. alvin ailey encompassed the fact that dance should be something more. so we include you. but, we should be responsible to the people who we serve. the communities we serve. >> tell us about "revelations" and why it is such a huge piece of work. >> i think -- so much in great art is this notion of trying to express personal experience. through this masterpiece, it turned out to be a universal expression that had to do it hope. i think it was very significant that he used spirituals.

it was called negro spirituals. of course, we always don't say that. but it is true. those songs were more than just songs. they were political. they were of course, social. they spoke of triumph over despair. also, i think there was something important in that. if you think about the civil rights movements or before it to identify with these songs some of the people who committed some of the atrocities of oppression would crawl -- would call themselves christian. i think there was something about these spirituals, and seeing these people who are african-american, identify with their own christianity, that had to do with recognizing that i am human too. >> interesting that the presidential medal of freedom was awarded alvin ailey to and

at the same time to three civil rights leaders who had been killed brutally in mississippi. how significant was that. >> for me, that moment, and i think about "revelations" i had my own revelation receiving this award on mr. alvin ailey's behalf, and looking at president obama, i thought of the ran -- the man who raised me. my great uncle. he died my second year at juilliard. i think about some of the segregation and things that he experienced. when a look that do this team is in -- judith jamison, who has meant so much to little black girls who wanted to dance, there was something so significant about that moment. it was overwhelming. >> take a look at this. this is in "revelations".

you don't need to say anything. you feel it all. here it is. >> ♪ ♪ [singing] ♪ ♪

>> you have said that seeing "revelations" is as important and -- as knowing who martin luther king was. these are two essential things. to understand america. >> yes. absolutely. i think about martin luther king, and i think about his i have a dream speech. i think about what he was really doing in that speech, was holding, as mr. alvin ailey said, is hold a mirror to our society so people can see how beautiful they are. i think there is something in a revelations that does that. when i was -- when i officially became artistic director, we were on to her in russia. i had never been to russia and certainly not with the dance eater. there we are in one of these wonderful feeders. you feel so far away from home.

then the curtain goes up on "revelations" and by the time we hit "rock of my soul,", you see russian people dancing and swaying to the beat. there is something about that that lets it know that we are more like then on the like. >> you have said that "revelations" is about the human being and everything the human being and doers. >> absolutely. it starts with i have been puked and i have been scorned. who doesn't relate. we have something called "revelations" curriculum. we use it as a way to look at english and social studies, and humanities. sometimes we have -- using i

have been viewed and i have been scored, we have a young person who has not studied dance, but they had their own personal experiences. they could say, i have been d issed. so you could say with your religion, across the street, or the ocean, people connect. >> take a look. >> ♪ ♪ ♪ this little light of mine. i'm going to let it shine. this little light is a light of

mine. >> you could cover three years ago. >> yes. >> is the mission different? doesn't continue to build on the tradition? x it builds on the tradition. it is more ways to discover new voices. celebrating our history. celebrating the history of modern dance. and then giving the opportunity to these marvelous dancers to do their stuff. so, mr. ailey laid it out in the beginning, and it still works. in that way, for judith jamison and myself, she always says we are standing on shoulders. how is she? >> she is great. she is divine. we were just doing rehearsal for "revelations" live.

we have it for a few performances. she was just at rehearsals with musicians. you have said, and interested -- you are interested in how we come to gather in theater. >> absolutely. i think i try with certain choices i think i make with the repertory. this season, bringing in european choreographer his work will be new to the company. it will set it light -- shed a light on different answers. that has been fun for me. these dancers can do almost anything.

i watch them in the studio. i watch them when the audience doesn't get to see the amount of rigor it takes to do what they do and produce the amount of grace. and driven by these magnificent dancers. >> take a look at this. this is something you have choreographed. >> ♪ ♪

>> where did that come from? >> it came from a lack of space not in my head. i made it in a living room in queens many years ago. that is why most of the dance, i have traveled all over the world because of the alvin ailey american dance theater. somebody handed me this music. a cassette tape of this music. i just thought it was so incredible. of course i have always admired indian dance. it is so complex and communicative. that is what it reminded me of.

it also reminded me of ella fitzgerald. i love jazz. and scanning--scatting. i could hear words in these syllables that seemed to not say anything. i see all of those things that i have talked about in the stands, i see martial arts and the influence of michael jackson. i see the influence of thinking, sometimes the mouth is moving or the a's. sometimes that was the inspiration. >> much success to you. >> thank you very much. >> we have had a long relationship in terms of out an and dance. it is a great pleasure. i am sorry that he did not live to see the idea that the president of the united states an african-american, would put around his neck. the highest honor this country can give. thank you.

>> thank you. >> thank you for joining us. see you next time. ♪

>> here's johnny. >> from the moment he stepped on stage to the day he said goodbye -- the king of late night was johnny carson. >> he went right into the homes across america. >> mom, i am on tv.