Still Alice: A Look at Living With Alzheimer’s

In the film Still Alice, Julianne Moore portrays a 50 year old Professor at Columbia University in New York City. She is a gifted linguistics researcher and lecturer, a wife, a mother and a person living with early onset dementia.

Dementia, of which Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type, is a general term for a decline in a person’s mental capability – severe enough to interfere with daily life. Alzheimer’s accounts for around 60%-80% of cases with symptoms ranging from memory loss, the ability to focus and pay attention, visual perception impairment and a vagueness in everyday conversations. It’s a disease that doesn’t have a cure. 

Still Alice is a poignant and emotional film, with Moore studying hard to make sure she made her performance as Alice as realistic as possible.

“I don’t have any personal experience with Alzheimer’s disease, and I’ve never witnessed the behaviour that is described in the movie. So I wanted to make sure my performance was as realistic as possible,” she said. “I wanted to bring specificity to absolutely everything I did. I didn’t want to represent anything onscreen that I hadn’t witnessed. It’s not fair to make it up. Too many people are dealing with this disease. I really needed the time to do the research, and I wanted to figure out the disease and get it right.”

Moore spent four months researching the disease, which affects almost 350’000 Australians – a number that is predicted to increase to almost 900’000 by 2050. “I talked to clinicians, doctors, patients, caregivers and family members, and watched documentaries,” Moore said. “I went everywhere that I could. I also took cognitive tests to understand what it feels like.”

“People were so generous with their time and their information and their experience. I learned a tremendous amount,” said Moore, who has been nominated for an Academy Award for her performance. “I was very touched by these people’s stories, and really did my best to try to understand, and asked questions about what it felt like and how their lives have changed and how they were coping.”

“I am very proud and feel really lucky to have been involved with this project,” said Moore.

Lisa Genova, a neuroscientist and the author of the bestselling novel Still Alice on which the movie is based, said she really appreciated Moore’s commitment to the role. “Every detail of her performance is so specific. From her movements to her speech patterns, she accurately showed what it’s like to have Alzheimer’s,” said Genova.

Still Alice opens in cinemas around Australia on January 29.

Read more about dementia here.