SALON

Wednesday, Mar 9, 2011 10:10 PM UTC

Julianne Moore to play Sarah Palin in “Game Change”

What, no Tina Fey? HBO's TV movie casts "Kids Are All Right" star to play the Alaskan governor in 2008 election

By

Topics: Sarah Palin, 2008 Elections, Game Change, Movie news, Television,

Julianne Moore to play Sarah Palin in Sarah Palin and Julianne Moore

What an upset! Back in 2009 when we first heard about HBO optioning Mark Halperin and John Heilemann’s “Game Change” for a film, we put a lot of candidates in the ring as possible Sarah Palin stand-ins. “Game Change,” which chronicles John McCain’s 2008 presidential bid, seemed a little too serious to hand over to Palin-impersonator Tina Fey, but that didn’t stop Salon readers from coming up with tons of other great suggestions. (Megan Mullally is a personal favorite, she would have nailed it.) Other good Palin stand-ins included Felicity Huffman , Mary-Louise Parker, Laura Dern, and Jane Lynch.

With so many guesses, you would have thought somebody would have hit on award-winner Julianne Moore to play the Alaskan governor, since according to a Deadline Hollywood bulletin from today, that’s who the producers are going with.

It seems an odd choice: Moore has a certain brittleness to her that doesn’t translate into the aw-shucks beauty pageant persona of Palin. With the exception of her turn in “The Kids Are All Right*,” Moore always plays characters that are wound rather tight. Which the Palin certainly was in 2008, but not in the same way. For example, we could never see Sarah Palin going into a pharmacy and doing this:

Sarah would be way more likely to smile with all teeth, stare down that pharmacy attendant, and kill him with kindness rather than imploding with pressure. Oh well. Moore is an amazing actress who rarely fails at conquering a character, so we’re sure she’ll be extraordinary. But do you think she was the right fit for Mama Grizzly?

*Which reminds me…you know who would have been great as Palin? Annette Bening. Or Diane Lane. Or…

 

Drew Grant is a staff writer for Salon. Follow her on Twitter at @videodrew. More Drew Grant.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 13 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Oklahoma senator who voted against federal funding for Hurricane Sandy victims: Tornado aid “totally different” from Sandy aid
36 points37 points | comment
vote
"Slave descendants seek equal rights from Cherokee Nation": long, detailed narrative of legal and historical complications in red-white-black relations
24 points25 points | comment
vote
Obama opposes GOP bill on Keystone XL oil pipeline: The White House said Tuesday that the bill “seeks to circumvent longstanding and proven processes” by removing a requirement for a presidential permit. The legislation also says no new environmental studies are needed.
21 points22 points | 2 comments
vote
Who is "Company Doe"? Corporations accused of wrongdoing win battle to keep identities secret
14 points15 points | comment
vote
Facebook’s Hate Speech Problem
4 points5 points | comment

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations