Julianne Moore Once Defended Alicia Vikander From a Jerk on Set

Alicia Vikander is about to go from indie darling to action hero in Tomb Raider, as the roundhouse-kicking, tank top–rocking Lara Croft. To evolve into the character, Vikander didn’t just work on a killer set of abs: She drew on her experiences in Hollywood to tap into her power. And one of those experiences was watching Julianne Moore refuse to kowtow to a high-powered jerk on set.

In her cover story, Vikander told Vogue that a man in a position of power made a cruel, loud joke at her expense on the set of the 2014 fantasy film Seventh Son. “I was really embarrassed, and I would have just laughed it off,” she said. Enter Moore, who was ready to call the guy out: “But Julianne turned to him and said, ‘If you ever do that again, I’m walking out of here and I’m not coming back.’ She was just, like, Don’t you fucking say that again. It showed me that she had the power. And that meant so much to me.”

The idea of one of the industry’s leading ladies showing a newcomer how to stand up for herself resonates with the mission of the #TimesUp movement, and the experience informed Vikander’s staunch support of the initiative to combat workplace sexual misconduct and inequality. Vikander was part of a crew of actresses including Natalie Portman and Reese Witherspoon who were emailing each other over the holidays to come up with a plan to fight back in the wake of Harvey Weinstein’s downfall: “It was such a community that came together. I got on the phone with Natalie, whom I’d never met, and Reese. Suddenly I felt like I made a lot of new friends. One thing that really got to me in their initial email was the fact that—because women are not as well represented in all industries—we often have to fight for jobs. The competition is so tough that instead of getting to know each other and working together, we learned at an early age to compete for that single spot. So then to . . . feel like I had actually made friends with the other actresses and people I admire, it was really cool.”

Vikander worked with Weinstein only once, on Tulip Fever, which was released last September right before allegations against him dropped. She said she had only heard he was “an incredible bully” and didn’t experience anything like what other women have come forward about regarding the producer. But there is no shortage of cruel men in Hollywood, as Vikander’s story from Seventh Son shows. Thankfully she had Moore in her corner, willing to use at least one four-letter word.