Julianne Moore will star alongside Tilda Swinton in The Room Next Door, the first English-language feature from acclaimed, Oscar-winning Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, his production company has confirmed.
Almodóvar first spoke about Swinton’s casting last year. The Scottish actress starred in Almodovar’s 2021 short The Human Voice, which premiered in Venice and was one of the director’s first steps towards an English-language feature. He followed up with the short Strange Way of Life starring Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal, which screened at Cannes last year. Almodóvar said the shorts were a testing ground to make him more comfortable with directing actors in English. He had been attached to direct the English-language feature A Manual for Cleaning Women, with Cate Blanchett set to star and produce, but pulled out in 2022.
Almodóvar is considered one of the greatest European directors of his generation and has won international acclaim with features such as All About My Mother, which won the best international feature Oscar in 2000, Talk to Her, was nominated for two Oscars in 2003 for best director and best original screenplay, and Pain and Glory, which picked up Oscar nominations as best international feature and in the best actor category for star Antonio Banderas. Almodóvar’s last feature was 2021’s Parallel Mothers starring Penélope Cruz, who won Venice’s best actress prize for her role.
Julianne Moore was seen most recently alongside Natalie Portman in Todd Haynes’ melodrama May December, which picked up an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay for co-writers Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik.
