There's no more respected actress working today in the film industry than Julianne Moore. The slim, luminous redhead is up there with the likes of Meryl Streep and Susan Sarandon, women who avoided any sex symbol packaging and have been allowed to shine on screen.

Moore has a remarkable body of work that swings between clever art-house movies like Todd Haynes' Safe and Robert Altman's Short Cuts and mainstream studio productions like Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park: The Lost World. She took over Jodie Foster's role as Clarice Starling in Hannibal and was the wonderful Amber Waves in Boogie Nights.

It just seems to get better and better for the 42-year-old actress, who has every reason to look forward to the Oscars on Sunday, March 23, as she has two nominations - one for Best Actress for Far From Heaven and the other in the Best Supporting Actress category for The Hours.

In Far From Heaven Moore plays an unnervingly happy 50s American society housewife and mother whose world collapses when her husband (Dennis Quaid) gives in to his homosexuality. Breaking all the rules she seeks solace in the arms of an African-American gardener.

It's a wonderful drama in which heightened emotions are hidden behind smooth smiles and comfortable lives until the veneer of respectability is stripped away.

"I thought, 'Oh my God, Todd has made a movie about the failure of American optimism,' " says Moore. "I was struck by how much this character smiled.

"The challenge of this type of acting is to find emotion in this completely artificial background. You have to let the real feelings surface," she says.

The husband escapes into the underground gay world of the 50s while her perfect hostess character is forced to face up to the disapproval and rejection of those around her. It's also about a woman learning to stand on her own feet at a time when that wasn't encouraged.

"She's living at a time when the personal desires are repressed by what was the so-called acceptable lifestyle of the day," says Moore. "This is a woman who endures and has unflapping faith that it will all work out.

"I personally don't know if I would have had the courage to defy the rules back then."

Although Far From Heaven depicts America in the 50s, it's relevant to today in so many ways, she adds.

"The racial and sexual struggles are still very relevant. I still don't think it's easy for mixed-race couples and gay men still get ostracised for coming out of the closet."

Moore, who lives in New York with her partner, director Bart Freundlich, and their two children, was born plain Julie Smith. She added the Anne to her first name from her Scottish mother, while Moore is her father's middle name. "It made it sound more exotic," she smiles.

Her dad was a military judge whose work kept him on the move. It took him to 23 separate locations while Julianne was growing up and she lost count of the number of schools she attended.

"I was a skinny, shy bookworm and didn't have the easiest of times fitting in at school," she says.

"I also wore thick glasses. I was hardly the pretty girl that everyone responded to. I was the smart kid. I was always brought up to respect hard work, with my father putting himself through law school after Vietnam.

"But with my looks, part of me still feels like a nerd. And with this skin and colouring, I do look Scottish. When anyone says I am pretty or attractive, I can't quite believe it."