The girl named Chloe

MANILA, Philippines - In Chloe, an untrusting wife attempts to prove that her husband is cheating by hiring an escort to seduce him, inadvertently endangering her entire family in the process.

Catherine (Julianne Moore) is a respected doctor, and her husband, David (Liam Neeson), is a dedicated music professor. They’ve been married for years and have a teenage son together, but lately the passion has faded from their romance.

The morning after David misses his flight home — and the elaborate surprise birthday party Catherine had planned to celebrate his return — Catherine finds a text message on his phone that leads her to believe her husband is sleeping with a female student. Her suspicions grow over the following weeks, and when Catherine has a run-in with an escort named Chloe (Amanda Seyfried), she hires the ravishing blonde to test her husband’s fidelity. After each encounter with David, Chloe reports back to Catherine with all the sordid details. But the further the experiment goes, the less clear Chloe’s motivations for taking part in it become, and the more the untrusting wife begins to fear that the situation has spiraled out of control.

Directed by Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter, Ararat), the erotic thriller is a remake of Anne Fontaine’s French film Nathalie..., and was adapted by Erin Cressida Wilson.

Below are excerpts from the interview with Julianne:

Could you briefly tell us what Chloe is about?

“The movie is about a family. My character, Catherine, is a gynecologist married to a college professor and they have a teenage son. She begins to suspect that her husband’s having an affair.

When she runs into Chloe in a bar, she hires her to solicit her husband and see what he does. The movie focuses on the relationship between the woman and this girl and how it takes over her life.”

 How did you hear about this project?

“It came to me from Atom Egoyan. He’s a director whose career I’ve followed pretty avidly and I’ve always wanted to work with him, so I was very excited about it. The script felt very edgy for me. I spoke to Atom about it at length because it’s important to be really specific about these people, and their actions and intentions. Atom is so specific about the meaning behind behavior that I felt like I was in good hands with him. His work is so compelling and so grounded in emotion and feeling. You relate to the characters’ behavior, but his films are always really provocative.”

Do you feel Chloe belongs to a specific genre?

“It’s a drama that has aspects of a thriller, but I don’t think you could call it a genre picture. To me, mostly, it’s about behavior. It’s such a pleasure to be in a movie where you have people interacting and you see how violent reactions can be to just simple behavior. It’s the stuff of our lives, how we speak to each other and how we behave.”

How did you imagine Catherine when you read the script?

“Catherine moved me. She’s at a point in her life where she feels that she’s lost control. She felt she understood her relationship to her husband and son. Suddenly, she doesn’t understand it at all and feels like she doesn’t have a hand in it. The people she loved and thought she understood now seem so far away. That doesn’t seem too unusual to me. I think anybody can relate to that.”

What’s her intention when she hires Chloe?

“Her intention is to understand her husband, to find a way to see what he wants. She thinks he wants to be with young women. She says to this young girl, “Okay, tell me what happens, what he says to you and what it feels like. ”Chloe is Catherine’s way of being with him. The intimacy that she develops with Chloe is about being closer to husband, but then it gets misconstrued. Even to be in a movie where there is a discussion of the nature of intimacy and how dangerous and loaded it can be is really compelling.”

Is Catherine trying to rediscover herself?

“We define ourselves by the people around us, by our relationships, so maybe Catherine’s lost her sense of who she is. Whenever you push the boundaries of human behavior, it’s not easy to accept what you find on the other side. She realizes that maybe she felt safer, more secure, in the world she was in. Emotions can be dangerous. Catherine really pushes it as far as she can push it and probably learns that it’s not something you can mess around with.”

And Catherine’s relationship with her son is also very important.

“Absolutely. This is a woman whose relationship with her child has changed and she’s not allowing it to change, she’s not allowing him to grow up. For some reason, it’s important for her to keep everything as it is and within her control.”

 What was it like creating a “safe” couple with Liam Neeson and a “dangerous” one with Amanda Seyfried?

“It’s been really interesting. They’re both such wonderful actors and lovely people, very easy people to work with and also incredibly game. Everybody has been up for the challenge and not been squeamish about it. The movie is about intimacy and trying to let somebody else see you and know who you are. It’s been very comfortable working with them and I’ve been very lucky to have such wonderful partners.”

 Were the intimate or erotic scenes the most difficult to shoot?

“I think making sure that the movie’s anchored in reality was the most difficult. What this woman does is quite a big transgression. You have to make sure that the audience watching her feels that they could do that too. The challenge is to keep all of it within the realm of the absolutely realistic and possible.”

Chloe is now showing in theaters.