Gun control activist Julianne Moore holds a gun on screen for the first time in 15 years in Sharper.

In Julianne Moore’s new role, she shows a gun on screen for the first time in 15 years.

The Oscar winner slips into the role of Madeline sharper, a film she also co-produced. She stars alongside Sebastian Stan and John Lithgow in the thriller, which opens in select theaters on February 10 and will be released on Apple TV+ a week later.

It will be new to see Moore wield a gun, as she has avoided such roles for more than a decade – in keeping with her gun control activism in the US. Her last known role with a firearm was in the 2007 thriller Following.

She told the Times in London: “It’s not something I’m not attracted to at all. I don’t find it attractive.”

What did… sharper OK? Apparently it offers some kind of moral story where everything in the story goes wrong because she uses a gun.

Off screen, Moore is a co-founder of the activist group Everytown for Gun Safety, whose website explains, “10 million ordinary Americans have united to make their own communities safer.”

Moore was motivated to action by the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012 that killed 20 children and six adults.

She told the Times: “I got very involved in the gun safety movement because I realized that if I didn’t do my part to change the law, I wasn’t going to protect my children. I thought, “I’m not the kind of parent I want to be.” I thought if something happened to them it would be my fault.”

The Times points out that when movies with guns and violence make so much money at the box office, Hollywood actors are in an awkward position to talk about gun control.

But Moore reflected:

“When you talk about gun safety and blame people for entertainment, it’s very important to realize that the whole world consumes the same entertainment as the US, but the US has easy access to guns. So I’m not a big fan of violent films, but I don’t blame gun violence on entertainment either.”