Julianne MOORE & Tilda SWINTON

For these two Oscar winners, a long-hoped-for collaboration in The Room Next Door feels meant to be.

THE ONLY SURPRISING THING ABOUT Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton playing lifelong friends is that it didn't happen earlier. Both turn 64 this fall and have children around the same age. Both broke through in the fertile indie movie scene of the 1980s and '90s and have worked prolifically ever since, with some 150 films between them. They had crossed paths over the years, each a keen admirer of the other's work. (Julianne's favorite Tilda movie: The Eternal Daughter. Tilda's favorite Julianne performance: The Big Lebowski.)

So when director Pedro Almodóvar asked Swinton who should be her costar in his new film The Room Next Door, she could think of only one name. Swinton would be Martha, a war correspondent with stage 3 cancer. The role of Ingrid, who must confront her fear of death to help her friend, called for someone who radiated decency, "a deeply sympathetic and relatable portal to a lived experience," Swinton says. In short? "The Julianne Moore role." Despite being Oscar winners and Hollywood royalty, neither actress particularly identifies as a Woman in Hollywood.