Why Julianne Moore Wants to Win the Oscar

Feb. 16, 2015— -- Sure, it's an honor to be nominated for an Academy Award, but five-time nominee Julianne Moore is honest when she says she wants to win.

"That’s the nomination from your peers," the actress, 54, told Parade magazine. "It’s a very, very big deal."

Moore, who is nominated this year for her moving role as the fictional Dr. Alice Howland, a 50-year-old university linguistics professor and a mother of three who is struck with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease in "Still Alice," has already nabbed Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and BAFTA awards.

Many predict she will finally take home her first Oscar on Sunday night's telecast.

"It’s a movie about mortality and being," she told Parade of why she believes the film strikes a chord with audiences. "It makes us really think about our lives. You’re never closer to loving life than when you’re closest to loss."

To prepare for the role, Moore told Parade, she did four months of research, talking to real women with Alzheimer’s and doctors working with patients, visiting a long-term care facility, and even taking a cognitive test herself.

Though audiences have shed tears over Moore's portrayal, she calls the film "uplifting."

"We didn’t make it in the spirit of loss or diminishment," she said. "Really, it’s about what you love, who you value and how much you love being alive."

And right now, the mother of son Caleb, 17, and daughter Liv, 12 and wife of director Bart Freundlich, couldn't be happier.

"The family that I have. The friends. The marriage," she told Parade. "How lucky am I?"