Julianne Moore Says ‘Dabbing’ Is How She Embarrasses Her Teenagers Most: ‘It’s Really Humiliating’

Julianne Moore is not a cool mom — at least her kids don’t think so.

The actress sat down with PEOPLE at the Cannes Film Festival where she talked all about parenting, including how to embarrass her two teenagers — Caleb, 19, and Liv, 15 — with a little dabbing.

“Children think that everything you do is embarrassing,” the actress, 56, admits. “Singing and dancing and dabbing — dabbing is really humiliating when you do that with a 14 or 15-year-old. I think dancing in the car is the worst, it’s most egregious thing you can do to a teenager.”

And what does she dance to that’s so embarrassing? “I always say that my jam is ‘Brick House,’ ” she says with a laugh.

Moore attends the Cannes Film Festival screening of Todd Hayne’s Wonderstruck

For full coverage of the Cannes Film Festival, including the biggest stars and best red carpet moments, check out people.com/cannes-film-festival

The star, who’s in town with her movie Wonderstruck and as a L’Oreal brand ambassador, also opened up about her daughter Liv growing up aware of her job and how it affected her view of the world.

“She’s a wonderful student and a really great girl and an interested person,” Moore says of her daughter. “I think growing up so close to what I do and what her dad [director Bart Freundlich] does, I think she knows that — I remember she this when she was really little about movies, she said, ‘You know mommy, some people get really scared when they watch movies but I don’t because I know that they’ve made everything up.’ ”

Moore says her daughter applies the same understanding of “illusion” to fashion after years of watching her mother pick out dresses and get all made up for red carpets and appearances.

“I think she likes clothes and fashion and image, but I think she also knows it’s something that’s created,” Moore says. “It’s not something that’s innate, a lot of people come together to make an image.”