'They Are Incredibly Formidable': Billy Crudup & Bart Freundlich On Julianne Moore & Michelle Williams And 'After The Wedding'

(CBS Local)-- It's been nearly 20 years since Billy Crudup starred in "Almost Famous" with Kate Hudson.

Crudup is back on the big screen this weekend alongside Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams in "After The Wedding." The film is directed by Moore's husband Bart Freundlich and this marks the third time Crudup and Freundlich have worked together. The movie tells the story of a family wedding that is overshadowed by shocking revelations. Both were moved by the performances of Moore and Williams.

"They are such formidable performing artists," said Crudup in an interview with CBS Local's DJ Sixsmith. "To give any one major performance is an accomplishment. They have done that again and again over a long period of time. It makes them incredibly formidable. To be in their company and work this way is a great experience to test your own capabilities and process and learn from them."

Meanwhile for Freundlich, he's directed his wife before and that helped him get a great performance out of Moore.

"Both Julie and Billy are really script-oriented," said Freundlich. "They are not going to do a project because I come to them and pitch them a great idea. Once I've given Julianne the script, I know we're in partnership on this now. At that point, I know my job is to keep my eye on the tone of the entire thing. I really trust her and Billy and I learned to trust Michelle and Abby Quinn, who I didn't know before."

"After The Wedding" hits theaters on August 9. Despite the time that's passed since "Almost Famous," Crudup is amazed that the film is still relevant.

"I think it's more popular now then it was then," said Crudup. It came out and it didn't go gangbusters at the box office. There are more young people now that go, oh look it's Russell's grandfather. By the way, that's good enough for me."

"I think it's because it's good," said Freundlich. "It's about human relationships in this package of this rock & roll and nostalgia. Anything that happened when it came out was the minutia of the moment. It's more popular now because it's so good. That other stuff was incidental at that time."