Actress Julianne Moore refused to take care of her family's laundry load over the summer (13) - she went on strike.

The Hours actress and her husband Bart Freundlich took their two kids to Long Island, New York for a vacation, but the trip wasn't as relaxing as she had initially anticipated.

In a new interview with U.S. chat show host Ellen DeGeneres, Moore reveals she ended up spending most of her time cleaning the never-ending assortment of laundry - that is until one day she decided to take a stand against all the hard work.

She explains, "I thought I'd relax this summer, but mostly I did laundry. I have rules about it, especially about towels, because we're near the beach... But nobody did anything. They put their wet towels everywhere, clothes were all over the house.

"The house was so messy, that I went on a laundry strike. I said, 'I'm not doing it anymore. You can just wear dirty stuff.' My son's bedroom was so dirty that our dog thought it was a place to go to the bathroom."

Ironically, her boycott didn't last long, as none of the heaps of laundry were getting clean and she decided to break the strike herself.

She adds, "Well I finally broke. I'm pretty vain about my kids. I'd say, 'Just go out there and wear those dirty clothes.' But then somebody's gonna go, 'Oh my God - look at her kids and those filthy clothes!'"