Julia Roberts is a true Hollywood legend. Since her breakout role in the 90s film Mystic Pizza, the Georgia native went on to star in hit after hit. These include the rom-com Pretty Woman with Richard Gere, which went on to earn over $460 million at the box office. Aside from this, Roberts is also best known for films such as My Best Friend’s Wedding, Notting Hill, Erin Brockovich, and the Ocean’s movies where she joined George Clooney and Brad Pitt.After a string of success and an Oscar win (for Erin Brockovich), it seemed like Roberts disappeared. Sure, the actress appeared from time to time but for the most part, she was suddenly missing from the big screen. Now, some may have thought that the actress stepped away to focus on her family. However, that’s not exactly the whole story.
Julia Roberts Wanted To Become A Hands-On Parent From The Start
Several years ago, Roberts met husband Daniel Moder on the set of The Mexican (that rom-com she did with Pitt) in early 2000. Two years later, they got married. Another two years after that, Roberts and Moder also welcomed their children, twins Phinnaeus and Hazel. The couple also welcomed their third child, son Henry, in 2007.
Determined to be a hands-on mom to her children, Roberts has since made it clear that her family comes first. “I have a sense of great pride in being home with my family and considering myself a homemaker,” the actress explained. “For so much of my children’s younger life they would see their dad go off, and I would work a little, but they almost didn’t notice.”
In fact, it was Roberts’ desire to always be around her children that nearly convinced her to decline August: Osage County, the very film which led to her latest Oscar nod. Her youngest was about to go to kindergarten at that time and Roberts just wanted to be there.
At that point, her husband gave her the push she needed. “I remember talking to Danny about it, and he said: ‘At some point you were going to have to leave us to work. Wouldn’t you rather roll those dice in a situation like this, where you have a good understanding of what you’re going to be doing and the people you’re going to be working with?’”
Since then, however, Roberts became less visible. And while some may have thought she was really trying to walk away from Hollywood this time, it really wasn’t the case.
When It Came To Roles, Julia Roberts Didn’t Like Anything That Came Her Way
As an actor with multiple awards and nominations, it’s safe to say that Roberts has earned the right to choose the roles she would play next. Perhaps, what many didn’t realize, however, is that Roberts couldn’t seem to find the right script for so many years.
“Here’s the thing: If I’d thought something was good enough, I would have done it,” the Oscar winner bluntly stated. At the same time, Roberts made it clear that she was only interested in material that would be clearly worth her time.
“That raises the bar even more because then it’s not only Is this material good?” she explained. “It’s also the math equation of my husband’s work schedule and the kids’ school schedule and summer vacation. It’s not just, Oh, I think I want to do this.”
It seems the Starz series Gaslit was good enough of a material to get Roberts in front of the camera again. It’s a series that focuses on other lesser-known players in the Watergate scandal, Nixon’s attorney general, John Mitchell, and his wife, Martha Mitchell, whom Roberts was approached to play. The actress was all for it, but she had one condition; Sean Penn had to play her husband.
“I just thought (it) would be intriguing to Sean, and lo and behold, it was,” Roberts said. “He's great at portraying anything, but the idea of seeing him really inhabit and have this complete and total internal and external transformation into John Mitchell, it's pretty astonishing.”
Her First Rom-Com In 20 Years Is In The Works
Today, it also seems Roberts is finding more material that she can work with. In fact, the actress is set to star in Ol Parker’s Ticket to Paradise, her first rom-com in 20 years. For the Oscar winner, it made sense to return to the genre now because she finally found something was a “Notting Hill level of writing or My Best Friend’s Wedding level of madcap fun.”
“But even with that, I thought, Well, disaster, because this only works if it’s George Clooney,” Roberts added. “Lo and behold, George felt it only worked with me. Somehow we were both able to do it, and off we went.” Because Roberts and Clooney also worked together in the past, it made shooting a new rom-com a lot easier for the actress.
“The good news is yes. I love to laugh and be funny,” she remarked. “You get into that mode of those endorphins going off when you’re clever and people going, “Oh!” Then that becomes this automatic thing where you’re always thinking in terms of creating fun. It’s a joy to play in that sandbox. It has been a long time.”
Aside from Ticket to Paradise, Roberts is also set to star in the drama Leave the World Behind with Mahershala Ali, Kevin Bacon, and Ethan Hawke. The A-lister is also working on the thriller drama Little Bee, which Roberts is also producing.
It seems the actress had been right all along, having once said that there is always time for everything as far as acting goes. “The things that are correct for me will come to me at the time that I am interested in them and have the capacity, the understanding, to do them.”
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