One thing I can admire about Julia Roberts is that she and husband Danny Moder seem committed to raising their children outside of the Hollywood zone. Hence the family’s main home base on a ranch in Taos, New Mexico and a relative dearth of paparazzi photos of the children. These photos of Julia with her 7-year-old twins, Hazel and Phinnaeus, go way back to last September, and I guess I hadn’t realized how fast they’d grown. We all know where Phinnaeus’ got that amazing shade of red hair too, right? People often talk about how Nicole Kidman really should go back to red, but I’ve always felt that way about Julia as well.
Anyway, Julia has been working up to some heavy duty press for the dreadful looking Mirror Mirror, and she’s already given a slightly superior interview to Vanity Fair about how there could never be another Julia. Julia also gave a statement last fall about how she never wanted her kids to find out that she’s playing the Evil Queen, which left plenty of room for punchlines. Still, I sort of think Julia needs to relax about that issue because the Mirror Mirror trailers reveal because her Evil Queen to more of a Sarcastic Queen. It’s nothing like the badass Evil Queen that Charlize Theron has taken on in the upcoming Snow White and the Huntsman movie. Whatever the cause, Julia has calmly explained that she and Danny don’t really let their kids watch much of anything at all:
Julia Roberts’ kids don’t watch her movies – yet.
She’s starred in countless films, but according to the actress, it will be a while before her kids get to see any of them.
Roberts’s three children, 7-year-old twins Hazel Patricia and Phinnaeus Walter and 4 1/2-year-old Henry Daniel, will even have to wait to see her latest film, family flick Mirror Mirror.
“I think they are [too young] considering the part that I play,” Roberts, 44, told reporters at a press conference for the film, in which she plays Snow White’s evil Queen.
“We have a pretty rigid viewing feeling in our house,” she says of her policy with her husband, director Danny Moder, about exposing their kids to their work.
“We’ll find our right time that will be happy and joyous for us to share that all together, but it probably isn’t in two weeks.”
For now, her three kids don’t watch many movies or TV shows at all.
“Those nice, cozy, very short hours before bed, we just really spend together as a family talking and sharing the day and reading books, and really, before you know it, it’s time for bed,” she shares. “Part of it is there’s just not time for that. We would prefer something different in that time.”
Rather than spending family time gathered around the television set, Roberts and Moder share story time with their children.
“We’re more book people in our house,” she explains, adding that her family is interested in “stories and poetry and talking, sharing ideas.”
Which isn’t to say the actress is entirely opposed to her kids watching TV.
“They do get to watch some things,” she says. “But for us, we just feel there’s a real time and a place for it.”
[From People]
I definitely see Julia’s point, which is family time with cuddles and bedtime stories are much more important than watching whatever garbage happens to be playing on the Disney Channel. Parents of young children know what I’m talking about when I say that the quality of that channel has severely declined in the past couple of years — let’s call it the Hydra Effect — when “Hannah Montanna” went off the air and several other (worse) shows sprung up in its place. Now it’s like Disney keeps playing the same few episodes of “Shake It Up,” “Good Luck, Charlie” and “Hey Jessie” over and over again.
So yes, children’s television in general and many of the movies don’t provide an ample source of great role models. Still, there are ways to frame issues, and Julia comes off sounding sort of holier than thou in this interview. Or does she? However much she tries, her kids will eventually watch all of her movies … and I think she shouldn’t be nearly as worried about the Evil Queen role as the one where she plays a prostitute a law student. Egads!
Julia shown with twins Hazel and Phinnaeus in LA on 9/15/2011; Julia and Danny Moder shown with Henry on a Kauai beach on 9/14/2011; photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
Her daughter logos exatos like her.
her kids are a few young to see her movies and it’s always a dilemma for the actors:their young kids can see their movies or not?
I understand that.. her kids are still very young. Why would a 7 or 4 year old want to watch Pretty woman.
Kids don’t read enough. They watch TV or video games or movies. but most don’t read enough. Which is why so many of US children are struggling in school. Parents don’t read to their children. And yes I have first hand knowledge of this.
“Parents don’t read to their children. And yes I have first hand knowledge of this.”
Could you provide it? No snark, but I’m not sure how far first hand info can take you, especially for a national/international picture.
My parents read to me and my siblings pretty (advanced books, too) and we read a lot on our own. Of my brothers and sister, the ones with children do read to them. So do my friends who have kids.
I think people still read, and still read to children – and probably at around the same rate they always did. It’s just that we’re more concerned about it now.
@Lis: I don’t know exactly where @Lisa gets her information from, but I can say that most parents don’t read to their kids very much. I’ve been a librarian for over 10yrs, so I fortunately come in contact with alot of pro-active reading parents. But, sadly that’s not really the norm. Even in a library I see alot of parents that can’t be bothered to read with their children–even when the children are begging for it. Alot of parents will bring their young children to the library for some ‘free babysitting’ while they hop online to check their facebook, or even LEAVE to shopping or something (sorry, that’s just a pet peeve of mine–I am a librarian, not a nanny, and public libraries are not always as safe as some people assume!). It’s sad to see that early love of books deteriorate over time because of lack of parental participation/encouragement. I also worked in a video store for a long time, so I saw the other extreme–kids who were barely literate because they were too busy playing Grand Theft Auto and watching R-rated movies at 8yrs old. With the increasing popularity of personal electronics, social media, instant streaming, video games, hundreds of tv channels, etc there are so many ‘easier’ ways to occupy kids time. It’s sad, but most parents would rather plop an ipod or PS3 in their kid’s hand than a book.
I have 2 small children, and we all read constantly. 2 days a week I let them watch 1 hour a day of tv–usually ‘Little Einsteins’ or ‘Team Umizoomi’ because they’re both fun and educational. Every once in awhile my 4yr old gets to watch a Pixar movie or a phonics dvd from the library. They won’t be watching any Julia Roberts movies anytime soon, tho. 🙂
I’m more curious as to who Hazel inherited that white blonde hair from. Julia has red hair and the husband has dark brown hair. i have noticed that a lot of Caucasians start off with that pale hair and then it darkens as they get older.
Her house sounds a lot like my own. My kids have never been big tv watchers…we all prefer to read books, or play games. And when we do watch tv or movies, it’s usually online
( Netflix/Hulu) or DVD’s. Friends and family are always suprised to discover that I don’t even have cable, lol.
Both my parents had black hair, I was also born with a full head of black hair. But, as a toddler and pre-teen, my hair was just as white as Hazel’s. My siblings as well. We now all have dark brown hair.
Yeah, my husband had white blonde hair as a young child. I never believed him until I saw the pictures, because his hair is almost black now.
I think Julia said a long time ago, before she ever even had kids, that she was really blonde when she was little.
Julia is not a natural redhead. She looks great as a redhead.. but that red hair comes from a box of Clairol.
There are a couple of pictures of her as a child, that pops up occasionally, and she was a blonde. But like so many of us… out blonde hair is gone before we are a teen.
Exactly. Julia had dark brown hair as an adult naturally. Her red-haired phase was from a hairdresser.
Love that! I like her a little bit now.
My son is definitely more of a reader too, but he does love Phineas and Ferb. I think it’s a good thing to read, play games, and spend time as a family instead of having the tv on all day.
Since when has Danny Moder been a director!!!?????? IMDB states him as a camera operator.
Haha that was a sneaky little in wasnt it?
I came on to say just this! I always thought he was a camera man too.
I agree with her, and I don’t have cable either, but I wonder how she feels about everyone else’s children watching her extremely mediocre movies? Somehow I think she’s fine with that. Just keep that crap away from her children, please.
Oh give me a break. Her kids watch TV. A nanny probably helps with story time, and I am sure her kids have seen her in something. Do they live in a bubble??? If they have ever been to a friends house, they probably watched TV or a movie. I cannot stand these self involved celebrities who pretend they are “perfect” parents and their homes are like Norman Rockwell paintings.
Ohh +1.
I believe her when she says haven’t seen any of her movies. I can’t see a seven year old sitting through Erin Brokovich. As for watching tv, I’m sure they do, but she’s probably selective about what they watch, and they probably don’t watch tv often. I’m no celebrity…I’m just a working single mom…and I feel that too much tv watching prevents me from interacting with my kids, who don’t see me enough as it is. She’s a celebrity who jet-sets around the world, so she probably treasures every moment she has with her kids, and doesn’t want to waste it watching television when they could all be talking and playing and reading books out loud.
I believe her too but Hook is a really good movie and I bet in a year or so, the twins will love it. She is a little obnoxious as Tink, but the movie as a whole is a great adventure.
I know Julia doesn’t work a lot anymore, but when she does, who takes care of the kids in Mew Mexico, and where does her husband work as a cameraman or “director” there? That always seemed weird to me when Demi and Bruce Willis did it from Idaho too. Not judging, I just think it sounds awkward.
The kids go with them, and Danny is a cameraman on movies also. She and the kids were in India with him while he was on location.
Moo, you pretentious home wrecker!!!
I actually think this is probably one of her better interviews. I like Julia the family woman much better than “there will never be another Julia Roberts,” Julia. I like her organic approach to raising her children and when you look at them together, they are a really cute family, kind of beachy,farmer markety types. But then, like Goop, Julia has to run her mouth about something and just like that, poof, we are reminded that, oh yeah, she can be an unbearable poot.
I like her better with red hair, sort of like I like Kate Winslet better with red hair also. Also along with others I thought her husband was a cameraman, not a director. Or did she finance one movie for him and now he can call himself a director.
He was definitely a cameraman when they met….
I don’t watch your movies either, Julia. Books are much more entertaining than you.
Ding-ding-ding! We have a winner!
Her kids look miserable. I realize that I’m judging from a picture and that may not be reality, but considering the few times we’ve seen them, they look truly unhappy. She strikes me as a screaming control-freak mom who lives in the delusion that it’s all about her.
To the World: Please stop watching her movies so we can be free of her duck-lipped cackling once and for all.
I so agree with you!
Get over yourself, Julia! You are no longer “Pretty Woman”. Those days are long gone…
So she won’t want them to see the movie where she stole their daddy from his first wife then…
“A Low Vera!”
+1!
I’m more interested in knowing how they’ll explain to the kids how Mummy and Daddy met and how Mummy ‘broke up’ Daddy’s 1st marriage lol.
(I don’t really care, but how this woman gets a pass yet others are still hated is beyond me).
She is so pretentious…..UGH! I use to love her and now I just really can’t stand her. She doesn’t strike me as an affectionate person so its hard to really gage what kind of mother she is…unlike Jennifer Garner where her kids are always smiling and look really really happy.
Also..the reading issue…I just have to say my kids do so much reading at school…come home to a LOT of homework and I just don’t see any harm to letting them unwind and watch a little tv before bed. We all watch something together (not disney) and just relax. We also read together but we also enjoy snuggling on the couch and just being together. It doesn’t have to be an educational moment every single moment of the day.
Most of her movies aren’t for kids, so no surprise they haven’t seen them.
I still don’t like her, but she is still very famous and I have to give her credit for keeping her family pretty private.
Where’s the younger kid? I remember some blind item not long ago speculating that he had some kind of disability of something, some physical condition, and the parents hid him; one of the common guesses was Julia Roberts and her husband. Anyone recall that?
What kid would want to see a Julia Roberts movie? I refuse to see them, and I’m no kid anymore.
I agree that kids TV these days is HORRIBLE, absolutely unwatchable. The only show I’ve seen that I could stomach is Spongebob, and that humor works on an adult level too. The live action shows are just dreadful. I think it’s great if parents don’t let their kids watch much TV; TV and many movies are just a drain on time, your brain, and real life.
Come to think of it, I’ve never seen the younger kid. Ever. Hmm, it might be them. She seems like someone who wouldn’t want that item tagged onto her resume.
I agree with her. I think it would be confusing to young kids to see their parents as a character on TV or in a movie. When I was little, I thought the people in the TV were real and that the characters were real, and I tried to figure out constantly how they got into the TV box. When they would show the actors’ names at the beginning of my favorite shows, I was always confused, lol, because those weren’t their names on the shows.
The interview sounds much better than the caption-looks like at least videos are in the future.
BTW, the red hair on Fin is from Danny, and Hazel looks like Julia.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – WHY do Hollywood parents refuse to run a comb through their kids’ hair? And does every child have to dress like a hobo? TRY HARD. News flash- you’re a movie star and just because you let your kids run around with stringy hair and tutus doesn’t make you “like us”.
I hate Kristen Stewart and her spoiled, bratty attitude but I really want to see Snow White and the Huntsman. It looks like it will be really good. AND, I like CT so I may just go and see it.
Can’t stand this woman and I wish she hadn’t spawned. That last photo is a great shot.
I think she looks like a regular mom in these pictures, armful of kid junk, with children who had their hair combed in the morning but they have been playing and it gets stringy. They don’t look unhappy – they look like normal kids, in motion, after leaving the park or a party.
I also think journalists ask the same dumb questions repeatedly and actors come off sounding more pretentious or arrogant than they are in reality because a)editors & writers want to make an interview sound catty or salacious, and b) they are justifiably tired of being asked if their young children are watching their “made-for-grown-ups” movies.
I completely identify with wanting to maximize the “very short hours before bed” and tv, while nice for unwinding, speeds through the fleeting minutes a working parent gets with their child before bedtime.
Damn that b!tch for making me love her.
I don’t let my kids watch Disney or Nick shows, but PBS Kids has some wonderful educational and imaginative shows: Word World, Sid the Science Kid, Super Y. I agree TV should never take the place of reading, but it does have its place in the rotation of activities.
Yeech, when will she just go away?
She won’t let her kids watch her movies? or they don’t want to watch her and Tom Hanks smiling on a vespa for 2 hours, maybe?
That literally made me snort-laugh.
She doesn’t say they never watch TV. She just said that she regulated and watches what they see, which is good parenting. There were alot of shows my Mom would not let me watch, even in the days before 100 channel cable, so I get that. I have a couple of friends who are name actors and they are funny about letting their kids see them working. It is a hard disconnect between Mommy and that mean lady on TV who looks like Mommy, so until they are older, I think she’s spot on.
doesn’t he have kids from his previous marriage (the one he was in when julia came into the picture). they are never mentioned. i guess she thinks she only 3 children. i bet she is an evil step mother.
No, he had no children.
First, I just saw the trailer for Mirror Mirror last night and I thought it looked awesome. It’s the first movie that I’ve actually wanted to go see in the theatres for a long time.
I actually think it’s good that she doesn’t let her kids watch much TV. Current kids TV is complete crap. It’s really hard to find something decent other than Sponge Bob and Dora. Also, how odd would it be to see your parents the topic of preview clips?
Love how 3 of the 4 pics show her gnashing her big teeth 😀
Book people. Really when does she read with them?? Between movie takes?? I think she means the nanny reads to them. She is so affected, fake & ungrateful.
Ok, here goes a really bitchy message to Julia Roberts. Please STFU. She is the only actress (I mean that) that I will refuse to watch in movies. She irritates me to no end. With that laugh (nails on a chalkboard) and her pretentiousness that just seeps through the screen. And this is coming from someone who likes Gwyneth Paltrow!~
She’s the original Duck Face.
I know! we miss raven and lizzie mcguire! those were the disney days! we dont even have a t.v., but we watch episodes on netflix and youtube….and the good luck charlie and all those shows today=uugh.
They are not about comraderie and life lessons, and having alliances with your parents at least sometimes/in the end. Lizzie and Raven WERE like that. And they were just so much less snarky and disrepectful, while still being funny….sigh. hope a new cycle starts soon. Anyway, her kids are 7 and 4.5? That’s pretty young for alot of stuff, anyway, IMO.
A little late to the conversation…but does anyone else think it funny that actors who make their living in movies and tv, and often started off in tv (and were desperate to work, so tv was great!) often make these type of comments…”we don’t watch tv”.
I’m not saying that kids/people should watch a lot of tv (reading is great!) but it is funny that they make a sort of make condescending comments. After being an actor in my early years, auditioning for every tampon commercial and every low brow tv show and crossing my fingers I got the job, hearing actors, now in their stardom years find tv so…i don’t know, beneath them.
just an observation…
No, I was thinking of the same thing.
I really can’t stand Julia. I used to like her, but she has shown herself to be a snot once too often. I do think she comes off as holier than thou in this interview, and she better be careful. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you & your family, Julia.
As for the “director” she’s married to, LOL! I have a theory – I bet he really is a director now. A director of some small film that he dreamt of doing & she fronted 100% of the cash for it.
Btw, the twins look just like Moder in the face – I see nothing of Julia in them. Let’s hope they didn’t get her big, wonky mouth.