Julia Roberts covers the latest issue of British Vogue, and she’s interviewed by her friend, filmmaker Richard Curtis. Curtis wrote Notting Hill and that’s where he met Julia, when she came in to meet about the role in the 1990s. Notting Hill is a movie which grew on me over time – at first I hated it, but when I watched it a few years ago, there are parts of it which really hold up. It’s not as sweet as I remembered – there’s an edge to it, especially Julia’s character. Anyway, Julia is charming in this interview, and it’s a reminder that she really is one of the last movie stars, one of the last “greats” of that generation, the pre-social media gen. Some highlights from British Vogue:
How she stays so young-looking: “Pickling. I put my head in the jar every other Saturday for 18 hours. It does wonders. The smell is awful. No – serious answer. Good genes, leading a life that is fulfilling, and I have said this – and I say it usually as kind of a joke – but I do believe in the love of a good man. I believe that my husband loves me and cares for me in a way that makes me feel deeply, deeply happy. And anytime you see someone who’s happy, it doesn’t matter how old they are. Anouk Aimée said to me, many years ago when I was very young and it didn’t occur to me that I would ever have a wrinkle, “You live your face in your life until you’re 50, and then you live your life on your face.”
She’s not a trained actor: “I still envy people I work with who are very technical. I find it really fascinating, and I envy it so much. There’s so many different ways to approach it. And honestly, one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do was your movie [Notting Hill, 1999], playing a movie actress. I was so uncomfortable! I mean, we’ve talked about this so many times, but I almost didn’t take the part because it just seemed – oh, it just seemed so awkward. I didn’t even know how to play that person.
Her G-rated career: “My G-rated career…You know, not to be criticising others’ choices, but for me to not take off my clothes in a movie or be vulnerable in physical ways is a choice that I guess I make for myself. But in effect, I’m choosing not to do something as opposed to choosing to do something. Not long ago, I did my whole family tree with the brilliant Dr Henry Gates. If you’ve seen his show, Finding Your Roots, it’s brilliant and I’m obsessed with it. One of the things he does at the very, very end is he tells you who they have discovered you are DNA cousins with. I won’t even say, “Can you guess who I’m DNA cousins with?” because there’s no telling what horrible person you would choose just to embarrass me in this interview, but I am DNA cousins with Gloria Steinem.
The next generations of actors: “Oh, it’s completely different from my time. I mean, that’s when I really feel like a dinosaur, when you just look at the structure of the business. It’s completely different. I don’t know if it’s better, because it’s not my experience, but it just seems very different. And in a way, it seems so cluttered. There are so many elements to being famous now, it just seems exhausting. Whereas I feel like, and again this is just my perception, because I don’t really know – I’m not a young person starting out in show business in the 21st century – but it seems to me that it was: you meet people, you read for parts, you try to get jobs, you get a job, you try to do a good job, and from that job, you might meet some new people who might suggest you to some other people and then you might get another job and you might get paid a little bit more for that job, and it might be a little bit of a better job. It kind of just made this sort of structural sense, and now it just seems more chaotic. There’s more elements, there’s more noise, there’s more outlets, there’s more stuff.
Her family life: “Well, I think that the luckiest aspect of my work life/family life is that the success of my work life came earlier. So by the time I had the success of my family life and had a husband and children who wanted to stay home, I had been working for 18 years. And so I felt that I had the luxury. I didn’t have to pick one or the other…It was easy to pause work life to nurture my home life. And so, because I have girlfriends who were having to juggle being at work and having to go into the bathroom, and you know, get out that breast pump, I sort of went through that with them by proxy. To be allowed the luxury of staying home and being with my family, I had a deep gratitude for that time.
Curtis really pressed her about how she stays so youthful and Julia was lying her ass off! I mean, yes, she does have good genes and she was always a natural beauty (more than that, she’s always been otherworldly photogenic), but Julia has absolutely had some surgical upkeep. No shade, but it’s been obvious for years. I don’t really get why she went from “I never did nudity in films” to “Gloria Steinem is my cousin!” Feminism isn’t “don’t take your clothes off in movies.” That mentality is so dated, but hey, Julia sort of fits in with the Puriteens. Her most interesting comments are about how much the industry has changed and how she doesn’t really understand how things work for young actors these days. She’s not alone – the industry which nurtured her and helped her become one of the biggest movie stars in the world does not exist anymore.
Cover & IG courtesy of British Vogue.
“The love of a good man!” Exactly what is her definition of good. He cheated on his wife to be with her. And she’s no prize – everyone remembers the t-shirt incident. JULIA.
I still can’t believe she dumped Benjamin Bratt for the guy. But Benjamin was lucky she did.
100% agree @Brassy Rebel. Benjamin Bratt was my crush for years. But he found what seems like a very solid partnership with Talisa Soto, so it all worked out.
Benjamin Bratt was the best looking man she ever got with, and considering her past, that’s saying something. Her husband doesn’t come close.
Yum–Benjamin Bratt. Good actor; nice, sensible guy/husband/dad–and smokin’ hot. It doesn’t get much better than that.
I thought the rumor was her husband has been living in a different house on their ranch/compound for a few years. Hyping her husband out of nowhere makes me believe it.
My dream life is a ranch/compound with my husband in one home and me in another. That doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t love each other. Some people just take up a lot of space.
I saw her 4 years ago in the lift of Liberty Department store in London groping and kissing a dude that was not her husband. I couldnt help met the eye of her bodyguard. We shared a look.
@Aurelia, thanks for your comment, which is yet another of the hundreds or maybe even thousands of celeb-goss comments I’ve read over the years confirming most showbiz marriages are open and most celebrities – with the exception of Keanu, Adam Sandler, and Cillian Murphy and a few others – live very different lives than they present to the world.
I love my husband and have no desire to have sex with anyone else, but I wish to god we could afford to live in separate homes (and that my husband was less traditional and accepting of the idea!). I just LOVE my own living space. It is my unrealized dream in life.
Having read and considered the comments below, I would be happy to personally make Ms Roberts her own T-shirt: JU-LIAR.
I’ll even bust open my wallet and Spring for international postage.
I’m happy we still remember who she is. homewrecker and her cheater. That interview she gave to Oprah and spoke about Dany Moder made me puke and I was just a teenager.
Didn’t her engagement to Keiffer Sutherland end b/c she had an affair with his best friend?
No shade but she stole that man from someone else.
No one can steal someone…this type of language is so weird!
Then let’s rephrase it to “she went after a man who was already married with every fibre of her being” then wore a tactless, hurtful tee-shirt to rub it in.
The married man can still say NO….no matter what, unless incapacitated, we have free will.
Yeah, the t-shirt was tacky and insulting! it does not change the fact the married man left his wife, she didn’t put a gun on his head!
Women (and men to some extent) have to stop with this nonsense. A married man or woman cannot be stolen!
Maybe you can’t steal another human being, but you can aggressively pursue someone with every fiber of your being to make it happen. Please don’t pretend this isn’t true, and it’s SO uncool to go after a married person. You can sure CHOOSE whether to capitalize on exploiting someone’s weak moment, or keep boundaries.
No, but COME ON – it is Julia Roberts. The flattery and amazement that someone that famous and beautiful wants you…..very alluring. Ariana Grande and Spongebob are another example.
Eheheh. Agatha Christie’s Death On The Nile explained extremely well how someone “with everything” can dazzle a “civilian.” What man (heck, anyone of any gender) wouldn’t at least be seriously flattered?
And Roberts is definitely not helping her cause by pulling that “I gots real tru wuv/my mayyynnn and people who don’t–too bad for them” card. That stuff is annoying as hell in rl–from a celebrity, it’s intolerable.
Is he a toy or a pet with no agency of his own?
Then let’s rephrase it to “she went after a man who was already married with every fibre of her being” then wore a tactless, hurtful tee-shirt to rub it in. He was a married man who cheated on his wife.
Well, she once cheated on her fiance with his best friend. That’s not the same as cheating on a spouse, but it’s pretty close.
She definitely had some work done but she looks good and still like herself.
Totally agreed; there’s no doubt she’s had work done but it’s all very subtle.
I agree, she looks good but I’m sure has had some help. Having money and access to all the best of everything helps too.
Also, I don’t look at her and think “youthful” though? Maybe it’s because she’s been around so long, I don’t expect her to be younger or look younger than she is? I don’t know if that makes sense.
Yes, she was just living her life when the paps leaked a terrible photo of her in a bathing suit. I guess a beauty queen cant be seen like that and so I gues she got tummy tucked and eveyrthing else.
🙄
I guess it worked out for her because a cheater is usually not a good partner. Julia is a cheater as well.
I don’t think that I would say that her husband was a good man after all he cheated on his wife to be with her. I’m old school i want someone not married to someone else.
She often gushes about her husband like this as though we don’t all remember how that relationship started. All the gushing makes me think that her marriage isn’t as great as she says. I guess she has to present it as, “See?! It was all worth it!”
Whatever.
She gushed to extreme over every relationship she was in. I think she’s mean and fake. I think she stays semi-youthful looking because of money, diet and virgins blood.
Why, whenever Julia starts gushing about her husband, why do I feel queasy?
Because the entire situation in which they got together was sleazy?
Horrible pictures of Julia. She is smug and nearly Goop levels of annoying. At least Goop makes me laugh.
Does no one else remember “a lo vera” t-shirt? She latched onto Danny Moder and then publicly humiliated his wife, Vera, when Vera refused to give him a divorce. Rumor has it back then that Julia offered Vera a financial incentive to leave the marriage. “A good man ” bs.
lmao I f****** love how nearly everyone here is bringing up A low Vera. Julia will be a grandmother and we’ll still remember that isht.
People still remembered Elizabeth Taylor and Eddie Fisher till the end of their lives, too.
It’s a great tool for perpetually shaming people AND controlling other people by making sure they know what could happen to them if they get out of line.
It’s also why it’s important not to live your life for the approval of strangers.
Yep I remember that. They both behaved terribly. Never particularly fond of her – her acting always consists of huge horse laughs and shaking her hair (but she does have great hair).
She paid her something like 100K IMSMR.
Julia can be quite antagonistic, whether justified or not. I remember reading about some costar saying she would sit on her chair on set and scream, “Where’s my man?! Where’s my man!” LOL. And she didn’t get along with this costar (can’t remember his name) and they would verbally spar and she said to him something along these lines, “You know, in 10 years’ time, I’m going to bump into you and I’m going to be thinking to myself, ‘I don’t know who that is, but I don’t like that person very much’.”
Overall I prefer her to a social media influencer but I guess that’s not saying much.
Also she could have just said there’s a lot of channels on which actors have to promote themselves these days and media / context delivery channels are fragmented instead of that whole paragraph about the structure being chaotic.
She’s had more than a little done – her face looks like ironed wax. I agree about Julia being a star, but the thing about stars is that their fame is based more on personality than talent. Her personality isn’t interesting to me, so I’ve never found her movies to be interesting, either.
I’ll always remember her homemade shirt – A LOW VERA
She is her own biggest fan.
😂 this comment is gold!
lol yes 100%
She got lucky to have a career at a time when you just needed a look, not actual talent. She did fine as a younger actress playing the cute chick, but it’s no surprise to me that her career didn’t expand or even stay steady as she aged.
She is so annoying. So much BS.
STHU about your stupid husband. The constant “he is perfect. we are perfect. our love is perfect.” Like a broken record for years now.
Eric Roberts is the acting talent in that family.
Julia rode his coat tails at first. Romanced almost every costar she had, and was engaged multiple times. We’ve all heard the bts stories of her for decades.
She has had work done. Most in HW do. She is hugely wealthy and her looks are her income.
I’m tired of her all together.
” Romanced almost every costar she had, and was engaged multiple times. We’ve all heard the bts stories of her for decades.” — so we are back to women using their charms to advance their career? I do feel quite sorry for you!
vs, the truth often isn’t pretty but that doesn’t make it any less true.
She’s not saying Julia used her charms to advance her career, rather she had a tumultuous love life with many partners, some of whom she appeared in movies with. She was literally a “runaway bride” as she dumped a few of them almost at the alter. She was engaged to Kiefer Sutherland, then abruptly left him for his good friend Jason Patric. Good for her that she found the perfect man, only he was married.
@Joanne — Julia has talent, you can say what you want her as a person, it does not change her skillset! The entire world does not have to agree (that’s more than OK) but most do (that’s what matters at the end)
Don’t forget her brief marriage to Lyle Lovett. I never could figure that one out.
At least Danny and his 1st wife didn’t have any children. Lots of 1st marriages don’t last.
Not a fan of Julia but for the record, she caught Kiefer “partying” with a stripper like the night before their wedding and so she ran off with Jason. The stripper went public later!
I still remember Flatliners and all those ’90s brat pack films. Such a pure time – pre-911!
Agree the fact Julia dated a lot of men, esp costars, shouldn’t be an issue or held against her because she goes on and on about her husband. We don’t hear people calling Warren Beatty a phony because he finally settled down with Annette Benning and talked her up all the time.
She’s always hyping that man. Okay, we get it! You thought he was a prize and still do. We don’t care. We remember how y’all got together. We remember the T-shirt, dear.
I HATED this interview, please use professional journalists to interview people, not their friends/colleagues.
Her husband is not aging well. Does this mean in Julia speak that not having the love of a good woman ages a husband?
Maybe she’s secretly a succubus.
…or worse. 🙃😉 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_of_the_Nile_(The_Twilight_Zone)
So weird to consider Pretty Woman g-rated. I mean yeah it’s an absurdly glamorized take on being a street corner sex worker, but g-rated? I’d actually be fascinated to see the rumored original cut with a dark and significantly more realistic ending.
What? Didn’t he go down on her on a piano? Maybe I’m remembering that wrong.
She moved to San Francisco a few years ago and everyone I’ve known whose crossed paths with her (kids in the same school or soccer games, fellow dog walkers etc) has unfailingly said she’s been lovely to them.
She sold her Presidio Heights home in November 2023 after purchasing in 2020 and extensively remodeling. Her twins attended UC Berkeley, and now youngest finished high school and probably moved to wherever they went to college
I didn’t even know she was in the area until the story about her home going on the market. But I’m not in Pac Heights very often (read: ever). Weirdly I’ve never found SF to be a place for spotting celebs. I feel like they stick to fairly exclusive environments here. When I lived in Chicago, I regularly saw celebs just around town.
She looks good and still like herself, but she indeed looks in her 50s. Which in my book is even better, no shade to her. The headline is misguiding.
ITA! Chasing youth is a fool’s game. You just end up looking tweaked. But you can look amazing at any age. None of this “look good for your age” crap. If someone is 60 and in shape with a healthy glow, that’s a damn site better than 30 looking like you bake in the sun and smoke 3 packs a day. (Heck, I’m pushing 50 and I like my wine and carbs, but it’s all about balance).
This is all typical southern fake sweetness. People like this are always trying to maintain a facade of being simultaneously blessed, humble and perfect. She’s always been about false humility and her whole take on her simple stardom before social media and the new fangled chaotic system is bs. If she were up and coming in this time she would be the epitome of annoying hashtag blessed and live love laugh, passive aggressive annoying af
That picture reminds me of something Hugh Grant said in an interview with Oprah about Julia’s mouth being “cavernous” and when they were filming a kissing scene, she was “Very big-mouthed. Literally, physically, she has a very big mouth. When I was kissing her I was aware of a faint echo.” Apparently Julia was not amused.
Oh Hugh!!🤭😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣
To be fair, keeping your head that far up your own ass could have somewhat of a pickling effect.
She does not look youthful. She used to be beautiful. Now she looks hard and mean. Haggard even. It makes me think that is who she is. I used to adore her, but have not been able to stand her since she went after the married man and wore the t-shirt. So entitled. I still watch her movies though. They are good. Idk. I just hate cheaters.
No shade, but am I the only one who remembers seeing her tits in Pretty Woman?
If you’re talking about that scene where she finally kisses him while they’re having sex, then nope!
She had them use a body double in that movie.
Hugh Grant said she had terrifyingly large lips and mouth when they made a movie together. She always, like many actors, appears as herself: John Wayne, Marilyn Monroe, etc. She has no range. And I still don’t see why she won an Oscar for Ellen Brockovich. All her performances are just Julia being Julia.
…agree with everything here, But I’d be fascinated what we might have seen from MM if she had lived…
Oh Julia does love herself so, so much.
She is not going to age well, IMO. She has a hard look about her already.
And, in my previous comment I NOT was saying she used her romances to further her career.
It is well known that she had a lot of romances, many with co-stars. The Enquirer used to plaster all kinds of stories about her, years ago.
Off the top of my head, Liam Neesom, they lived together before she got PW. She romanced Matthew Perry for a short time.
Married Lyle Lovett for a short time.
Keifer Sutherland, engaged, dumped him a few days before their wedding, ran off to Ireland with his former best friend Jason Patrick. (who Julia met thru Keifer) some friend him.
Then took up with Benjamin Bratt for a few years.
Then she met Danny. Who she knew was married, the Tshirt, etc.
She and her brother Eric have been fighting off and on for decades.
Her half sister committed suicide and named Julia as being one of the people she felt treated her terribly.
I know Hugh Grant was more than happy to talk sh*t about her for several years after they made a movie together. In the UK press he really gave details.
The idea that no one can “steal” a married person from their spouse….Mmmm, IDK.
Ask yourself, if a Multi-Millionaire world famous movie star who owns several luxury homes all over made a play for you, and offered you marriage, could you say no?
Ultimately, Julia married her man, who had no problem cheating on his wife. Ya lose them , how ya got them, no?
Whatever, I am no fan of hers. obvs.
I’m off to see what all Hugh Grant said about her! 😀
The statement I agree with, those who are loved, yes they can look youthful and happy – inside and out.
She comes across as merely a more attractive Goop: the depth and breadth of a puddle, the privilege of excessive wealth and ….
She lived in my sister’s stepdaughter’s neighborhood in San Francisco and was very snippy to her when both were walking their dogs. She thinks much more of herself than is attractive.
I think she’s weird with a lot of women, to be honest, unless she’s officially promoting something and has to be nice. She’s Main Character 24-7 re: other women, which is not a likable trait.
That’s always been my impression too, even aside from the whole A Low Vera thing. She’s great around men but not so much with women. The actress who played Kat (and her parents & brothers) were my family’s neighbors growing up. When she was home visiting after PW came out and everyone asked about Julia Roberts she would just say they worked well together but didn’t hang out/weren’t friends. Her parents said JR was kind of rude to them but couldn’t have been friendlier to their (very good looking) son, lol.
Yeesh, what a shame. I’ve enjoyed a fair amount of Roberts’ performances. And she has amazing on-camera presence. She’s the textbook definition of a star–a person you can’t stop watching no matter what else is going on. But stardom and talent hasn’t fixed whatever her self-esteem deal is–and has probably made it worse. Why keep gloating over “stealing” someone’s husband when you have literally everything? Apparently everything ain’t enough–and won’t be.
She’s so insufferable and full of herself.
Thanks for the answer. I hate it.