She was once the queen of rom-coms, starring in huge hits like Pretty Woman, Notting Hill and My Best Friend’s Wedding, but it’s now been two decades since we’ve seen Julia Roberts in a leading role in the big screen genre (2001’s American Sweethearts, seeing as you’re asking).
However, that’s all about to change when she appears alongside George Clooney in the upcoming Ticket To Paradise. So, what took her so long?
Speaking with The New York Times Magazine, the actor revealed that it had nothing to do with her not actually wanting to do another rom-com – far from it, in fact.
“People sometimes misconstrue the amount of time that’s gone by that I haven’t done a romantic comedy as my not wanting to do one,” she explained.
“If I had read something that I thought was that Notting Hill level of writing or My Best Friend’s Wedding level of madcap fun, I would do it.”
Which is why she ended up signing up for Ticket To Paradise.
“But even with that, I thought, ‘well, disaster’, because this only works if it’s George Clooney. Lo and behold, George felt it only worked with me. Somehow we were both able to do it, and off we went,” Julia added.
The Oscar winner, who starred alongside George in Ocean’s Eleven (2001), Ocean’s Twelve (2004), and Money Monster (2016), also revealed that the bar for a rom-com script was raised “even more” once she started a family with husband Danny Moder, with whom she now shares three children.
“Then it’s not only ‘Is this material good?’ It’s also the math equation of my husband’s work schedule and the kids’ school schedule and summer vacation,” she continued.
“It’s not just, ‘Oh, I think I want to do this.’ I have a sense of great pride in being home with my family and considering myself a homemaker.”
Julia added: “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. It was like I was only gone when they were napping or something.
“But as they get older, and particularly with my daughter, I do have a sense of responsibility for showing my children that I can be creative and that it’s meaningful to me — so meaningful that for periods of time I will choose to focus on that almost more than my family, which has been hard for me to come to terms with.”
In Ticket to Paradise, Julia and George star as a divorced couple who fly to Bali to stop their teenage daughter’s wedding. The actor said it was a “joy to play in that sandbox” again.
“I love to laugh and be funny. 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,” she said. “It’s been a long time.”
The film is set to be released later this year.