Tom: Whoa, secret wedding. Julia Roberts pulled the same move.
Ron: Is that that toothy girl from Mystic Pizza?
Ron: Is that that toothy girl from Mystic Pizza?
Julia Fiona Roberts (born October 28, 1967 in Smyrna, Georgia) is an American actress. She became well known during the early 1990s after starring in the romantic comedy Pretty Woman opposite Richard Gere, which grossed $463 million worldwide. After receiving Academy Award nominations for Steel Magnolias in 1990 and Pretty Woman in 1991, she snagged a Best Actress Oscar in 2001 for her performance in Erin Brockovich. Her films, which run the gamut from romantic comedies to crime thrillers to straight dramas, have collectively brought box office receipts of over $2.6 billion, making her the most successful actress in terms of box office receipts.
Also well-known for her megawatt toothy grin and her love for going barefoot.
She's the younger sister of actor Eric Roberts and the aunt of actress Emma Roberts.
Filmography:
- Mystic Pizza (1988) as Daisy Arujo
- Steel Magnolias (1989) as Shelby Eatenton Latcherie
- Pretty Woman (1990) as Vivian Ward
- Flatliners (1990) as Rachel Mannus
- Sleeping with the Enemy (1991) as Laura Williams Burney/Sara Waters
- Dying Young (1991) as Hilary O'Neil
- Hook (1991) as Tinkerbell
- The Player (1992) As Herself
- The Pelican Brief (1993) as Darby Shaw
- I Love Trouble (1994) as Sabrina Peterson
- Prêt-à-Porter (1994) as Annie Eisenhower
- Something to Talk About (1995) as Grace King Bichon
- Mary Reilly (1996) as Mary Reilly
- Michael Collins (1996) as Kitty Kieran
- Everyone Says I Love You (1996) as Von
- My Best Friend's Wedding (1997) as Julianne Potter
- Conspiracy Theory (1997) as Alice Sutton
- Stepmom (1998) as Isabel Kelly
- Notting Hill (1999) as Anna Scott
- Runaway Bride (1999) as Maggie Carpenter
- Erin Brockovich (2000) as Erin Brockovich
- The Mexican (2001) as Samantha Barzel
- America's Sweethearts (2001) as Kiki Harrison
- Ocean's Eleven and Twelve (2001 & 2003) as Tess Ocean
- Mona Lisa Smile (2003) as Katherine Ann Watson
- Closer (2004) as Anna Cameron
- The Ant Bully (2006) as Hova (voice)
- Charlotte's Web (2006) as Charlotte A. Cavatica (voice)
- Charlie Wilson's War (2007) as Joanne Herring
- Duplicity (2009) as Claire Stenwick
- Valentine's Day (2010) as Kate Hazeltine
- Eat, Pray, Love (2010) as Elizabeth Gilbert
- Larry Crowne (2011) as Mercedes Tainot
- Mirror, Mirror (2012) as Queen Clementianna
- August: Osage County (2013) as Barbara Fordham
- The Normal Heart (2014) as Emma Brookner
- Money Monster (2016) as Patty Fenn
- Smurfs: The Lost Village (2017) as Smurf Willow (voice)
- Wonder (2017) as Isabel Pullman
- Homecoming (2018) as Heidi Bergman
- Gaslit (2022) as Martha Mitchell
- Ticket to Paradise (2022) as Georgia Cotton
This actress provides examples of:
- Adam Westing: In Ocean's Twelve, her character Tess attempts to impersonate Julia Roberts... and badly. She also plays a fictionalized version of herself in Notting Hill.
- Beauty Inversion: For Mary Reilly, she played a dowdy and grubby chamber maid in Victorian England.
- Eternally Pearly-White Teeth: And it's a nice wide grin, too.
- Enforced Method Acting: For Pretty Woman there's a scene where Vivian is laughing hysterically while watching I Love Lucy. Roberts said director Garry Marshall made her laugh by telling jokes.
- Fake Irish: Acted as Irish characters in two films in a row - Mary Reilly and Michael Collins.
- Hollywood Hype Machine: One of the few examples that did hold up. After her Star-Making Role with Pretty Woman, she was hyped up considerably. Although she had a few flops in the early '90s, she became one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood.
- I Am Not Leonard Nimoy: When people see her in movies, they see Julia Roberts, as opposed to the characters she plays. She's seen as a wholesome good girl. The few times she's attempted to go against type — Mary Reilly, Mirror, Mirror, Michael Collins — have not done well with critics. And they rarely did well at the box office, either.
- The Ingenue: Was typecast as a wholesome good girl - to the degree where a plot point in Flatliners was rewrittennote so as not to ruin her good girl image.
- It's Not Supposed to Win Oscars: Roberts has described herself as "an ordinary woman with an extraordinary job", and proudly admits she came to Hollywood simply to make fun, escapist popcorn films. This naturally attracts the ire of many high-brow film critics, but nevertheless, the woman is a juggernaut at what she does. That said, she's no slouch when it actually comes to the Oscars, with four nominations and one win.
- Playing Against Type:
- Mary Reilly is one of her only period pieces, playing something of a Haunted Heroine.
- To a lesser extent in Closer, where she plays a considerably less wholesome character than usual. Alice - who's played by Natalie Portman - would be more her type.
- And of course as the evil queen in Mirror, Mirror.
- Production Posse: She was reunited with the following Pretty Woman cast and crew members - Richard Gere, Héctor Elizondo, Kathleen Marshall, Patrick Richwood and director Garry Marshall - for Runaway Bride.
- Reality Subtext: Playing the titular Runaway Bride when she herself had cancelled her wedding days before the ceremony.
- Romance on the Set: She dated Kiefer Sutherland during Flatliners.
- Sexy Discretion Shot: A self-described example:Roberts: People don't want to see me having sex... I'm the queen of the 'kiss, foreplay, dissolve.' And then the 'Whoo! Good morning, tiger!'
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Her movies are typically very idealistic, but some have interpreted strangely misanthropic and even nihilistic vibes from them.
- Star-Making Role: She garnered an Oscar nomination for her supporting role in Steel Magnolias, but Pretty Woman was what made her a household name.
- Those Two Actors: Has worked opposite George Clooney five times, typically as love interests.
- Throw It In:
- For a scene in Pretty Woman where Edward suddenly closes the necklace box before Vivian can touch it was ad-libbed by Richard Gere. Vivian's nervous laughter was Julia's real reaction. Vivian's line about being from Georgia was also to explain her mild Southern accent, as Julia herself is from Georgia.
- The 'platypus' face she makes in Runaway Bride came from something the director saw her doing to his own children.
- She ad-libbed the $15 million figure in Notting Hill (in rehearsals she had said $10 million). Apparently she increased it because "I'm kind of tired of low-balling".
