Roberts rejects directing
In Money Monster, Julia Roberts stars with one actor-turned-director (George Clooney) and was directed by another (Jodie Foster).
So it would not be surprising if the bug had bitten her, too.
“I consider it hugely complimentary that people ask me if I want to be a director,” she said at the Cannes Film Festival on Thursday, following the world première of Money Monster. “But I do not.”
She continued: “I know my intellectual limitations, and I know the limitations of my patience ... It’s something, like playing a cello or painting, that I envy and I hope in another lifetime I might be drawn to, but I think in this life I just want to admire it from a small distance and be glad when my capabilities come into the orbit of a director that I just live to serve and impress.”
Ironically, Roberts plays a director whose TV investment show is interrupted when a disgruntled investor (Jack O’Connell) takes the host (Clooney) hostage, demanding answers to why a supposedly safe stock just tanked.
Clooney signed on to Money Monster before Roberts and said: “We didn’t think we’d get Julia to do it.” He sent the script to his Ocean’s Eleven co-star, expecting the answer no. “We’re still waiting for that no, so we can get on with it.”
On the joys and travails of working with another actor-director, Foster was unequivocal. “There’s nothing luckier,” she said. “It’s easier to have a dialogue with somebody’s who’s been in the fire and who understands how to translate the text to the screen.”
Clooney added: “Jodie’s not just an incredibly talented director; she’s an incredibly talented actress. She also understands how to talk to actors. Most of the time directors are very result-oriented. They’ll just say, ‘I need this reaction by the end of this scene.’ That doesn’t necessarily work very well with actors. Jodie’s very good about creating a very safe place for people to try things, like really bad dancing” — a reference to some soft-shoe Clooney performs in the film.
O’Connell, whose first acting credit dates to when he was 15, managed to keep a straight face as he talked about learning that he would be directed by Foster, and get to hold Clooney and Roberts hostage with a gun and a bomb vest. “I thought that was well within my capabilities.”