Julia Roberts: Notting Hill role was ‘so uncomfortable’
JULIA ROBERTS almost refused her role in Notting Hill because it seemed “awkward” for her to play a famous actress, she has revealed.
The Oscar-winning actress, 56, spoke about her celebrated part in the hit 1999 romantic comedy about a bookstore owner falling for the world’s biggest movie star.
Speaking to the film’s writer, Richard Curtis, for British Vogue, she said: “Honestly, one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do was your movie, 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.”
The American actress, who recently starred in Netflix’s film Leave The World Behind, said she is never “playing herself ” in her roles, despite always “looking relatively like myself ”.
Roberts discussed her affinity for the romantic comedy genre, having starred in some of the genre’s most famous films like Pretty Woman (1990) and My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997).
She said: “Well, I love the genre. I mean, my desert island movie would probably be The Philadelphia Story.
“I also think it’s incredibly tricky. I never realised the windfall of good fortune I had until it was well behind me.”
“Like, to have made Pretty Woman, Notting Hill and My Best Friend ‘s Wedding. They just don’t come one after another (normally). So I think I got lucky.”
Roberts and Curtis also spoke about changes in the film industry since she started out more than 35 years ago.
She confessed that it “seems more chaotic” now for young people starting out in showbusiness, and added that being famous “just seems exhausting”.
“It’s completely different,” she admitted, adding: “I don’t know if it’s better, because it’s not my experience, but it just seems very different ... There are so many elements to being famous now, it just seems exhausting.”
See the full feature in the February issue of British Vogue, available via digital download and on newsstands from Jan 16.