Julia Roberts on her grief-stricken character in 'Secret in Their Eyes.'
Julia Roberts was meant to be a man, at least in her new movie, “Secret in Their Eyes.” Her character in this noirish murder thriller was written as a man who loses his wife. That’s how it was in the Oscar-winning Argentine drama upon which the film is based. But in the U.S. remake, written and directed by Billy Ray (the screenwriter of “Captain Phillips”) and co-starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Nicole Kidman, it is Roberts who loses a family member, this time her daughter. Those script changes, conceived by Roberts, “had a seismic effect on the movie,” Ray said, giving audiences a new emotional entry point even as the character’s personality did not otherwise change.
As Jess, Roberts, the onetime rom-com and box-office queen, appears starkly harrowed, bathed in grief. “She had this brilliant idea of putting in these contact lenses that would make her eyes look kind of milky and washed out,” Ray said. To get the portrayal right, she did camera tests with her husband, Danny Moder, who signed on as the film’s cinematographer at Roberts’ suggestion. The film opens Friday.
Roberts, 48, whose career shifted with an Oscar for “Erin Brockovich” in 2001, has for the past decade focused on family life; she and Moder have three children, 8-year-old Henry and nearly 11-yearold twins Hazel and Phinnaeus, and live mainly in Malibu, Calif. “I’ve always been pretty picky,” she said of her roles. Now, “it just has more to do with a combination of picky and the school calendar and my husband’s work schedule.”
Recently in Santa Monica, Calif., Roberts spoke about being “on the fringeish” end of the entertainment industry. “I don’t know the players and the temperatures of everything, what movies are doing well and not doing well,” she said. “There’s not quite enough hours in the day to keep up with all that.” These are excerpts from the conversation.
Q: Mr. Ray told me he sent you the script because he heard you were looking to disappear into something.
A: It does need to be something that’s really challenging, that you can really sink your teeth into. I just felt drawn to Jess and her complications and how sunny and simple her life is. I really liked that and the idea of just completely stripping her of that.
Q: That means no vanity on screen.
A: It needs to have impact. You need to see that the candle inside of someone has been extinguished. And I had some really specific ideas (for a pivotal scene that depicts that) and almost constructed Jess from that moment into the past. (The contacts were) like having Kleenex in front of my eyes. It was so hard to see with those things on.
Q: Is it easier or harder to have your husband behind the camera?
A: It’s both. In this instance, I think it made a world of difference for me. But it makes me more nervous. You think, oh God, what if he’s just like, “What is she doing?” But it also makes you work that much harder because you just want to have this kind of triumph — to go, look!
We trust each other, too. It’s not just, you know, make me look 30 in every room in the house. We want to show the truth of the character.
Q: We’ve heard a lot recently about how difficult it still is to make it in Hollywood as a woman, whether you’re behind the camera or in front. People are speaking up now about disparities in pay and opportunity. You were the first actress to be paid $20 million for a movie, for “Erin Brockovich,” and you had to fight for it. Do you think things are changing now?
A: Well, I think it does this (seesawing hands), and then we kind of go, OK, we’re fair, we’re good. And then it’s like, not so much. For me it was, well, why not get paid this amount of money, equal to my peers and male counterparts? Barbra Streisand was a real pioneer in that. I look to her, or Faye Dunaway. If you’re talking about what people perceive you can accomplish, if you can open a movie, then that’s that, but if it’s just based solely on your gender, I don’t really get that. But I don’t make the rules. Q: But you could. A: I’ve done my best, sort of forging my path and standing up for myself. And whatever ripple effect might come from that, I couldn’t really say for sure. It’s so funny that this is still the topic. Any of those things that try to herald women at the same time almost perpetuate the problem because you’re saying, “All hail the women directors.” Well, they’re just directors. They’re just fabulous directors.
Q: Have you worked with a lot of female directors?
A: I just worked with Jodie Foster. She’s definitely a trailblazer and a force to be reckoned with. (The movie) is called “Money Monster,” with George Clooney.
Can you imagine Jodie Foster on a set with me and George? One of these things is not like the other. We’re so goofy, and she’s so serious. We had a great time. George plays a television stock-market predictor guy, and I am his director, in the control booth. I’m the controller.
It’s funny, being able to talk to George, and he cannot talk back to me. To say: You’re forced to hear me, I could just blab all day long, and you can’t take that thing out of your ear. It was a different experience for us. Yeah (flashing her famous grin), it’s good.