Pretty Woman star Julia Roberts and Richard Gere thought they were making Hollywood’s ‘worst movie’ in 1990, despite the romantic comedy becoming a timeless classic that defined her career
This year’s Oscars nominations are due to be revealed on 22 January, with Julia Roberts heavily favoured for inclusion in the Best Actress category thanks to her performance in psychological thriller After The Hunt. Currently available on Amazon Prime Video, the film represents a daring new direction for Julia’s illustrious career, featuring her as Yale professor Alma Imhoff, who faces enormous pressure when a student levels a shocking accusation against one of her colleagues, portrayed by Andrew Garfield.
Should she claim the coveted accolade, it would mark a second Oscar triumph for the 58 year old mother-of-three, who previously secured the Best Actress prize for Erin Brockovich in 2001. However, countless fans still associate the star primarily with her career-defining performance as Vivian in Pretty Woman, the film that launched her to international fame over 35 years ago.
READ MORE: Critics Choice Awards 2026 winners list in full as Adolescence dominates TVREAD MORE: New Year Honours list 2026 in full – from Idris Elba to Cynthia Erivo and Lioness stars
Remarkably, both she and co-star Richard Gere were convinced the movie would flop spectacularly. “I remember we didn’t know what we were doing,” she confesses. “I’d sort of say to Richard, ‘What are we doing? What are we doing?’ He goes, ‘I don’t know.'”.
During filming, director Garry Marshall would merely tell Julia to be amusing. She recalls, “I was like, ‘Okay, so a man walks into a bar…’ Like, I mean, we were really shooting from the hip, for sure.”
Flashing her trademark dazzling grin, she continues, “When we finished, we all kind of thought, ‘We just had the most fun making the worst movie in Hollywood.'” In reality, she reveals the crew were so convinced the film would be a disaster that they held clandestine discussions about how to gently inform Garry of the bad news. Julia discloses, “They truly had a lunch to talk about how to let him down that this movie was such a steaming piece of s**t.”
Conversely, Pretty Woman exceeded all predictions upon its 1990 release and catapulted Julia to superstardom. Her role in the 1999 romantic comedy Notting Hill, opposite Hugh Grant, marked another career pinnacle, and Julia still recalls the “immense pride” she experienced when the picture challenged Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace at the cinema box office.
“At the time, I was like, ‘Why on earth would we release this movie with a Star Wars movie? I’m sure the Star Wars movie was incredible, I’m sure it was. But there was a big, full page in The New York Times that said, ‘The Force is With Julia’. And I truly was just… you couldn’t talk to me all day. I was so puffed-up. I was so full of myself for 24 hours.”
Julia wed cinematographer Daniel Moder in 2002, and together they share three offspring – 21 year old twins Hazel and Phinnaeus, plus son Henry, aged 18. Her celebrity status was further solidified when she joined forces with the likes of Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Matt Damon in the Ocean’s Eleven series.
“Those boys are as fun as you imagine they would be,” she remembers. But as the sole female, it was heaven and hell simultaneously at all times,” she explains.She finished school and moved to New York, where she shared a flat with her sister for years – but she didn’t have acting on her mind. “The amount of pranks that were played on me!”
One incident she vividly recalls is when they barricaded her Vegas hotel room exit with an enormous plant and scrawled a smiley face on the door using shaving foam. “They thought it was hysterical,” she recalls. “But don’t worry, I got them back, one by one.
There was a period when university was simply out of reach financially. “It was not financially feasible for our family,” she reveals.After completing her education, she relocated to New York, where she bunked with her sister for several years – though acting wasn’t on her radar. “I got a job at a shoe store and was as happy as could be,” she remembers. “It was never, ‘I’m going to move to New York and I’m going to break this town. ‘ That was never in my consciousness.
Her most recent film, After The Hunt, ranks amongst her most demanding projects yet. One particular hurdle involved her character receiving a slap across the face from co-star Ayo Edebiri, who portrays student Maggie.
“I was just feeling bad for her,” she admits. “Nobody wants to be slapped. My mother, may she rest in peace, was an all-time slapper. That was her kind of go-to move, not in an abusive way but just to get your attention. I just said to Ayo, ‘You just have to slap me, it’s what’s called for.
Don’t be scared, don’t hold back, we will survive, it will be fine.'” She also shared a nerve-wracking moment with her co-star Andrew. “There’s always one scene that I call ‘the throw-up scene’,” she admits. “It’s the scene you just dread.
However, on a lighter note, she relished him teaching her to flip beer mats! Discussing their playful scenes, she confesses, “I realise that on paper I’m a grown woman, but in a room with a man close to me that is not my husband I’m a 12 year old.” And if full-on romance is required, it’s even more challenging. “Pretend to kiss me and I’m giggling,” she reveals.With nearly 70 films to her name, Julia is eager to prioritise her own desires as she matures. She declares, “Now our kids are out of the house, I’m really feeling myself and have been for a while.
I really feel the compulsion to go back to theatre.” While this might result in fewer films in the future, she maintains that quality trumps quantity. “I think we only have a certain number of destined performances inside of us, and I kind of keep joking and saying, ‘I maybe have three and a half movies left in me.’ And whatever they are, I feel they will find me and I want them to be these beautiful experiences.”
