Julia Roberts reveals why she almost passed on her ‘Notting Hill’ role

Actress Julia Roberts almost passed playing the role of famous actress Anna Scott in the 1999 classic ‘Notting Hill’. In a new interview with British Vogue and conducted by Notting Hill screenwriter and Roberts’ friend of 25 years, Richard Curtis, the 56-year-old actress expressed that she hesitated taking on the role opposite Hugh Grant. The topic came up when Roberts shared that she still envies people she works with who “are very technical” in their craft as actors, reports etonline.com.

She added that she finds it “really fascinating, and I envy it so much” because “there’s so many different ways to approach” a role. Curtis then says that technique can sometimes get in the way of an actor, where as with Roberts she’s giving more of her authentic self, as in she brings more of herself and less craft. She shared that she thinks “it’s dangerous to overanalyze these things” but admits, “I never feel like I’m playing myself.” And therein lies the issue with Notting Hill, in which she portrays a famous actress. “One of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do was your movie (Notting Hill, 1999), playing a movie actress,” she said.

“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.” She starred in numerous commercially successful films throughout the 1990s, including the romantic comedies My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997), Notting Hill (1999) and Runaway Bride (1999). She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for playing the title role in the biographical drama Erin Brockovich (2000). Roberts achieved further film success in the following decades with Ocean’s Eleven (2001), Ocean’s Twelve (2004), Charlie Wilson’s War (2007), Valentine’s Day (2010), Eat Pray Love (2010), August: Osage County (2013), Wonder (2017), Ticket to Paradise (2022), and Leave the World Behind (2023). Roberts also received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for the HBO television film The Normal Heart (2014), had her first regular television role in the first season of the Amazon Prime Video psychological thriller series Homecoming (2018), and portrayed Martha Mitchell in the Starz political limited series Gaslit (2022).

In addition to acting, Roberts runs the production company Red Om Films, through which she has served as an executive producer for various projects she has starred in, as well as for the first four films of the American Girl franchise (2004 — 2008). She has acted as the global ambassador for Lancôme since 2009. She was the world’s highest-paid actress throughout the majority of the 1990s and the first half of the 2000s. She received a then-unprecedented fees of $20 million and $25 million for her roles in Erin Brockovich (2000) and Mona Lisa Smile (2003), respectively. As of 2020, Roberts’ net worth was estimated to be $250 million. People magazine has named her the most beautiful woman in the world a record five times.

Agencies