Julia Roberts
Julia Fiona Roberts (born October 28, 1967)[1] is an American actress. Known for her leading roles in films encompassing a variety of genres, she has received multiple accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and three Golden Globe Awards. The films in which she has starred have collectively grossed over $3.9 billion globally, making her one of Hollywood's most bankable stars.[2] After an early breakthrough with appearances in Mystic Pizza (1988) and Steel Magnolias (1989), Roberts established herself as a leading actress when she headlined the top-grossing romantic comedy Pretty Woman (1990).
For other people named Julia Roberts, see Julia Roberts (disambiguation).
Julia Roberts
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.[3][4][5] 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.[6] People magazine has named her the most beautiful woman in the world a record five times.[7]
Early life and family
Julia Fiona Roberts was born on October 28, 1967, in Smyrna, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta,[8] to Betty Lou Bredemus and Walter Grady Roberts.[8][9] She is of English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, German, and Swedish descent.[10][11] Her father was a Baptist, her mother a Catholic,[12] and she was raised Catholic.[13][14] Her older brother Eric Roberts (born 1956), from whom she was estranged for several years until 2004, older sister Lisa Roberts Gillan (born 1965), and niece Emma Roberts, are also actors. She also had a younger half-sister named Nancy Motes.
Roberts's parents, one-time actors and playwrights, met while performing in theatrical productions for the United States Armed Forces. They later co-founded the Atlanta Actors and Writers Workshop[15] in Atlanta, off Juniper Street in Midtown. They ran a children's acting school in Decatur, Georgia, while they were expecting Julia. The children of Coretta and Martin Luther King Jr. attended the school; Walter Roberts served as acting coach for their daughter, Yolanda.[16] In gratitude for his service running the only racially integrated theater troupe in the region and due to the Roberts' financial difficulties,[17] Coretta King paid the Roberts's hospital bill when Julia was born.[18][19][20]
Roberts' parents married in 1955. Her mother filed for divorce in 1971; the divorce was finalized in early 1972.[21] From 1972, Roberts lived in Smyrna, Georgia, where she attended Fitzhugh Lee Elementary School, Griffin Middle School, and Campbell High School.[22] In 1972, her mother married Michael Motes, who was abusive and often unemployed; Roberts despised him.[23] The couple had a daughter, Nancy, who died at 37 on February 9, 2014, of an apparent drug overdose.[24] The marriage ended in 1983, with Betty Lou divorcing Motes on cruelty grounds; she had stated that marrying him was the biggest mistake of her life.[23] Roberts's own father died of cancer when she was ten.[25]
Roberts wanted to be a veterinarian as a child.[26] She played the clarinet in her school band.[27][28] After graduating from Smyrna's Campbell High School, she attended Georgia State University but did not graduate. She later headed to New York City to pursue a career in acting. Once there, she signed with the Click Modeling Agency and enrolled in acting classes.[29][30]
Career
1980s
Following her first television appearance as a juvenile rape victim in the first season of the series Crime Story, with Dennis Farina, in the episode "The Survivor", broadcast on February 13, 1987, Roberts made her big screen debut with an appearance in the dramedy Satisfaction (1988), alongside Liam Neeson and Justine Bateman, as a band member looking for a summer gig. (She had filmed a small role in 1987 opposite her brother Eric, in Blood Red, though she only had two words of dialogue, and it was not released until 1989.) In 1988, Roberts had a role in the fourth-season finale of Miami Vice and her first critical success with moviegoers came with the independent romantic comedy Mystic Pizza,[31] in which she played a Portuguese-American teenage girl working as a waitress at a pizza parlor. Roger Ebert found Roberts to be a "major beauty with a fierce energy" and observed that the film "may someday become known for the movie stars it showcased back before they became stars. All of the young actors in this movie have genuine gifts".[32]
In Steel Magnolias (1989), a film adaptation of Robert Harling's 1987 play of the same name, Roberts starred as a young bride with diabetes, alongside Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Shirley MacLaine and Daryl Hannah. The filmmakers were looking at both Laura Dern and Winona Ryder when the casting director insisted they see Roberts, who was then filming Mystic Pizza.[33] Harling stated: "She walked into the room and that smile lit everything up and I said 'that's my sister', so she joined the party and she was magnificent".[33] Director Herbert Ross was notoriously tough on newcomer Roberts, with Sally Field admitting that he "went after Julia with a vengeance. This was pretty much her first big film".[33] Nevertheless, the film was a critical and commercial darling when it was released,[34] and Roberts received both her first Academy Award nomination (as Best Supporting Actress) and first Golden Globe Award win (Best Supporting Actress) Motion Picture for her performance.[31]
1990s
Catapulting on her 1989 Academy Award nomination, Roberts gained further notice from worldwide audiences when she starred with Richard Gere in the Cinderella–Pygmalionesque story, Pretty Woman, in 1990, playing an assertive freelance hooker with a heart of gold.[31] Roberts won the role after Michelle Pfeiffer, Molly Ringwald, Meg Ryan, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Karen Allen, and Daryl Hannah (her co-star in Steel Magnolias) turned it down.[35] The role also earned her a second Oscar nomination, this time as Best Actress, and second Golden Globe Award win, as Best Actress – Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy).[31] She was paid $300,000 for the part.[36] Pretty Woman saw the highest number of ticket sales in the U.S. ever for a romantic comedy,[37] and made $463.4 million worldwide.[38] The red dress Roberts wore in the film has been considered one of the most famous gowns in cinema.[39][40][41]
Other ventures
Philanthropy
Roberts has contributed to UNICEF as well as other charitable organizations. Her six-day visit to Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 1995, as she said, "to educate myself",[139][140] was expected to trigger an outburst of donations —$10 million in aid was sought at the time— by UNICEF officials.[139][140] In 2006, she became a spokeswoman for Earth Biofuels as well as chair of the company's newly formed advisory board promoting the use of renewable fuels.[141] In 2013, she was part of a Gucci campaign, "Chime for Change", that aims to spread female empowerment.[142]
In 2000, Roberts narrated a documentary about Rett syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder,[143] designed to help raise public awareness about the disease, and in 2014, she was the voice of Mother Nature in a short film for the Conservation International campaign Nature Is Speaking, intended to raise awareness about climate change.[144]
Production company
Roberts runs the production company Red Om Films (Red Om is "Moder" spelled backwards, after her husband's last name[145]) with her sister, Lisa Roberts Gillan, and Marisa Yeres Gill.[146] Through Red Om, Roberts has served as an executive producer for various projects she has starred in such as Eat Pray Love and Homecoming, as well as for the first four films of the American Girl film series (based on the American Girl line of dolls), released between 2004 and 2008.
Endorsements
In 2006, Roberts signed an endorsement deal with fashion label Gianfranco Ferre, valued at $6 million. She was photographed by Mario Testino in Los Angeles for the brand's advertising campaign, which was distributed in Europe, Asia and Australia.[147] Since 2009, Roberts has acted as Lancôme's global ambassador, a role in which she has been involved in the development and promotion of the brand's range of cosmetics and beauty products.[148] She initially signed a five-year extension with the company for $50 million in 2010.[149] Roberts starred as the global face of Chopard's Happy Sport and Happy Diamonds collections campaigns since 2021 and then Chopard had announced her as its Global Brand Ambassador in 2023.[150]
In 2024, Julia Roberts expanded her creative horizon by collaborating with Chopard on a high jewelry collection, 'Chopard x Julia Roberts.' The collection celebrated the 'Insofu Emerald,' a significant gemstone, showcasing Roberts' design influence alongside Chopard's renowned craftsmanship. This venture highlighted a shared dedication to sustainability within luxury jewelry, marking a significant blend of celebrity influence and ethical luxury. The collaboration, unveiled in Los Angeles, underscored Roberts' multifaceted career and her ongoing contributions beyond the film industry, integrating her passions for creativity, sustainability, and high fashion.[151]
Personal life
Ancestry
On a 2023 episode of Finding Your Roots, Roberts learned that the surname of her biological paternal great-great-grandfather was actually Mitchell, not Roberts.[152]
Roberts also learned her ancestors owned slaves: "You have to figure, if you are from the South, you're on one side of it or the other. It just seems very typical of that time, unfortunately. ... You can't turn your back on history, even when you become a part of it in a way that doesn't align with your personal compass."[153]
Roberts is a distant cousin of fellow actor Edward Norton.[154]
Relationships and family
Roberts had romantic relationships with actors Jason Patric,[155] Liam Neeson, Kiefer Sutherland, Dylan McDermott, and Matthew Perry.[156] She was briefly engaged to Sutherland; they broke up shortly before their scheduled wedding on June 14, 1991.[156] According to Roberts, it had been canceled long before "days before the wedding" as the press claimed at the time,[157] and that it was a mutual decision.[155] On June 25, 1993, she married country singer Lyle Lovett; the wedding took place at St. James Lutheran Church in Marion, Indiana.[158] They separated in March 1995 and subsequently divorced.[159] From 1998 to 2001, Roberts dated actor Benjamin Bratt.[160]
Roberts and her husband, cameraman Daniel Moder, met on the set of her film The Mexican in 2000 while she was still dating Bratt. At the time, Moder was married to Vera Steimberg. There were accusations of husband stealing.[161] He filed for divorce a little over a year later, and after it was finalized, he and Roberts wed on July 4, 2002,[162] at her ranch in Taos, New Mexico.[163] Together, they have three children: twins, a daughter and a son, born in November 2004,[164] and another son born in June 2007.[165]
Religious beliefs
In 2010, Roberts said she was Hindu, having converted for "spiritual satisfaction".[166][167] Roberts is a devotee of the guru Neem Karoli Baba (Maharaj-ji), a picture of whom drew Roberts to Hinduism.[168]
In September 2009, Swami Daram Dev of Ashram Hari Mandir in Pataudi, where Roberts was shooting Eat Pray Love, gave her children new names after Hindu gods: Lakshmi for Hazel, Ganesh for Phinnaeus and Krishna Balram for Henry.[169]