Julia Roberts Biography

Julia Roberts
Biography

Birth Name
Julie Fiona Roberts
Date of birth (location)
28 October 1967
Smyrna, Georgia, USA

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A winsome beauty with a large, incandescent smile and a mane of auburn hair, Julia Roberts was one of the few bankable female stars of the early 1990s. Critics have speculated on the secret of her huge appeal, but it remains one of the enigmas of contemporary pop culture. Roberts lacks the technical polish of some of her contemporaries, but has been able to command the screen even while surrounded by heavy-hitters like Sally Field, Denzel Washington and Susan Sarandon.
      Roberts was introduced to the world of performance at an early age by her theatrical parents, who ran the Atlanta-based Actors and Writers Workshop out of their home. She made her screen debut opposite her older brother Eric in "Blood Red", although the 1986-produced film went unreleased for three years. Roberts first gained notice playing a fiery Portuguese waitress in "Mystic Pizza" (1988) and won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination as the doomed diabetic heroine of "Steel Magnolias" (1989).

      With her performance as a warm-hearted prostitute who transforms cold executive Richard Gere in Garry Marshall's saccharine but immensely successful rags-to-riches saga, "Pretty Woman" (1990), Roberts became one of Hollywood's most popular and bankable stars and earned a surprise Best Actress Academy Award nomination. While her contribution made the routine thrillers "Flatliners" (1990) and "Sleeping with the Enemy" (1991) popular successes, she faltered a bit at the box office later in 1991 with the weepie romance "Dying Young", but her star power garnered an opening weekend take of over $9 million. She finished the year with the supporting role of Tinkerbell in Steven Spielberg's lavish update of the Peter Pan myth, "Hook". Roberts' toothsome portrayal of the feisty fairy revealed no insights into the tiny winged character, and she struggled gamely with the physical and artistic rigors of doing most of her scenes alone on a special effects soundstage.

      Roberts took some time off to get her highly publicized personal life in order: romances with co-stars Liam Neeson, Dylan McDermott and Kiefer Sutherland all petered out, though her romance with co-star Lyle Lovett ended in a brief marriage. Roberts made a cameo appearance as herself in Robert Altman's "The Player" (1992) before making her much ballyhooed return to the screen, reasserting her commercial magic opposite Denzel Washington in the political thriller "The Pelican Brief" (1993), but faltered with audiences opposite Nick Nolte in the middling romantic comedy "I Love Trouble" (1994). Her next few film roles proved spotty: she was passable as a journalist in Robert Altman's high-fashion comedy "Ready to Wear/Pret-a-Porter" (1994), spunky as a woman coping with marital problems in the romantic comedy "Something to Talk About" (1995), and dour in the period horror film "Mary Reilly" (1996), all of which failed to find audience favor. As Woody Allen's leading lady in his musical comedy "Everyone Says I Love You" (1996), she fared slightly better (and displayed a pleasant if not spectacular singing voice). Cast opposite old beau Neeson as his love interest in Neil Jordan's biopic of Irish revolutionary "Michael Collins" (also 1996), Roberts gave a gallant try but was hampered by a wavering Irish accent.

      1997 saw the actress reassert her position as a box-office performer with her starring role in the comedy "My Best Friend's Wedding". Cast as a scheming restaurant critic who sets out to break up the wedding of the man she thinks she loves, Roberts turned what could have become an unsympathetic character into an audience favorite through the sheer force of natural charm and vibrancy. She was abetted by Rupert Everett's scene-stealing supporting turn as her editor and a subtle script by Ron Bass that inverted many of the cliches of screwball comedy. Roberts' much-anticipated teaming with Mel Gibson in Richard Donner's "Conspiracy Theory" (also 1997), however, proved to be somewhat disappointing thanks to a muddled script.

      Ron Bass was one of several writers who worked on the script of "Stepmom" (1998), a comedy-drama that cast Roberts as the much younger girlfriend of a divorced man coping with his two children and his saintly ex-wife. Most critics dismissed the film as pap but audiences lapped it up and made it a modest box-office success. She followed with a turn as a world-famous movie star who falls in love with a bumbling British bookseller (Hugh Grant) in "Notting Hill", an uneven romantic comedy, and a reteaming with Gere under Garry Marshall's guidance in "Runaway Bride" (both 1999). Together these films earned over $300 million domestically justifying the actress' standing as the highest paid female actor. Roberts then took on the role of her life, essaying the real-life legal secretary who assisted in turning a case of water poisoning into one of the largest class-action lawsuits in US history in "Erin Brockovich" (2000). Her stellar work under the direction of Stephen Soderbergh earned her just about every accolade, including the Best Actress Oscar.

     In 2002, Roberts joined Drew Barrymore for the George Clooney feature "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind."

     Roberts returned to comedy playing the frustrated girlfriend of a low-level, somewhat bumbling gangster (played by Brad Pitt) in "The Mexican" (2001). Although she and Pitt were not on screen together for very long, the pair shared a nice easy chemistry. The actress also had a great rapport with James Gandolfini (as a hitman who kidnaps her as insurance). Despite fielding many offers, Roberts opted to play the personal assistant to a movie star (Catherine Zeta-Jones) in the disastrous, critically reviled and box-office impaired comedy "America's Sweethearts" before reteaming with director Soderbergh for a small role in his remake of "Ocean's Eleven" (both 2001). Robert's next project was also with Soderbergh, in the non-narrative sequel to his "Sex, Lies and Videotape" (1989); Roberts' character was shockingly uninteresting and unimportant to the story, such as it was. Worse was her limp turn in buddy George Clooney's directorial debut, "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," in which she plays a spy femme fatale in a performace so purposefully arch as to defy belief.