Julia Roberts

Emmanuel Itier: Any problems playing someone ten years older?

Julia Roberts: I didn’t. If they asked me to play 30, I would do it without thinking. She’s just so great–it’s not about stuff like that to get kind of hung up. If anything, I was just wanting to look as much like her as I could, and she is very open about that she’s had plastic surgery and stuff so I was trying to do things with my face to make it appear as though I was 50 but I had had some work done. So it was an interesting challenge to do that.

EI: How do you do that?

JR: You know, I have such a great makeup man that I’ve had for a really long time, Richard Dean, who did some things with makeup. And I wore some different tapes and stuff that we have under my wig and tried to pull my face in different ways. It was challenging, it really was–one of those rare times where you go, “My face is just too tight already.”

EI: Did you study Georgette Musbucker and Ann Bass?

JR: They are so fabulous. I’ll tell you, Joanne–she’s all you need to go by really, because she has such vitality and she just seems to have one of those great gifts where you feel you are the most important person in the room if she’s talking to you. She’s just really fantastic that way. And fortunately, she’s also quite famous in Houston, so I had a lot of research materials. She had a talk show for a short time and she’s been on different programs, so I got to see her in different ways and get to study her from then. To meet someone now, it’s just a different thing. She’s just as lovely and interesting, but you want to see that person from that period of time. Normally, you wouldn’t get to have that luxury, so I was really fortunate in that.

EI: Was that her hair?

JR: Yeah, that’s a great wig. Those wigs are fantastic.

EI: Has turning 40 been a huge relief like you predicted on Oprah?

JR: Yeah, it was great. I guess I feel relieved because everybody anticipates it so much for you that now we can all just relax. It’s done. So I guess, in that regard… but yeah, I had a lovely party with all of my kids and kin, and we had a great time. But it doesn’t mean anything. Nothing really different happens to you. But getting older, to me, is nice. I guess there is a sense of relief. You are released from certain concepts, the older you get, I think.

EI: What are the motivations of Joanne?

JR: She’s so passionate, and I think she’s a woman that is really driven by her belief in fairness and justice and religion. She’s very Christian–she’s a true Christian southern woman. So what I really respect about Joanne is that she absolutely has strong beliefs and does not deviate from those beliefs. She really stands up for things, and we just don’t see that a lot today. People kind of…yeah, I kind of think that and a little bit of this, and she just knows exactly who she is and the way she was raised and how she views the world.

EI: How do you feel about being public about your own views?

JR: For me, I just don’t feel that it’s incredibly necessary or interesting. Why should anybody gives two shits what I think, unless you are my friend or my neighbor? People do care what celebrities think, but it’s such a hollow care really. I guess you know what it is. I’ve seen actors on TV start talking about their politics or their this or their that, or their religion and stuff, and I just think, you are putting me off. I just want to see your inventions of things. I don’t need to know every single little thing. I remember that moment that I remember thinking that people don’t really want to know. And it’s nicer if you don’t. It’s nicer if you don’t have all those little voices in the back of your head when you are watching somebody in a movie.

EI: What about being green?

JR: That’s a different thing. I think that has to do with our mortality, and all of us as a planet really trying to rescue ourselves from what we’ve done. So that’s a little different from saying who I am going to vote for for president.

EI: Did you get more focused on the environment after having kids?

JR: Absolutely, 1,000 percent. They [kids] are perfect, and you think, how can I help sustain their state of bliss and progress? And really, beating up the planet the way we have is not going to do that. I think it’s a great catalyst for reflection and action. And with the environment, it’s kind of overwhelming–the state that we are in–and I think the thing about having children is it makes you realize all these things and it also makes you say, okay, what’s the thing that I can truly attack? And I make a joke, but it’s not really a joke, and it sounds so silly when you are talking to international people, when you talk about composting, but it’s something that is manageable in my household with managing three kids and running my house the best I can with 24 hours in a day. It’s something I know we can accomplish, as opposed to… I drive a bio-diesel car. I try to set goals that are achievable, and then once we kind of get those down, find some more goals that are achievable and keep going a little bit, as opposed to saying I am going to be completely waste-free in my house and all this kind of stuff. It’s just a little bit at a time. And if we all did a little bit at a time, it would just be so impactful.

EI: You studied journalism?

JR: No.

EI: What has life taught you that you want to pass on to your children?

JR: Just compassion. I think that’s the best thing to try to just show them. That’s the thing about kids–they are never listening to what you are saying, but they are watching everything that you do. So I think the illustration of my behavior in the course of the day reminds me constantly to be more patient and to be more compassionate. It’s great. It’s a great circle.

EI: What is motherhood?

JR: It’s just the best thing ever. Yeah, it’s definitely a challenge. Three kids–I cannot believe I have three children! I always wanted to be a mother, and I have a great mother. It’s the most fun thing, but yeah, it’s difficult. It’s a tough, tiring thing. But I’m really lucky that I was able to have 20 years of a career before I had my kids, so I don’t really feel torn this way and that way. I feel very content to be at home and be a mom and have a very sort of simple day to day life, and occasionally get to go off and work and fill that side of my creative process.

EI: You aren’t stressing for how to pay for their college?

JR: Fortunately, those things are set aside and that’s funny. At the same time, I think sometimes about my mom. I think, how on Earth did she manage? And she never puts those burdens on to us. And certainly we knew that money in our household was tight and this and that, but I just think it’s something I have an enormous amount of gratitude for–that we don’t have those kinds of issues to contend with, because it’s a huge stress on so many families, and I know it was one that my mom… I can’t imagine what that worry must have been like for her on a day to day basis, with children to raise and clothes to buy, and food to buy, and just the simple necessities of life. And to think, will I be able to get groceries this week? All the things that we need–I’m just glad I don’t have to worry about that.

EI: So are you still extra careful with money?

JR: I’m not, but I do…honestly–my husband teases me–I stand in the grocery line and I always am just kind of ballparking what’s in my cart, how much it’s going to be, and thinking, do I have cash in my wallet? Do I have my checkbook in my purse?

EI: Do you use coupons?

JR: I don’t save coupons. I used to be the coupon cutter in our house, but I don’t save coupons.

EI: Was Closer your last role before this?

JR: I did Oceans 12 after I did Closer.

EI: How have the roles changed in the last few years?

JR: As one gets older and more complicated, I think the parts that come are sort of more interesting, complicated parts. Obviously, 20-year-old girls can’t play Anna in Closer. So yeah, I really am enjoying the parts that I’m getting offered to play, and enjoying that I can just do a jewel of a movie like this and get to come out and support it in a way that a day of press is almost fun–when it’s something that’s very unusual for me to do now, and I can see my pals that I made this movie with, that I get to support a movie I really loved making, and I think it’s such a nice movie experience for people. And I get to see you guys.

EI: Had you been refusing Annas or Joannes?

JR: I still read a fair amount of romantic comedies as well. I just think that I’ve always said that it’s not that I’m refusing to do those kinds of movies, it’s just I haven’t read any really good ones. And I think that I’m more intrigued by things that are so removed from my real existence. To play someone like Joanne is such a treat. She is so specific and a different person for me to play.

EI: Does this film have a message about Iraq?

JR: If you are eluding to is there a message, like an after-movie from the point that the movie ends, and I think there is a message from long before the movie begins–just a timeline of our world and the events and how things happened. But to me, this movie is a total character piece. This is about people and heart and passion and chemistry, and it focuses on the ability to accomplish things. This blew the doors off. I couldn’t believe that this happened. I couldn’t believe that I didn’t know anything about any of this. It’s phenomenal. And I think to look at these three people, to see the different concepts of their power and what they do with it and who they are and how they lead their lives, I think it’s so fascinating and, in a way, inspiring to say how much can really be accomplished.

EI: What surprised you most about this?

JR: I just think it’s pretty incredible to imagine this socialite in Houston really just with a passion and a conviction for what was going on in Afghanistan, and basically feeling like this is not a fair fight, that it would be un-Christian of her to be so aware of this and do nothing. And for that thought and that heart to compel her to such a degree that she basically got the ball rolling and got Charlie involved and all these other things, and how Gus came into play. Everything really just starts with the passion about something, whatever it is–good, bad, or otherwise, and she was just so strong-willed and could not be deterred from what she thought was the right thing to do. I think it’s quite impressive.

EI: If not an actress, would you be that passionate about causes?

JR: I’m just a different kind of creature. I’m not nearly as amazing. I’m really passionate in the kitchen over cooking, but also just sort of like dinner and talking and sharing ideas and stuff like that. But I think in the big way that she does things in that great, sort of Houstonian way that she approaches things, it’s a little intimidating to me.

EI: Was her only qualification being rich, like an actor?

JR: Well, a lot of people are rich and get nothing accomplished. The thing about Joanne is that you could say she had no real resume to get involved in politics at all, and yet that’s kind of the beauty of her or anyone like her, who sees something that interests them and that they are drawn to and they just go there–and they don’t stop until they feel the task has been done. I just think it’s very interesting.

EI: Does your career go at half the pace now?

JR: Oh God yeah. I wasn’t really cranking a lot of movies out anyway. I’ve just never really been that driven to go, go, go because I think you have to take time to recover and enjoy, and do other things and keep sort of replenishing that well. And I think I’ve always been one to appreciate that luxury of being able to have a certain pace to things. But I think for sure now it’s just great to have my day so full and busy with such different kinds of things.

EI: So it has to be an exceptional project now…

JR: It does. It’s a hard decision to make. People talk about the balance and all this sort of stuff, and it really is. It’s funny because you want to sort of work and have it not be a decision to not be with your family, and I’m lucky enough to be in a job where my kids can come to work with me and all that kind of stuff, so it makes it a little easier to make those kinds of decisions to go off. And I have a movie that I’m going to do next year so I’m looking forward to that, and it’s nice to kind of have that ahead and know that that’s there.

EI: Which movie?

JR: It’s no secret. It’s a movie that I’m doing with Clive Owen called Duplicity.

EI: Does Danny look forward to another one with Clive Owen?

JR: Oh yeah, he loves Clive. It’s going to be fun.

EI: How will you reconcile your celebrity with your children?

JR: I am treated pretty normally. I realize more and more that life is about energy, and the energy that I put out is very much a lot of the energy that I get back–or the energy that’s given to me becomes very much sort of then how I conduct myself. We live a pretty quiet, normal life. I have two three-year-olds that are very aware, open people, and they’ve never experienced anything out with me in the world where they’ve said, “What’s that about?” So I think that is an accomplishment and a testament to the quietness of our lives–that nothing has ever happened where they are like, “What the hell is going on?”

EI: How would you feel about an Oscar nomination?

JR: I should be so lucky.

EI: Did you think about being back at this hotel?

JR: I did, since about 50 people have said, “Did you arrange for us to be here today?”