Julia Roberts Says That She’s Turned Down Rom-Coms For 20 Years Because Of Bad Scripts

Throughout the 80s and 90s, Julia Roberts was a rom-com queen, starring in rom-coms like Pretty Woman, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Runaway Bride, I Love Trouble, Notting Hill, American’s Sweethearts, etc… But Julia took a long break from bringing the cheese for a giant check. And now she’s back! Julia’s next movie, Ticket to Paradise, which also stars George Clooney, comes out later this year, and it’s her first time as a lead in a rom-com in 20 years. Why? Because Julia says that the scripts she was given the last two decades were shitty! Hmmm… curious… and yet she co-starred in Mother’s Day in 2016? Hmmm, welp the check they gave her must have been worth the script! But was it worth that wig?

Julia spoke with the New York Times recently and talked about her long break from tripping in front of a hot guy or spilling her coffee on dudes or whatever rom-com people still do. And while rumors seemed to suggest that Julia was not interested in doing those kinds of movies anymore, Julia says that it was actually just because she kept reading horrible scripts. Oh, Julia, all scripts can’t be as great as I Love Trouble! via Variety: 

“People sometimes misconstrue the amount of time that’s gone by that I haven’t done a romantic comedy as my not wanting to do one,” Roberts said. “If I had read something that I thought was that Notting Hill level of writing or My Best Friend’s Wedding level of madcap fun, I would do it. They didn’t exist until this movie that I just did that Ol Parker wrote and directed.”

The Ol Parker movie is Ticket to Paradise, which also stars Billie Lourd and is about a divorced couple who try to stop their daughter from eloping in Bali and making what they think is the same mistake they made 25 years ago. Julia nearly turned it down because she felt like she could only do it with George Clooney. And when he read the script, he felt the same and so they decided to do it together.

“Lo and behold, George felt it only worked with me. Somehow we were both able to do it, and off we went,” Roberts said about returning to the genre. When asked by NYT if she stayed away from romantic comedies for 20 years because “there wasn’t a single good script, not one,” Roberts answered, “Yeah.”

“Here’s the thing: If I’d thought something was good enough, I would have done it,” Roberts said. “But I also had three kids in the last 18 years. That raises the bar even more because then it’s not only “Is this material good?” It’s also the math equation of my husband’s work schedule and the kids’ school schedule and summer vacation. It’s not just, “Oh, I think I want to do this.” I have a sense of great pride in being home with my family and considering myself a homemaker.”

Roberts added, “As they get older, and particularly with my daughter, I do have a sense of responsibility for showing my children that I can be creative and that it’s meaningful to me — so meaningful that for periods of time I will choose to focus on that almost more than my family, which has been hard for me to come to terms with.”

Julia also dispelled a rumor in her interview, as she says that her smile is not insured for $30 million as was once suggested:

“No. What am I insuring it against? How would you do that? … I mean, if my smile was insured, there would be someone at my house on a nightly basis saying, “You need to floss longer.””

I’m still waiting for Julia Roberts to play the role she was meant to back in the 90s when a Hollywood exec pitched her to play Harriet Tubman. I don’t know if they could turn the story into a rom-com as well, but it would obviously have to be pretty good to get Julia to say “Yes.”

Pic: JOHN EDDY/INSTARimages.com