She's back, baby. Roberts will star in 'Ticket to Paradise' directed by Ol Parker with Universal Pictures. The 'Gaslit' actor talks about the important factors contributing to her RomCom Renaissance on 'The Late Show'.
Julia Roberts, deemed the sexiest eater alive by Sean Penn, was a RomCom phenomenon, nay, the RomCom phenomenon back in the days of 'Pretty Woman' and of course, 'Eat Pray Love'. Stephen Colbert, the host of 'The Late Show', even asked her about whether or not her signature beaming smile was insured. It's not.
Her hiatus from the film world of romance left a big, toothy grin shaped hole in our hearts. And she wanted to make clear in her interview that her break was a choice. Gasp.
She remembers that when she saw Brad Pitt in 'Troy', she thought to herself, "Brad should not be the centre anymore". But her decision to back away from her signature genre was less about her starring roles and more about Hollywood — the reversal of the RomCom cliché "it's not you, it's me".
In this case, her decision came down to how scripts were being written over the last 20 years in a way that just didn't rival her roles in 'Notting Hill' or 'My Best Friend's Wedding', revealing "if I'd thought something was good enough, I would have done it". And she's right. The genre's classics are the best even in 2022 (and they often have Roberts in them).
But she had another realisation about another crucial component for a RomCom when the script for her upcoming movie 'Ticket to Paradise' landed in her lap and she read the part for the male lead. She realised "this only works if it’s George Clooney". Luckily, Clooney felt the same way about Roberts.
In describing what it was like to get back into the genre, she creates a snapshot of the upcoming film by saying she got to "run around Australia with George playing these very funny scenes". She even admits "I’m living my acting dreams". Trust, Julia, you are living our dreams too.
'Ticket to Paradise' is out on the 16th of September in Ireland.
