The star and director of ‘Leave the World Behind’ talk about how all of Esmail’s works are connected, and America’s Sweetheart just might be his biggest recurring Easter egg.

Oscar winner Julia Roberts just might be Sam Esmail’s biggest recurring Easter egg.

The mastermind behind Mr. Robot already feels as though his numerous projects exist in the same cinematic universe. And he has now worked with Roberts across screens big and small three times over in the last five years, starting with 2018’s thriller series Homecoming, again with 2022’s political miniseries Gaslit, and now with the Netflix disaster flick Leave the World Behind (streaming Friday). “I like that. Yeah, I’ll be the egg,” Roberts remarks with a laugh, seated beside Esmail on Sunday. “I’ll just keep showing up.”

Esmail, who grew up as a huge fan of Roberts’ work, was once starstruck by her during their initial Zoom meetings back in 2017 for the first season of Homecoming, which featured Roberts in the lead role of Heidi Bergman and him as the executive producer and director.

Roberts “disarmed that” notion right away, he says. By the end of the call, they were bonding over Esmail’s upcoming wedding to Emmy Rossum, with whom he now shares two children. Thus, a creative partnership was born. Was it all planned?

“The first thing I think is, well, of course not. We couldn’t have dreamt this,” Roberts tells EW. “But at the same time, when I first started being on set with Sam and having that creative daily relationship, there was something in me that was like, oh, we’re going to be doing this until the end of time together.”

Writer-director Sam Esmail and Julia Roberts on set of ‘Leave the World Behind’. JOJO WHILDEN/NETFLIX

Julia Roberts and Sam Esmail attend the ‘Leave the World Behind’ special screening at The Curzon Mayfair on November 29, 2023 in London. GARETH CATTERMOLE/GETTY 

Esmail considered his experience on Homecoming to be one of the best he’s ever had on a set. Now, with Leave the World Behind soon to hit streaming, he says he and Roberts are “doing the most challenging stuff of our careers.”

Their latest venture just might be their most challenging yet. It’s a disaster film adapted from Rumaan Alam’s novel of the same name. The story follows a family (Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Charlie Evans, Farrah Mackenzie) and their getaway to a luxurious rental home, which takes an ominous turn.

Two strangers (Mahershala Ali, Myha’la Herrold) appear at their door in the middle of the night, saying they are the owners of the house. They very well could be, but tensions and paranoia run high. Adding to the intrigue…something wipes out the wifi and phone lines, leaving them all stuck together.

The filmmaker wanted Roberts for the matriarch character, Amanda, in order to channel her humanity. By Esmail’s own admission, the character is deeply unlikeable. She’s anything but America’s Sweetheart, though the character happens to be played by her.

Roberts considers what this longtime moniker, given to her by the press and the public, means to her now. “I mean, I don’t know,” she starts.

“I don’t want to say it doesn’t mean anything…I’m not the only one. I mean, people love to label. People love to say, ‘Oh, this is this person now, and this is this person now.’ So you have to take it with a grain of salt.”

Mahershala Ali as G.H., Myha’la Herrold as Ruth, Julia Roberts as Amanda and Ethan Hawke as Clay in ‘Leave the World Behind’. JOJO WHILDEN/NETFLIX

Mahershala Ali and Julia Roberts in ‘Leave the World Behind’. JOJO WHILDEN/NETFLIX

Perhaps that’s some of the reason why the household name behind Pretty Woman and Erin Brockovich gravitated towards the role of Amanda. “I’m always looking for something that’s going to be different,” she says.

“You get older so your problems get more complex, and the situations or the personality types that people are at my age are dug in, whatever they are. So to get the opportunity to play Amanda was really intriguing to me because she is thorny, she is myopic. She’s not someone I would have in my friend group, but in the context of the other characters and this whole situation, she’s so critical.”

In a more meta twist of fate, Roberts’ onscreen daughter in the film, Rose, is obsessed with the beloved series Friends. When the end of the world feels nigh, all she’s worried about is getting to see the final episode of her favorite show. It’s particularly notable given that Roberts appeared on the show herself.

The actress says she didn’t really think about that connection on set, but her director definitely did. “I think in the universe of the movie, Amanda is a real person. She’s not being played by Julia Roberts, so Julia Roberts also exists [in this universe].

But…there might be a slight resemblance,” Esmail says, laughing. “I love thinking of cinematic universes, and I think that’s always been my interpretation of it. By the way, I think [Homecoming‘s] Heidi Bergman exists in this universe. It’s so very meta, but I love dorking out about this stuff.”

Are there any plans to add to this little meta cinematic universe? “We are unable to reveal any of those eggs at this time,” Roberts teases. “They’re going to stay hidden in our basket, and when the time is right and we feel that you can handle the information, we’ll let you know.”