Impossibly famous but forever familiar, Julia Roberts is among the most known, but least knowable, women in the world. Richard Curtis heads to her hotel to reveal the many faces of a true Hollywood legend. Photographs by Lachlan Bailey. Styling by Edward Enninful

Julia Roberts has been a friend for around three decades, ever since she acted in our 1999 film, Notting Hill.

I remember when the director Roger Michell, producer Duncan Kenworthy and I first had lunch with her to discuss
the possibility of her being in the film, it was very clearly her auditioning us. We were nervous schoolboys being grilled by our potential headmistress, although she was far and away the youngest person at the table. When we presented our list of Hollywood’s most famous, glamorous actors who might play her boyfriend, she pointed out with horror that they were all 20 years older than her. She was perky and friendly, but firm.

But then she turned out to be soft and sweet as well. On the day of the film’s premiere, she rocked up at our house in Notting Hill with a little blanket she’d knitted on set with my daughter Scarlett’s name on it. When we said Scarlett was at nursery school over the road, Julia just left us and went to the school, rang on the bell and asked to see Scarlett so she could give it to her in person. She’s naughty too.

A decade later, when I went to her for her help with our newly launched Comic Relief USA, she instantly took the big job and went to Kenya with Bear Grylls to visit a vaccination project, and be tortured en route. She gave only one instruction: that she was scared of heights, so no “climbing stuff”. The first task Bear gave her was to walk across a very high, wobbly wooden bridge over a river full of very visible crocodiles. She gave me an ironic look, and set off. She’s game. And she was spontaneously warm with everyone we met there. That extraordinary smile is an actual, natural gift – and she gives it freely.

I went to meet her for this interview late at night in a suite at Claridge’s hotel in London – she was fresh from an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, bubbling with how excited she was to have met Cher. As I walked into the room, I felt that same old sense of the order of things. Was I up to the job?

This is how the conversation went with a strong, decent, confident human being and a blazing actress, who has been famous since she was 21 but often seems, in her exuberance and naturalness, as though she’s still 21. Still a very perky, very pretty woman.

Richard Curtis: We’ve been friends for 25 years.

Julia Roberts: Lucky us.

How do you explain the dramatic difference between how the ageing process has affected us visually? You are unchanged.

That is not true.

I’ve been inflated like a balloon. I’ve got white hair.

Untrue and untrue. But I will say this: I don’t know your parents – I’m sure they were lovely people. But my parents? Both very good genes. Not to say I’m unchanged, because I did see a picture earlier of Tom Hanks and me from a movie, and we looked like we had been ironed.

The Vogue readers will want to know whether or not you use any artificial methods to preserve your lustrous youth.

Pickling. I put my head in the jar every other Saturday for 18 hours. It does wonders. The smell is awful.

So pickling is the answer to eternal youth?

No – serious answer. Good genes, leading a life that is fulfilling, and I have said this – and I say it usually as kind of a joke – but I do believe in the love of a good man. I believe that my husband loves me and cares for me in a way that makes me feel deeply, deeply happy. And anytime you see someone who’s happy, it doesn’t matter how old they are.

Then you get in the habit of smiling, as it were, and therefore your face stays happy. Whereas if you were lugubrious, it would show.

Anouk Aimée said to me, many years ago when I was very young and it didn’t occur to me that I would ever have a wrinkle, “You live your face in your life until you’re 50, and then you live your life on your face.”

Well, it’s funny you say that, because the theme of my interview is your face.

Let’s go.

OK, so I thought I would try to come up with a conceit. This interview is, in my mind, called The Seven Faces of Julia Roberts.

Oh, wow.

First, I wanted to ask: Famous Face. When you look in the mirror, do you ever see “the face of Julia Roberts” rather than your own face? Do you ever think, “Oh, that is a famous face?”

No.

So you don’t feel, “There is that face everybody knows and identifies with the movies, and that face just wanders around in supermarkets trying to find a bargain”?

One would be make-up-less and one would be made up. That’s the most sophomoric difference. But I can’t compartmentalise myself in that way.

Cady dress, Valentino. Patent leather sandals, Sergio Rossi. Bicolour gold, orange sapphire and aquamarine earrings, and rose-gold, ruby and diamond watch, Chopard.

 Lachlan Bailey
Sometimes I don’t even recognise my face. I think, “What’s that in the mirror?” Looks like a loaf of bread to me.

You don’t look like a loaf of bread.

Well, that’s nice of you to say. Next I want to talk to you about Film Face. I think one of your astonishing qualities is to be completely present in front of the camera, to reveal who you are to it. Are you aware of that when someone says, “Action”?

Well, it’s funny, because my most technical job is to forget where the camera is. It’s the camera’s responsibility to be in the right place for the scene. That’s not my job. I do think that is a thing that kind of separates actors from non-actors – being able to find the camera, but for it to have no conscious consequence. It doesn’t scare me, it doesn’t comfort me. It’s the documentarian of whatever I’m doing.

So you’re really living in that moment. Even though the camera is watching. I mean, you weren’t trained as an actor…

No, and I still envy people I work with who are very technical. I find it really fascinating, and I envy it so much. There’s so many different ways to approach it.

I think that technique might sometimes get in the way for other people – because you were bringing more of yourself and less craft to it. More joy, more romanticism? America would not have voted you their sweetheart 30 years ago if they didn’t think they were getting something special from you that they weren’t getting from other people…

I think it’s dangerous to overanalyse these things. But I will say that I think there’s something in me that’s always [let] people feel they’re comfortable, or they see something familiar. If someone sees me in a grocery store and they say, “Why did you cut your hair like that?” it’s not because they’re trying to be rude. It’s because they feel they know me, that I sit behind them in church every Sunday. It’s that sense of feeling that you understand someone that you don’t know. I guess looking relatively like myself in most parts takes me out of the character-actor lane. But I never feel like I’m playing myself.

Yeah, well, I agree with that.

And honestly, one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do was your movie [Notting Hill, 1999], playing a movie actress. I was so uncomfortable! I mean, we’ve talked about this so many times, but I almost didn’t take the part because it just seemed – oh, it just seemed so awkward. I didn’t even know how to play that person.

We had issues about your costume in that film, didn’t we? Where you…

Loathed…

Loathed being dressed as a movie star. The clothes you’re wearing in the scene where you came back to Hugh and said, “I’m just a girl…” – am I remembering right that they were the ones you rocked up wearing in real life that morning?

My driver, lovely Tommy, I sent him back to my flat that morning. I said, “Go into my bedroom and grab this, this and this out of my closet.” And it was my own flip-flops and my cute little blue velvet skirt and a T-shirt and my cardigan.

I was always disappointed you weren’t wearing a better costume that day.

[Julia laughs.]

Did we know that was a good line? The “I’m just a girl” line? Or do you remember thinking, “Oh, this is another line.”

I mean, it was a great scene. But who knew that that would become the line. The best thing, besides our friendship, to come out of Notting Hill is [director] Barry Jenkins watching it over someone’s shoulder…

For those people who don’t know, he live-tweeted watching it without sound over someone’s shoulder on a plane a few years ago, and his comments went viral: “Wow, Hugh’s really…” What’s that word he used when someone’s dating someone better than them – punching?

I kind of love watching a film without hearing it. We’re having all these emotions, going through all these things, and you can see it on our faces…

Cady dress, Valentino. Leather sandals, Gianvito Rossi. Bicolour gold, aquamarine and orange sapphire ring, Chopard.

 Lachlan Bailey
It’s very humbling for me as a writer to know that the movie is slightly better if you can’t hear the lines.

[Laughs.] Face number three?

Scary Face. The fact that you’re a bit tough. That there’s an element of you that doesn’t seem as though you take any shit. Does that ring a bell?

I mean… yeah. But I’ve excavated that within me. I used to take everybody’s shit all the time when I was a young person. Just sort of feel diminutive about things, juniorise yourself in every encounter.

When do you think that stopped?

Like, my mid-late 20s. Maybe.

That was the power you got from the success, to some extent?

I think it was less success and more realising I want to participate in things. That I have something to contribute to enhance whatever it is. Finding the confidence [to do that] made me realise, “Wait, this is my responsibility to take up this space on the planet.”

Again, I don’t want to refer too much to Notting Hill, but it’s interesting that Hugh Grant sent the script to [screenwriter] William Goldman, and said, “What do you think? Should I do it?” And William said, “Yes, but you won’t get an A-list Hollywood actress to do that horrible scene where she shouts at him in the corridor.” Yet you were not afraid of doing that scene where you were just plain nasty. You’re really happy not to be nice. And not to be nice in quite a realistic way. I’m not saying you play baddies. You’re just good at playing people who are a bit…

Prickly.

Yeah.

But there’s reasons for people to behave like that. [My] character in Leave the World Behind is kind of prickly, but also has this very soft, kind, open-minded husband and these two sweet children. So putting all those puzzle pieces together I say, “OK, so where does it come from? Why does she act like this? Who tolerates the bad behaviour and who doesn’t?” I find all that kind of fascinating.

But I think there is also a tough side of you. There’s a line that you draw with the way people treat you.

I think I speak very plainly. That’s kind of how I see myself. I’m very forthright. There are a lot of personalities in the world that don’t accept that easily, and it can seem really harsh, even if I feel like I’m just being honest about something and just saying this is how I see it. I never am trying to be unkind.

Another face is Feminist Face. You have been famous and acting since you were 21. Has that brought with it any feelings of responsibility to other women when you’re making choices about how you behave in your movies and your life? Do you ever think, “I’m representing something”?

I think it would be more to the point that the things I choose not to do are representative of me.

Interesting. Give me examples of those.

Well, my G-rated career…

What does G-rated mean?

You know, not to be criticising others’ choices, but for me to not take off my clothes in a movie or be vulnerable in physical ways is a choice that I guess I make for myself. But in effect, I’m choosing not to do something as opposed to choosing to do something. Not long ago, I did my whole family tree with the brilliant Dr Henry Gates. If you’ve seen his show, Finding Your Roots, it’s brilliant and I’m obsessed with it. One of the things he does at the very, very end is he tells you who they have discovered you are DNA cousins with. I won’t even say, “Can you guess who I’m DNA cousins with?” because there’s no telling what horrible person you would choose just to embarrass me in this interview, but I am DNA cousins with Gloria Steinem.

No!

Yes. And I just want everybody to know that.

Do you think it’s easier or harder now for younger actors? Do you think it’s different from your time?

Oh, it’s completely different from my time. I mean, that’s when I really feel like a dinosaur, when you just look at the structure of the business. It’s completely different.

Better?

I don’t know if it’s better, because it’s not my experience, but it just seems very different. And in a way, it seems so cluttered. There are so many elements to being famous now, it just seems exhausting. Whereas I feel like, and again this is just my perception, because I don’t really know – I’m not a young person starting out in show business in the 21st century – but it seems to me that it was: you meet people, you read for parts, you try to get jobs, you get a job, you try to do a good job, and from that job, you might meet some new people who might suggest you to some other people and then you might get another job and you might get paid a little bit more for that job, and it might be a little bit of a better job. It kind of just made this sort of structural sense, and now it just seems more chaotic. There’s more elements, there’s more noise, there’s more outlets, there’s more stuff.

I remember one of the funniest moments on Notting Hill was a Hugh Bonneville line. He said, “Last film you did, what did you get paid?”

You lowballed my answer.

I lowballed you but you insisted on me changing the script so that your price for your next movie would go up.

Because I am a feminist.

Now I want to talk to you about your Funny Face. One of the things that my family and I cherish about you is that you’re not a snob about romantic comedies. Your biggest break was in one of the greatest romantic comedies of all time, and you’ve stuck with them – you made another one just a couple of years ago.

Well, I love the genre. I mean, my desert island movie would probably be The Philadelphia Story. I also think it’s incredibly tricky. I never realised the windfall of good fortune I had until it was well behind me. Like, to have made Pretty Woman, Notting Hill and My Best Friend’s Wedding. They just don’t come one after another [normally]. So I think I got lucky.

You never thought, “It’d be better if I were dying more often in the movies”?

No. Happy not to die. Happy to die less.

That’s what makes you special. Also you are good at being funny.

I love to make people laugh. It brings me so much joy it’s almost stupid.

I do think that you’re willing to make a fool of yourself. You’re willing to lose. One of the great movie speeches is you trying to convince the guy in My Best Friend’s Wedding to “choose me”. Because he doesn’t pick you.

That’s a pretty dodgy character. When I look back on that part now, it’s funny, because I saw her through such innocent eyes then. I appreciated her: she loved him, they had this deal! But at the same time, she does some terrible things in that movie. Of course, I saw the deception of it, I saw the trickery of it, but I saw it through the lens of her love for him and her desire for them to end up together.

I wish the people reading this could see how perky you are, because it is lovely. When you talk about comedy, you look as though you’re happy. I’m not sure which face this is, but can we talk a bit about Erin Brockovich? You won an Oscar for that. Was there a particular magic to it from the start, or was it just another movie?

It was magical. I mean, they’re all magical in their own way or we wouldn’t keep making them. I was doing Runaway Bride when Steven Soderbergh said, “I’d love to come and talk to you about Erin Brockovich.” That was so cool. I was so puffed up with myself, I couldn’t even stand me at work that day. I was like, “Oh, Steven Soderbergh’s coming.”

So his vision of Erin was you. Or did he come to you after Meryl, as usual?

[Joking.] Per usual.

Let’s talk – this is for Vogue – about fashion a little bit. You presumably are often approached by perfume and clothing brands, stuff like that. How do you make those choices, what you endorse, do not endorse?

Those I find to be very big, thoughtful decisions. I don’t accept most or many. I find myself gravitating towards enterprises that are run by families a lot – that’s something that always kind of gets my extra attention.

Because you think it’s in their blood, not a corporate enterprise?

I just feel I understand what a family enterprise is more than a kind of stable of people that work together. Chopard is a family, and that means something to me. Being at Lancôme, it’s not a family, but at this point I’ve been there for so long, and we all know each other in such an intrinsic way, that it has become very familial to me in that regard.

If I can describe to people how you’re looking now, you’re wearing a bog-standard pair of jeans, pretty ordinary jumper, and very fancy earrings.

These are my beautiful Chopard hoops that I was wearing for my press day. And everything else is mine. But the fanciest bit, that’s not mine. It’s always sad to take them off. It’s like washing the make-up off my face. I just kind of go, “Bye…”

So: Family Face. You were not married when I worked with you, and it strikes me now that your family is the most important thing in your life.

Yes.

Talk to me about that, about being a very, very highly paid professional individual and choosing between working and family.

Well, I think that the luckiest aspect of my work life/family life is that the success of my work life came earlier. So by the time
I had the success of my family life and had a husband and children who wanted to stay home, I had been working for 18 years.
And so I felt that I had the luxury. I didn’t have to pick one or the other.

You didn’t have to make the choice. Of either/or.

So it was easy to pause work life to nurture my home life. And so, because I have girlfriends who were having to juggle being at work and having to go into the bathroom, and you know, get out that breast pump, I sort of went through that with them by proxy. To be allowed the luxury of staying home and being with my family, I had a deep gratitude for that time.

Yes, that is a luxury. But it’s an earned luxury by you. And at the moment, if you were asked to choose career over family, there’d be no question that family comes first?

Yes, of course. But then there’s also something to my kids seeing that my creative life is meaningful to me. I want them to understand that. Going outside of the house and being creative is really important and vital. And it doesn’t take away from my love of home. It’s another level of my life.

And would people be shocked how you look at home? Do you look worse? [Laughs.]

Richard. I don’t look like this. I look quite cute right now. Even after like 17 hours of working. I’m adorable.

Velvet tuxedo jacket, silk charmeuse shirt, flared velvet trousers, and embossed leather sandals, Tom Ford. White-gold, diamond and ruby pendant necklace, gold rings, and gold and diamond rings, Chopard.

And just to go back to the –

Face number eight?

Just to go back to the fashion thing for a second. Because you’re on the road with Leave the World Behind. What’s the series of choices that you have to make when you’re going on red carpets? I remember you wore something adorable on the first night of Ticket to Paradise. Weren’t the names of all the people you love sewn into your coat or something?

Into my dress. Wasn’t that sweet?

I know. I noticed I wasn’t there.

You weren’t. On a press tour I sort of enjoy a theme, such as a colour theme. For August: Osage County I wore a lot of black and white and a lot of tuxedos, which I love, and so this film is hot pants and hottier pants.

Sorry?

That I’ve been wearing for this tour.

Is that a climate change observation – that, you know, it’s gonna be warm?

No, it was just Gucci had a lot of really cute hot pants. And so we’ve been trotting those around.

Have I got any more faces… Fashionable Face? Film Face? Family Face? Funny Face? Scary Face? Feminist Face? Famous Face…

I’m surprised you didn’t say F**k Face. [Both laugh.]

No, not F**k Face. Julia, can I ask you a couple of final questions: one about the past, one about the future. Regrets. Have you any?

Who doesn’t?

What are your regrets?

My greatest regret is that I didn’t meet you earlier, Richard Curtis.

OK, can I ask you a question about the future? A lot of people our age, even though I know you’re many years younger than me…

Many.

A lot of people as they get older are haunted by the question, wherein do future pleasures lie? Are there things that, as it were, are still undone? That you would like to do when you start thinking about what the next 20 years hold?

You know, I’m not a far-sighted planner like that. I just see the expansion of the here and now, which obviously brings me an enormous amount of joy and fulfilment. And so it’s just the extrapolation of that, and what that means, and all of it and us going together into that.

Responsible-wool tuxedo suit and organic cotton vest, Stella McCartney. White-gold and diamond pendant necklace, Chopard.

 Lachlan Bailey
So you think you’re going to take the best of what you’ve got now – acting, family, friends – and make the most of them.

We’ll just keep going. And that keeps evolving. We have better, more fun conversations now than we had 25 years ago.

I was scared of you then. Do you remember what you said to me on the final week of Notting Hill? You suddenly started coming to the set every day, even when you weren’t shooting, and you said you have to be careful on movies, careful you’re not too friendly.

Why?

Because you said someone will always slightly take advantage of it. That someone will always suddenly ask you to meet their mum and come to dinner and everything. And you just felt you had to focus on your job. Do you still sometimes feel that you have to hold back? Because people are reacting to you not as a person but as a famous person?

That’s a tricky one, because I feel I sometimes have to hold back because there’s too many question marks over what the space will expand into. And sometimes people are so familiar with me. I’ll say “Hi!” “Oh, my God, hi!” I have hugged, warmly, total strangers.

You haven’t said any regrets. You didn’t go to university – what about that?

That is a regret. But I couldn’t. It wasn’t in my cards.

You weren’t clever enough?

[Laughs.] No, I mean, my family didn’t have the money. And I had no scholarship potential. That kind of thing. But as my
kids have gone through the college process now, and looking for schools and talking about what they are interested in learning more about and all that, it does just fill me with a longing for that academic space. I want to learn about anthropology! Where’s that academic space for someone like me? It doesn’t really exist, but…

I think that may be an advantage of getting older, that you can stop pushing what you believe in and start listening more to what other people believe in, learning more about new things.

I think we should go to cosmetology school together. Or you could be a facialist, you could do people’s make-up.

Do you know that one of the reasons I’ve pursued the career I’ve pursued is because of Pretty Woman. I remember going to see it in Camden Town when it first came out, thinking, “These are my favourite kinds of movies.” So it was odd to be on a film set with you, thinking this person is the reason I started my film life.

So let me just be clear. Face number eight is: I’m responsible for your career face?

Yes. And I feel you were disappointed that I haven’t written more films for you.

Oh, well, that’s face number 10: F**k Yeah Face.

F**k You Face!

No, F**k Yeah. Get out of here, go write me a movie!

Well, I wish you very good luck in your future career.

I’m gonna need it. Get home to your wife and your typewriter.