One of Hollywood’s biggest stars, with over 50 movies and TV shows with her name on the score, Julia Roberts is turning 58 today (28), and Her Campus Cásper Líbero is ready to celebrate it! Let’s remember some of the highlights of her career.
Back to the beginning
Born in Atlanta, Georgia, her parents were one-time actors and playwrights, having co-founded the Atlanta Actors and Writers Workshop and, later, a children’s acting school. Robert’s older brother, Eric, and sister, Lisa, also became actors.
Her first TV appearance was on the first season of Crime Story, as a rape victim, in 1987, at 19 years old. In the following year, she made her cinema debut with Satisfaction, starring alongside huge names of the industry such as Liam Neeson and Justine Bateman.
Also in 1988, she appeared in the last episode of season four of Miami Vice. In 1989, Blood Red reached the big screen, although it had been recorded and produced a few years before, and Roberts acted opposite her brother with a small role. In that same year, Steel Magnolias, an adaptation of Robert Harlington’s play, was released, where she played a young bride.
Roberts received her first Academy Award nomination with Steel Magnolias as Best Supporting Actress and her first Golden Globe win.
The Rom-com boom
Although she had won and been nominated for awards, it was in 1990 that Julia Roberts was truly revealed to Hollywood (and the world!) with Pretty Woman. Acting alongside veteran Richard Gere, she played Vivian, a sex worker who’s hired by businessman Edward Lewis (Gere) to be his escort for one week, but their relationship ends up evolving into something deeper and more meaningful. She earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for this role.
When talking about rom-coms and Julia Roberts, there’s one movie that we can’t leave out, and that’s Notting Hill (1999). She plays Anna Scott, a very famous American actress who’s in England to promote her new film, until her path crosses with William Thacker (Hugh Grant), a divorced man who owns a traveling bookstore in Notting Hill and lives with his quirky roommate, Spike (Rhys Ifans).
The film became a worldwide hit, but curiously, in an interview with British Vogue, Roberts declared she almost turned down the role: “one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do… playing a movie actress. I was so uncomfortable! 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”.
Other rom-coms she’s starred in were Everyone Says I Love You (1996), My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997), Runaway Bride (1999; another partnership alongside Gere), America’s Sweetheart (2001), Valentine’s Day (2010), Larry Crowne (2011), Mother’s Day (2016) an, more recently, Ticket to Paradise (2022, acting opposite George Clooney, with whom she had also collaborated with, years before, in Ocean’s Eleven).
Academy Award Winner
In 2000, Roberts took on the opportunity to play the lead role in Erin Brockovich. The movie tells the real-life story of a single mother of three who still chose to fight against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company after finding out they were guilty of contaminating groundwater.
With a powerful and moving performance by the American actress, the film was nominated for five different categories at the Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress. Roberts not only won the Oscars, but also the BAFTA, the Critics’ Choice, Golden Globe, and SAG Awards.
Guest-starring in famous TV shows
In 1996, Roberts guest-starred in an episode of Friends. “The One After the Superbowl” was the most-watched episode of the sitcom, and she played Susie Moss, Chandler’s (Matthew Perry) old childhood friend who leaves him at a bathroom stall wearing nothing but his underpants as a form of revenge.
Three years later, the actress also appeared in episode 20 of season 9 of Law and Order as Katrina Ludlow. This role gave her a nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series at the Emmys.
Other roles
Besides rom-coms, she also starred in some important dramas and thrillers, such as Sleeping with the Enemy (1991), a powerful movie about violence and abuse against women, and The Pelican Brief (1993), where she plays Darby Shaw, a law student who writes a paper speculating that two recently assassinated U.S. Supreme Court justices were killed for political and environmental reasons.
In Mona Lisa Smile (2003), she plays Katherine Watson, an art history teacher at Wellesley College who encourages her students to think for themselves and challenge traditional gender roles. The film stars other big Hollywood names such as Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, and Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Roberts also starred in a Disney Adaptation of Snow White. In Mirror, Mirror (2012), she plays The Evil Queen, who tries to get the princess (Lily Collins) killed. Five years later, in another adaptation (this time of a John Green book), she plays Auggie’s mother in Wonder (2017), trying to juggle the difficulties her son faces having been born with a facial deformity.
To close this list, I want to remember the movie that made lots of people want to travel around the world. In Eat, Pray, Love (2010), the main character, Liz Gilbert, realizes she’s unhappy with her life and marriage. After a painful divorce, she embarks on a year-long journey of self-discovery across the globe, eating good food in Italy, praying peacefully in India, and searching for emotional healing in Bali.
A talented and multi-faceted artist, Roberts has shown again and again why she’s one of the most loved actresses of her generation. Lucky us for being able to watch her shine on our screens!
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The article above was edited by Isabelle Bignardi.
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