We live in a culture of meanness, says Julia Roberts
The actor talks about the changing trends of Hollywood and her comeback as a villain.
Actor Julia Roberts, who shot to fame during the 90s, couldn’t be happier that she entered showbiz in the 1980s as she finds modern fame leads one to rehab, reported IANS.
“What’s new is that we live in a culture of meanness. My experience with fame 25 years ago was a gradual progression. These days, it’s catapulting. There’s the express elevator and there’s rehab and one leads to the other,” Australia’s Sunday Telegraph quoted the actor as saying.
The actor tackled a number of roles in the early days of her career, but it was her portrayal of prostitute Vivian in 1990 film Pretty Woman which saw her achieve global stardom. However, comparing her journey to today’s rat race, Roberts says that, “Everybody is trying to write something, everybody has an opinion. There’s too much scrutiny and there’s too many beasts that have to be fed. It’s a little bit crazy.”
In her latest venture Mirror, Mirror, the actor can be seen portraying vile royalty, something very rare in Roberts’ case, who is known as America’s Sweetheart. The actor plays the evil Queen Clementianna in the film, which is a comedic take on one of the most popular fairytales of all time, Snow White. Mirror Mirror shows how Snow White forms her own army to fight her evil stepmother.
Evil never looked this good
Roberts shares that one of the hardest part of the evil queen’s role was getting immune to the beauty regime of applying bird faeces to her skin, which was a prerequisite of the role. Although Roberts hated it, director Tarsem Singh revelled in her pain.
The 44-year-old star told the Metro newspaper, “All that beauty stuff was so disgusting. Tarsem loved every minute of it and I was tortured. I think he took great delight in it. “Once out of the sordid make-up, Roberts found it particularly “fun” playing the villainous character as it gave her the freedom to “go off the rails in any direction”. She said, “It was fun to play this villain, because no real rules of syntax or reality applied to her,” reports nzherald.co.nz.
Family front
According to Times of India, the mother of seven-year-old twins Hazel and Phinnaeus and four-year-old Henry doesn’t know if she’s ready to let her three children with cinemantographer-husband Danny Moder, 43, to see her in such a villainous role.
When asked if Roberts’ family was aware of this side of her, the actor replies, “I’m happy that [the Evil Queen] is not inside me. But without naming names, I drew [how to play the part] from a couple of people I know,” usmagazine.com quoted the actor as saying.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 5th, 2012.