Julia Roberts Really Care About Being Seen as ‘America’s Sweetheart’
For many years Julia Roberts has been heralded by the media as “America’s sweetheart.” The superstar actress has dazzled viewers on the big screen for over three decades, and continues to impress to this day.
Although Roberts has held the title for 20 years, many might be surprised to find out that she doesn’t have a personal attachment to the nickname. If anything, the title serves as a layer of insulation between her as a person and her as a public figure.
“Well, let us not forget, it wasn’t — I didn’t feel like it was, you know, like, the beauty pageant sash, ‘America’s sweetheart,’” Roberts admitted. “It was the name of a movie I was in, and so it just seemed an easy like, ‘Oh, ok, let’s just — .’ Let’s stitch those two things together. So it was really neither here nor there.”
She doesn’t have an emotional attachment to the title of ‘America’s sweetheart’
Roberts starred in the film America’s Sweethearts in 2001, and the title has followed her ever since. Even though the name has been associated with her for almost half of her career, she personally has never had a strong connection to it.
“I have found … I’m very unemotional about stuff like that,” Roberts said. “It doesn’t — I don’t feel that I have to then live up to something, or that it’s some kind of pressure, understanding of me.”
For Roberts, the title serves as a buffer that allows her to separate who she is in real life from the persona that people see on the big screen.
“I feel that it shows, in fact, a greater sense of protection between me as a person and me as an actor …” Roberts added.
Julia Roberts said people don’t freak out when they see her in public
Roberts assures that the person she is in her private life is different from the perception that many people have of her.
Later in the interview Roberts revealed that despite her massive success and universally recognizable appearance, she surprisingly doesn’t get overwhelming reactions from people on the street.
“I’ve never been a person that attracted the kind of — I think of it as musician energy where people see a musician in the grocery store and you would just kind of go, ‘Oh my God.’ … I get this kind of energy, like, [sucks teeth] ‘You cut your hair. It still looks cute.’ …” Roberts said.
Roberts believes her “girl next door” look and vibe are what makes her so approachable.
“But I think ’cause people think of me more as like their neighbor, or ‘My daughter looks just like you,’ or — you know, those are the kinds of things that people come up and approach me with, as opposed to an energy that’s more than I can handle.
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Julia Roberts Said 1 Co-Star Was ‘Completely Disgusting’
Julia Roberts is an iconic actor who rose to fame after a series of roles in high-profile romantic comedies. Even after decades in the business, Roberts remains one of America’s favorite stars, a woman who can captivate a room with the brilliance of her smile. Roberts is known for her good nature and affability, however, even “America’s Sweetheart” has her days. Reportedly, Roberts was once involved in a notorious feud with one of her co-stars from the early nineties.
Julia Roberts was born in Georgia in 1967. Raised in a family of playwrights and actors, Roberts’ early ambition was to be a veterinarian. However, by the time she graduated from high school, she had turned her attention to acting. In the late eighties, Roberts began landing roles in television and film projects, and it wasn’t long before the stunning Roberts had her first hit, in the 1988 independent film, Mystic Pizza, according to IMDb.
In 1989, Roberts appeared in another fan-favorite film, the cult classic Steel Magnolias. Roberts performance, as a young woman struggling with diabetes, was critically acclaimed, and she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her work in the film. Although by this time, Roberts was a star on the rise, the following year would bring her biggest film to date, and one that would define the first decade of her career.
In 1990, Julia Roberts appeared in the film Pretty Woman, opposite Richard Gere. Roberts was perfect for the role, and she became a huge star after the film’s release. Not only did Roberts score her second Academy Award nomination for the role of Vivian Ward, but she also won a Golden Globe Award. There was a lot of pressure on Roberts to follow up her success in Pretty Woman with more high-profile roles, and she did not disappoint — in rapid succession, she appeared in movies such as Sleeping with the Enemy, Hook, and The Player.
Roberts’ work in the 1993 film I Love Trouble was not so well-received, however. The film, which was a comedy with a dramatic twist, co-starred Nick Nolte, an actor who first rose to fame in the seventies and had earned acclaim for his work in movies such as The Prince of Tides. It certainly seemed like dream casting, however, it didn’t take long before reports started circulating that indicated Roberts and Nolte did not get along during filming of I Love Trouble.
In 1993, around the time that I Love Trouble was released, Julia Roberts opened up about Nick Nolte in a revealing interview with The New York Times, dropping more than a few clues about her relationship with her co-star. “From the moment I met him we sort of gave each other a hard time,” Roberts stated in the interview. “And naturally we get on each other’s nerves.” Roberts also went on to call Nolte “completely disgusting,” and that “he seems go out of his way to repel people.”
After I Love Trouble was released, rumors of a feud between Roberts and Nolte persisted, with some sources claiming that the two had to work with each other’s stand-ins on set because they were incapable of getting along for extended periods of time, according to Vanity Fair. Whatever the truth of the matter is, Roberts and Nolte have not worked together since — which might lend some credence to the idea that the two simply can’t stand each other.
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