Julia Roberts’s hard line terrified a director after her bad experience with Steven Spielberg

Julia Roberts’ films always make us dizzy and get butterflies in our stomachs. Be that as it may Beautiful woman or runaway bride, the actress has time and again given us films that are our comfort movies to binge watch while we bust a pint of ice cream. Besides her rom-coms, she has also made films that range across different genres. She is simply versatile!

In 1999, Julia Roberts played the role of Anna Scott Notting Hill, a romantic comedy written by the one and only Richard Curtis. While the movie was as cute as can be, it turns out that Richard Curtis was quite terrified of the actress on set. Does it have something to do with setting boundaries after a series of bad experiences?

Richard Curtis was afraid of Julia Roberts

Earlier this year, Julia Roberts And Richard Curtis sat down for a conversation British Vogue. During the conversation, Roberts admitted that a lot had changed in the past 25 years.

Her statement, “We now have better and more fun conversations than 25 years ago” led Curtis to recall how he was afraid of her when they were filming Notting Hill.

He remembered the rule Roberts had imposed on herself that didn’t allow her to get too friendly on set. Curtis stated:

I was afraid of you then. Do you remember what you said to me during the last week of Notting Hill? You suddenly came to the set every day, even when you weren’t filming, and you said that you have to be careful with films, that you are not too friendly.

Roberts, who could not remember this part of her life, asked: “Why?” to which Curtis replied:

Because you said someone will always take advantage of it a little bit. That someone will always suddenly ask you to meet their mother and have dinner and all that. And you just felt like you had to focus on your work.

When he asked her if, to this day, she still felt like she had to hold back because people only saw her as THE Julia Roberts, she replied:

That’s a tough one because I feel like I have to hold back sometimes because there are too many question marks about where the space will expand.

Other times, Roberts puts a friendly foot forward, greeting and embracing total strangers with as much warmth as possible. A perfect balance between boundaries and courtesy.

Julia Roberts’ experience with Steven Spielberg

In 1991, Roberts played the role of Tinkerbell Steven Spielberg‘S Hook. Rumors swirled that the two personalities clashed on set and Roberts was even given the nickname “Tinker Hell” because of her attitude.

When asked about it, she simply said she had never heard the nickname before. However, she did admit that she had her moments on set, just like anyone would have when they sat quietly in their trailers for hours.

She told me Entertainment weekly,

No. I’ve never heard it. But I’m a normal person. I mean, if I sit in my trailer for six hours and do nothing, I’m going to be like, ‘What the fuck is going on?’ I don’t think that’s a scandalous question, nor do I think it’s temperamental.

Despite the rumors, Roberts stated that she and Spielberg got along. When EW recalled sources talking about “friction” between them, she replied boldly:

“A source says…” If they don’t have enough guts to say who they are, I think they should shut up.

It’s clear that either the sources were lying or Roberts’s were. Although we can understand her frustration at having to wait on set for six to eight hours doing absolutely nothing, when she could have been using her time for something better.

Notting Hill can be rented/purchased on Prime Video.

Hook can be viewed on AMC.