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Julia Roberts admits her latest role as the mother of a teenage junkie has made her a much stricter parent
OSCAR-winner Julia Roberts reckons playing the mum of a teenage junkie has been the toughest role of her career – and her kids would probably agree.
The 51-year-old Pretty Woman star says shooting her latest film, Ben Is Back, has transformed the way she cares for her children and made her far stricter.
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Julia, who is married to cinematographer Danny Moder, 50, has banned their 14-year-old twins Hazel and Finn, and son Henry, 11, from social media, introduced “family meetings” and limited what they watch on TV, so they are not exposed to the “pressures” of modern life.
And the woman with one of the most dazzling smiles in Hollywood adds that putting on her stern face helps to get her message across.
In an exclusive chat, in which she also talks candidly about her 16-year marriage, Julia says: “I have three young children so I’m very careful about turning the TV on.
“It’s interesting trying to raise kids in this day because it’s all so new — the pressures, the resources, having the world in your hand like that.
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“I try to keep them off social media, because I don’t really understand what they need that for right now.”
In Ben Is Back, which is in cinemas this week, Julia plays Holly Burns, whose drug addicted 19-year-old son Ben (Lucas Hedges) turns up unexpectedly on Christmas Eve.
Over the next 24 hours Holly battles to save Ben as he struggles with his habit and desperately tries to pay back the people he owes money to.
The gritty subject matter was something of an eye-opener for Julia, who grew up in Smyrna, Georgia. She says: “I’m now more informed about drugs than I was before.
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“If you apply all the many nightmares that any parent could have in this world, you would lock the doors and never leave the house. You have to concentrate on the world’s positive, optimistic things.
“I grew up in a very small town in a community where drugs were not part of the high school scene, and if they were I was not aware of it.
“It was more about people downing beers in the parking lot of Domino’s Pizza. But peer pressure is such a huge dynamic of school culture, whether it’s drugs or something else.”
After one-off appearances in US TV series in the late Eighties, including Miami Vice, Julia hit the big time as the lead in 1990 smash Pretty Woman. It brought her fame, though not exactly a vast fortune — she was paid a modest £200,000.
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As her career continued to climb, she won an Oscar in 2000 for Erin Brockovich and went on to become the world’s highest-paid actress in 2003 when she received an unprecedented £20million for Mona Lisa Smile.
Julia seemingly had the world at her feet, but her early love life was not such a success story. She had high-profile romances with actors Jason Patric, Liam Neeson, Kiefer Sutherland and Matthew Perry.
And her first marriage, to country singer Lyle Lovett in 1993, ended in divorce two years later. Then she met Danny on the set of 2000 film The Mexican and found her “perfect match”.
They got married on July 4, 2002, at her 40-acre ranch in New Mexico. Today, after a long marriage, she credits Danny with turning her life around and saving her from “feeling lost”.
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Julia says: “Getting married to Danny is easily one of three turning points, because I found what for me is my perfect match.
"There’s nothing general about finding that person in this big wide world. That person shapes you, crystallises the definition of who you are.
“I give Danny a lot of credit. He really shined the light for me. He makes me feel my most comfortable self. I don’t alter myself in any way. And he points out aspects of myself — good and bad — that maybe I don’t pay attention to.”
Reportedly worth around £150million, Julia’s life is one of unimaginable luxury. The star family’s main residence is an ocean-front mansion in Malibu .
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Yet she and Danny are determined not to raise spoilt kids — and that means strict home rules for Hazel, Finn and Henry. She says: “I’m a strict mum, I don’t really lose my temper, but I think it’s important that children know their boundaries.
"If something happens I don’t really punish them, I prefer to have conversations with them. I think my serious face is punishment enough.
“I don’t want them to have had some of the struggles I had as a child, but you do need to know how to make your bed, do your laundry and how to make a meal.
“These are important life skills. They have to run their own race. Danny and I are a united front, as any parents would be. We take turns who’s stricter.”
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For Julia, who also stars in Amazon thriller Homecoming, the most important thing is spending quality time together as a family.
She said: “It’s about allowing time to just exist. Conversations require a complete disregard for the clock, so that you can just listen and really be present.
“Wanting to keep our family intact is something my husband and I . . . it’s always been a priority. For two people in showbusiness, it’s amazing. We’ve only worked at the same time, separately, once.
“I’m so proud of my marriage. We celebrated being married for 16 years in July and there’s so much happiness wrapped up in what we’ve found together.”
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At home, the family will often gather round the telly to watch Manchester United. Football-mad Finn became a big fan after being allowed to have a kickabout on the Old Trafford turf as a toddler.
Julia says: “Manchester United — that’s who we cheer for in our house. My oldest son got into that and it’s always been his team.”
Despite her huge success, Julia remains refreshingly down to earth and admits she is a firm believer in letting life unfurl as it will.
She says: “I don’t really pursue things. I have always felt, even when I desperately needed to pay my bills . . . it will sort of happen.
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“I do think I am fundamentally the same relatively simple person I’ve always been. I just have this flashy, wacky job that confuses people into thinking that I’m somehow ultra-fascinating.”
Now in her early fifties she still has the same energy and enthusiasm for life she has always had.
“It’s the same feeling when I was 20, as when I was 36 as when I’m 50,” she says. “I don’t know what freak-out we’re all supposed to have, turning 50. For myself, I was quite proud and happy.”
- Additional reporting by Georgina Bisval
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