Julia Roberts Reveals That She Used To Be a “Selfish Little Brat”

Julia Roberts. Photo by Denis Makarenko

Julia Roberts, who is about to turn 50, opened up to Harper’s Bazaar UK about marriage, motherhood, and admitted she used to be a brat as a young actress.

“I was my priority, a selfish little brat running around making films,” she told the magazine.

Roberts said she changed after she met Danny Moder on the set of The Mexican in 2000.

“It was meeting Danny…finding my person. When I think about what makes my life my life, and makes sense and just shine inside of me, it’s him. Everything has come from that for me,” she admitted.

The couple tied the knot in 2002 and have three children together – twins Hazel and Finn, 12 and Henry, 10.

When asked on working with her husband, the actress said she wants to do well in front of her man. “There’s comfort there, but also terror, which is a good combination. Terror because the person I want to impress most is looking right at me.”

Most days she is just a regular mom, she said, “If I wasn’t here today, I’d be in the carpool lane ferrying my kids to school.”

The Oscar winner rarely pursues new roles. “I just wait to see what comes along, as opposed to looking for it. It makes it fun and organic. There’s an almost unfair bar that a script has to attain for me to say, ‘I’m going to drop everything for this.’ Sometimes I think, ‘I’m pretending my name is Jane and I work in a bank.’ That’s kinda silly—I’m a grown-up woman!”

When asked whether she would consider giving up acting, she told the magazine, “Well, if I did much less, I wouldn’t be in the business at all. I was saying to my husband the other day that I haven’t worked in almost a year.”

Roberts has high standards when it comes to her profession and she doesn’t want to settle for just any role.

“Remember why you’re doing what you’re doing. That’s your anchor. Cultivate your taste and decision making. I didn’t work for a couple of years in my twenties, because I was being offered scripts and thinking ‘Is it me or is this all just crap?’ I figured I could cover my rent and wait for something good. I’d been spoilt with some great jobs already, so I was like, ‘Why do that part with that person, when I was just doing that part with these people!”

The 49-year-old actress has achieved many milestones in her life, and she’s happy with how everything has turned out in her career. “Deep down, we all know you can’t stand on the top point of a pinnacle on your tiptoes, and not at some point lose your balance, or get tired, or say, ‘OK somebody else take over, I have to go to the bathroom.’ There are great things I’ve accomplished and I’d be happy to accomplish more, of course, to impress my children and my husband. But you know what? I’ve been spoilt already.”

The full interview appears in Harper’s Bazaar November issue, on sale October 6. Roberts stars in the movie Wonder, which is set to be released on December 1.