An actress playing an actress? Julia Roberts didn’t like that – and therefore almost didn’t do “Notting Hill”.
After her breakthrough with “Pretty Woman” in 1990, nine years later “Notting Hill” was another big rom-com success for Julia Roberts (56). Millions of viewers watched the beginning romance between the actress Anna Scott, whom she played, and the bookseller William Thacker (Hugh Grant, 63). Roberts’ confession is even more shocking: she almost turned down the cult role.
She didn’t want to play a film actress
In a recent cover interview with the film’s screenwriter Richard Curtis (67), the Oscar-winning actress admitted that she almost turned down her participation in the romantic comedy because she felt “uncomfortable” with the role. “One of the hardest things I ever had to do was play a movie actress in your movie,” she told the author. “I felt so uncomfortable. I mean, we talked about it so many times, but I almost didn’t do the role because it just… oh, it just seemed so strange to me. I didn’t even know how I should play this person.”
The actress also admitted that she “loathed” her costume in the film because she didn’t like having to dress like a movie star. That’s why she simply changed her outfit herself, as she now revealed. One of the film’s iconic scenes is the one in which Anna confesses her love to William with the words: “I’m just a girl, standing in front of a boy and asking him to love her.” Now, Roberts said that on the morning of the day of filming, she sent her driver back to her apartment to get the clothes she wanted to wear for the scene instead of the outfit she had planned. “It was my own flip-flops and my cute little blue velvet skirt and a t-shirt and my cardigan.” She also never expected that these lines would become so famous. She thought it was “great,” but never expected the huge success.
Would Anna run a knitting department today?
It was only in December that the actress reflected on “CBS Mornings” about how the couples from her most famous love films would be doing today. While she shocked fans by saying that Edward Lewis from “Pretty Woman” had already died, she had a more beautiful vision for “Notting Hill”:
Anna, Roberts imagined, had left Hollywood behind to look after a large group of children in London. “She is retired. She has six children and has kept her waistline surprisingly well,” said the 56-year-old. Her lover William still runs his bookstore, and Anna runs a small knitting department next to it.
Source: Stern
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
