Julia Roberts' Kids Know She's a Big Deal But Ask, 'Are You More Famous Than Taylor Swift?'
For an actress as talented and beloved as Julia Roberts, it’s not easy hiding her superstar status from her family.
The Homecoming star, 50, recently opened up in an interview with Oprah Winfrey for Harper’s Bazaar‘s November cover story, explaining that she has learned how to field questions about her level of notoriety from her three children: 11-year-old son Henry Daniel and twins Hazel Patricia and Phinneaus “Finn” Walter, 13.
“I don’t think they will ever have a true sense of [my fame],” said Roberts. “I think I told you once when they were starting to figure it out, it was like, ‘You’re famous?’ And I said, ‘I think a lot of people might have seen the movie that I’m in or might know who I am.’ “
The kids needed more detail, though — and how better to approach that than by asking about their favorite pop star? As Roberts recalled, “Maybe an hour goes by. [Then they ask,] ‘Are you more famous than Taylor Swift?’ “
“Do you imagine a day when you all sit down as a family and watch Pretty Woman?” asked Winfrey, 64.
“No,” said the actress, although, “I imagine a day that we all sit down and maybe watch My Best Friend’s Wedding.”
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In her upcoming drama film Ben Is Back, out Dec. 7, Roberts plays the mother of Lucas Hedges‘ character Ben Burns. And her youngest child made an interesting point about his mom’s newest film role that ended up making him and his older siblings a couple of new friends.
“My son Henry had said to me, ‘Mom, why in movies when you play somebody’s mom, why is it always a boy?’ And I said, ‘Wow, I don’t know. You know what? We’re going to have Lucas come over and you guys are going to meet him.’ “
“So Lucas came over, as did beautiful Kathryn Newton, who plays my older daughter,” Roberts shared. “I would just send them down to the beach with my kids. ‘Go for a swim, and I’ll see you guys in an hour and I’ll have lunch ready.’ “
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Roberts admitted she feels “it’s impossible” not to be affected by the current political administration, but that her daughter has taken the reins in helping the star realize there is hope.
“When Donald Trump was elected, my daughter, Hazel, came down and the TV was on, and it said on the crawl at the bottom, ‘Trump Wins,’ and she kind of gasped because of course we all had this collective hope that something else was going to happen,” said the Steel Magnolias star.
“And what I saw in that exact moment was the complete need for me as a parent to find a way to make her feel that she could still have a voice.”
“That’s why we went to the first Women’s March in Washington — I wanted her to feel like she still had a place in the world, that she could still believe in what she believed in, even though someone else was now president,” Roberts explained. “It was very powerful for me to have her, in a way, be my leader into this space of marching and participating in being a citizen of this country.”
