Julia Roberts turns 55: her sad childhood, a bad love streak and the escape from her wedding with the groom’s friend

His unmistakable smile, his freshness and endless legs clad in buccaneer boots conquered an audience eager for romantic comedies. It was 1990 and Julia Roberts began a meteoric cinematographic rise, in the role of a prostitute, in beautiful woman (Pretty Woman) in a love story more like a fairy tale than anything else, along with Richard Gere, in the skin of a millionaire, who, yes, used prostitution, but in those days nobody questioned the script. That year, the film that ended with a happy ending, became one of the favorites, but it was not the highest grossing of the year. Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze had swept Ghost. Another love story that transcended the earthly.

Julia Roberts not only knew how to earn a place in Hollywood, but also become one of the most admired and highest paid actresses in the world. His most celebrated films, which still often appear on television schedules because nobody gets tired of seeing them, were mainly romantic comedies: Pretty Woman, runaway bride, Notting Hill Y My best friend’s Weddingare absolute, timeless classics, titles for which she soon earned the nickname “America’s Sweetheart.” For a long time, the American put comedy on pause. But not because she doesn’t like it, or because she doesn’t get pigeonholed, which in fact she wasn’t because she spanned multiple genres, including suspense. She left comedy because the scripts just didn’t live up to her expectations.

Today Julia Roberts turns 55 and whoever wants to see her in her return to a comedy, the genre that best suits her, there is still time to see her in the cinema. She returned from the hand of George Clooney, in journey to paradise. It is about a divorced couple who travel to Bali to prevent their daughter, who is very much in love, from making the same mistake they did 25 years ago: getting married. It no longer breaks the box office like it used to, but the public is always glad to see it.

In a final interview he gave to The New York Times Magazine, he said that “sometimes the public misinterprets the amount of time that has passed without doing a romantic comedy as if I didn’t want to do it.” And he clarified the matter: “If I had read something that I thought had the level of writing of Notting Hill or the level of crazy fun of My best friend’s Wedding I would have. They just didn’t exist.”

The good choice of scripts contributed to a successful career.

His childhood and beginnings

Julia Fiona Roberts was born on October 28, 1967 in Atlanta, Georgia., in the bosom of a family that lived from day to day. His father, Walter Grady Roberts, was a vacuum cleaner salesman, and her mother, Betty Lou Bredemus, was a church secretary. Both had an acting vocation and a theater workshop in operation. It was the Atlanta Screen Actors and Writers Association, the first theatrical organization of that state of interracial character. For this reason, they earned the recognition of Martin Luther King and his wife, who sent their daughter Yolanda to these classes. When Julia was born, they took care of the hospital expenses.

Despite the passions that united them, the marriage ended in divorce when Julia was five years old. She is the youngest of three siblings. Eric (1956) and Lisa (1965) who also followed the family tradition and dedicated themselves to acting. What Julia’s mother called “the disease of the family”.

In 1972, when their parents divorced, the brothers were also separated. Eric chose to live with her father while Lisa and Julia moved with her mother to Smyrna, in the same state, where that same year she would marry Michael Motes. A marriage that ended very badly a decade later, with accusations of mistreatment by her mother, who said that marriage had been “the biggest mistake of her life.” Fruit of that relationshipin 1976 was born his half-sister Nancy Motes, who is believed to have died of a drug overdose in 2014.

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The childhood of the actress was not exactly rosy. A the violence that her mother denounced, in the house where she lived, added a terrible loss for little Julia. She was only 9 years old and her father, whom she loved so much and had a close bond with, was dying of laryngeal cancer.

Julia attended Griffin Middle School and finished her studies at Campbell High School, where she also studied music. She played a clarinet in the school band. Her first vocation was to be a veterinarian, although when choosing she was inclined towards journalism. “The illness of the family” had an effect so that the performance ended up dominating her aspirations. Also, his brother Eric, had tried his luck in acting and had managed to enter that world reserved for few.

So with her sister Lisa they moved to New York, to start her impressive acting career.

He first landed a role in the movie fire house, where neither appeared in the credits. In his job search, and with the contacts of his brother, was tempted to be a model. The Click Agency had noticed her height of 1.78 meters, her long legs and her 52 kilos, and wanted her for her staff. But Julia refused the offer. Her dreams were bigger.

After having participated in Mistyc Pizza (1988), his brother got him a job in the movie he was starring in, blood-red (1989), a drama that did not have a major impact, but gained experience on its direct path to stardom, sudden, immediate. The girlfriend of America was a crush.

The next movie, before beautiful womanit was steel magnolias, alongside the acclaimed actresses Shirley MacLaine and Sally Field. For that role, Julia was nominated for an Oscar and she received a Golden Globe for best supporting actress. Not bad to start with. If for Mystic Pizza she received 50 thousand dollars, in that film her pay was doubled. By Pretty Woman received 300 thousand dollars. Little in relation to what continues.

came to his first million dollars with the thriller Sleeping with the enemy (1991). That same year, in Captain Hook, traded some more and got 7 million. In My best friend’s Wedding (1997), climbed to 12. In Notting Hill (1999), the blockbuster with Hugh Grant, secured about 15 million. The next year, with her outstanding interpretive work in Erin Brockovich, her cachet reached 20 million, becoming the highest paid actress in history. And with that film, in addition to accolades and a gross of $256 million, she received an Oscar for best actress, a Golden Globe, the Bafta, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for best leading actress.

Along with his resounding successes, his love life developed like a continuity of failed relationships. There was one story in particular that she tried to hide to keep her private life out of the spotlight, but it was scandalous enough to get leaked. It was her love triangle with Kiefer Sutherland, whom she had met during filming. deadly line and actor Jason Patrick.

In 1991 the actress of beautiful woman He had everything ready to marry another star, Kiefer Sutherland. The wedding date had been set for June 14. The actress who almost 10 years later was the protagonist of runaway bride, At that time he canceled everything days before the wedding and went on a trip to Ireland, with one of Kiefer’s best friends, also an actor. The marriage was forgotten, the new couple Roberts-Patrick lasted a sigh and the friends with the passage of time managed to leave that story behind and recovered the bond. “Friends to the end,” Sutherland said in a podcast to Patrick, without a hint of rancor.

Beauty and fame guaranteed Julia one romance after another, but she was by no means stable. She dated Daniel Day-Lewis, Liam Neeson. She was related to Matthew Perry, to name a few of her. In 1993, she married a country music singer, Lyle Lovett. The wedding took place at a Lutheran church in Indiana, while he was on tour. They did not reach two years of marriage and the end of the love story came. At three years old, when she won the Oscar, she attended the ceremony accompanied by Benjamin Bratt, actor of Lhey and order. After three years they announced their breakup. She called it a “kind and tender ending.” She was used to endings.

In 2002 he returned to say yes. This time in a relationship that lasted and broke the losing streak. Her husband, Danny Moder, is a cameraman she met on the set of The Mexican. She had three children with him, who changed her life. She put her career on hold to take care of her children who are now teenagers. Twins Hazel Patricia and Phinnaeus Walter were born in November 2004. Years later, Henry arrived. Their marriage has been going on for more than 20 years and they are seen in love according to the few images that circulate. They live in Malibu, California, away from the cameras.

Today the American actress reveals that what gratifies her most is her role as mother and wife: “If we talk about values, the family is the only thing that matters. Fame is a passing breeze. The important thing is to have a touchstone that reminds you of who you are.”

Judging by the photos, her smile says it all.

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