So before she ever even stepped onto a movie
set, right, before the world knew her name, and
long before she became the highest paid actress
on the planet, her very first day on Earth was
actually paid for by Coretta Scott King. Oh,
wow. Yeah, that is, I mean, that's just one of
those facts that forces you to completely reevaluate
everything you thought you knew about a person.
Exactly. I mean, welcome to today's Deep Dive,
everyone. We are really glad you're here. And
today... we're relying on a remarkably comprehensive
source, which is the Wikipedia biography of Julia
Roberts. Right. And our mission today is to decode
the existential fact of Julia Roberts. We want
to understand how a girl from Georgia fundamentally
reshaped the economics of Hollywood and, you
know, constructed this meticulously guarded public
persona. Yeah, because you might know her for,
well, you know, that trademark mega -watt smile.
Well, I'm gonna have to get comedies. Exactly,
the rom -coms. But the true story of how she
actually engineered her career and how she advocated
for her own worth is... It's just an absolute
master class in wielding power. It really is.
Yeah. So let's get right into those unlikely
beginnings. It's 1967 in Atlanta, Georgia. And
her parents, Betty, Lou, and Walter, they ran
a theater troupe. Right. But the source points
out a really critical detail. They were running
the only racially integrated theater troupe in
the region. Which is huge. I mean, in the American
South in the 1960s, The social and the political
weight of that decision really cannot be overstated.
By choosing to integrate, they were basically
making themselves a target, but they were also
providing this rare safe haven. Exactly. And
because of that haven, they actually ended up
coaching the children of Martin Latier King Jr.
and Coretta Scott King. Wow. Yeah, Walter Roberts
was the acting coach for their daughter Yolanda.
Right. When Betty Lou is pregnant with Julia,
the Roberts family is facing like severe financial
difficulties. They literally couldn't afford
the hospital bill. Oh, man. Right. So Coretta
Scott King steps in and pays the hospital bill
when Julie is born, basically as a thank you
for their service to her kids. That's incredible.
It just immediately tells you that her roots
are not grounded in that typical Hollywood nepotism.
Not at all. She's brought into the world, intercepting
with this massively significant civil rights
narrative. But growing up, she didn't even seem
destined for the screen. Like she played clarinet
in the high school band. She actually wanted
to be a vet. Wait, a veterinarian? Yeah. It isn't
until after high school that she just pivots.
She moves out to New York City, signs with a
modeling agency. and starts taking acting classes.
And that leap to the screen happens so fast.
Super fast. But I think we need to look at why
it happened so fast, because it wasn't due to,
like, years of methodical, classical training.
Right, because by 1988, she gets this breakthrough
in the indie film Mystic Pizza, and the film
critic Roger Ebert reviews it, and he specifically
knows that she was a major beauty with a fierce
energy. A fierce energy, yeah. Yeah. And then
just a year later, she's in Steel Magnolias.
Which, by the way, the director Herbert Ross
was notoriously tough on her. Sally Field actually
said he went after this newcomer with a vengeance.
Wow. That's intense for a new actor. OK, let's
unpack this. Because early Julie Roberts wasn't
some, like, polished Hollywood diamond. She was
just raw kinetic energy. It was like watching
a local garage band suddenly get booked to play
a massive stadium. Like they aren't perfect,
they miss a few chords, but you absolutely cannot
look away from the sheer unbridled potential.
What's fascinating here is how that raw, unpolished
energy translated into a universally relatable
vulnerability. Audiences immediately latched
onto it. You know, she wasn't a highly technical
actor like a young Meryl Streep. Right, right.
But that untrained vulnerability is its own specific
type of cinematic skill. When Ebert mentions
that force energy, he's talking about an unguarded
quality that just made her feel accessible, like
someone you actually knew. And that accessible
vulnerability is exactly what she takes and,
well, weaponizes. She uses it to completely rewrite
the rules of Hollywood economics. Absolutely.
Which brings us to 1990 and the explosion of
Pretty Woman. Now, she only earned $300 ,000
for that role. Which is wild in retrospect. Right.
And it was a role turned down by massive stars.
Michelle Pfeiffer, Meg Ryan, they all passed.
But then the film goes on to see the highest
number of U .S. ticket sales ever. for a romantic
comedy. It was a global phenomenon and that kind
of return on a $300 ,000 talent investment is
staggering. It gave her immediate leverage. Right,
because fast forward a decade to the year 2000,
and she commands a record -breaking $20 million
to play the real -life activist in Erin Brockovich.
Becoming the very first actress to ever reach
that specific pay milestone. Exactly. But so,
what does this all mean? Was her astronomical
pay purely the result of having a great agent,
or did she fundamentally change the structural
math for women in the industry? If we connect
this to the bigger picture, she was the defining
proof of concept for gender pay equity in Hollywood.
She forced this totally male dominated industry
to quantify a woman's box office draw on the
exact same scale as Tom Cruise or Tom Hanks,
which they just weren't doing before. Not at
all. The source notes her agent at the time credited
her with being a literal rainmaker for women's
films. She proved to studios that women could
lead films and guarantee opening weekend audiences
just as successfully as the men she basically
brought the receipts and I really want you listening
to this right now To think about your own career
here. Like how do you quantify your own value?
Are you afraid to demand what you are statistically
worth? That's a great point because she looked
at the math saw she was bringing in Tom Cruise
numbers and said, pay me Tom Cruise money. But
having reached that absolute pinnacle of power
and wealth, how does a star actually protect
herself? Yeah, the creation of the public persona.
Right, because we have to talk about the backlash
that comes with setting boundaries. The critics
started debating her acting skills versus her
sheer movie star wattage. Yeah, John Anderson
from Newsday famously called her an actress who
has never really been required to act. Ouch.
And others noted her characters often embody
traits that are just, you know, very similar
to her own, which led to this concept coined
by critics called Julianess. Julianess. It's
such a specific term. It really is. It was used
to describe this overwhelming display of confidence
and charm that borders on arrogance. Right, there
were all those rumors of her being quote -unquote
difficult on set. Exactly. But the source highlights
a 2024 interview with Richard Curtis where she
finally addresses this. She explained that she
consciously chose not to appear overly friendly
on sets. Interesting, why? To avoid being taken
advantage of. She said she never intended to
hurt anyone, but she had to set a hard line.
And here's where it gets really interesting.
Julianess acts as a celebrity suit of armor.
A suit of armor. I like that. Right. She uses
that famous megawatt smile, not as an invitation,
but as a dazzling shield to keep the industry
at arm's length. This raises an important question
about the gender dynamics of likeability. If
a male star sets strict boundaries on set to
avoid exploitation, he's just focused, right?
Oh, totally. He's a genius. Exactly. But when
Roberts does it, she's labeled difficult or edgy.
the industry demands women be perpetually accommodating,
she refused, and they punished her reputation
for it. But she survived it. And what's fascinating
is how she transitions away from that protective
armor later in her career. She starts actively
dismantling that image to find... Well, new artistic
and personal truths. Yeah, the pivot post -eat
-prey love is really striking. She totally moves
away from the rom -coms. She starts taking on
these complex, sometimes really unlikable character
-driven projects like August, Osage County, the
show Homecoming, and recently Leave the World
Behind. She's actively stripping away the America's
sweetheart expectation. And her private life
is full of these really deep explorations, too.
Like, she converted to Hinduism for spiritual
satisfaction. Right, following the guru Neem
Karoli Baba. Yeah, and she even gave her children
new names after Hindu gods, which is just this
massive shift from the safe, conventional box
people put her in. It really is. And then in
2023, she goes on the show, Finding Your Roots,
and she makes this shocking discovery about her
DNA. Oh, the surname thing? Yes. She finds out
her biological paternal great -great -grandfather
was a man named Mitchell, meaning her real surname
isn't Roberts at all. Imagine finding out your
globally famous brand name isn't even your biological
name. Wild, right? But she also learned her ancestors
owned slaves, and her reaction was so grounded
she noted you simply cannot turn your back on
history. That takes a lot of maturity to sit
with that kind of painful historical reality.
And she's also stepped into the political fray
recently. Now, as a critical reminder to everyone
listening, we are strictly reporting what is
in the source material here. We're absolutely
not taking aside or endorsing any political figures'
viewpoints. Right. We're just looking at the
facts presented in the biography. Exactly. The
source knows that in 2024, she made public political
endorsements, actively rallying for Kamala Harris
and Joe Biden. which actually drew public criticism
from Donald Trump. Which just shows she's willing
to risk alienating segments of her audience to
voice her convictions now. She is just so fluid,
like someone the public thought they knew completely
is constantly discovering new things about her
own name, her history, her faith. And her ability
to maintain a strict separation between her acting
career and her personal life for all those decades
is precisely what makes these glimpses into her
true self so impactful. Because she kept the
wall up for so long, when she does speak out
on faith or politics or her ancestry. It carries
immense weight. It really does. So let's just
sort of wrap up this incredible arc we've covered
today. I mean, we started with a hospital bill
paid by MLK's family to watching her become the
highest paid actress in the world, shattering
glass ceilings and continually redefining herself
completely on her own terms. It's the arc of
a master strategist. It truly is. And I'd love
for you, the listener. to think about the armor
that you wear in your own life. Like, how do
you balance being approachable with fiercely
protecting your own boundaries and your own worth?
It's a tough balance for anyone. Julia figured
out how to use our biggest asset as a shield.
What's your shield? And given all of this, I'll
pass it to you for a final thought. Yeah, I'd
leave you all with this to ponder. Given that
Roberts successfully maintains such a strict
impenetrable wall between her private life and
her public persona, could a movie star with the
sheer mystique universal power and untouchable
aura of a 1990s Julia Roberts ever be created
again in today's era of mandatory social media
oversharing? Man, that is a great question because
it really feels like that era of the true untouchable
movie star might be gone forever. Thanks so much
for joining us on this deep dive.