Gallery Links:
- Appearances/Events: “Valentine’s Day” Los Angeles Premiere
- Valentine’s Day: Posters
- Valentine’s Day: Stills

The Oscar winner has locked lips with a string of hunky co-stars, including Richard Gere in Pretty Woman, Hugh Grant in Notting Hill and George Clooney in Oceans Eleven. However, the married mother-of-three insists she loathes faking real affection, and relies on camera trickery to escape kissing her onscreen love interests.

Roberts tells Us Weekly, “I try to avoid it at every turn. I’ve kissed through sheets; I’ve come up with every trick in the book, because I just think it’s bizarre.”

Julia, who was sporting pink locks, kissed Letterman, who was fast to lean over to her in a bid to reciprocate to the gesture. However, while talking on the show, the Pretty Woman actress said that she did not like doing intimate scenes in her flicks, as she was a mother of three kids.

“You know it’s not really what I do, so if you are going to ask me to do it, you have to expect it to be toned down,” the Sun quoted her as sa

GALLERY LINKS:
Magazine Scans: Entertainment Weekly – March 2009

The film, writer-director Tony Gilroy’s impressive and assured follow-up to ‘Michael Clayton,’ boasts plentiful plot twists, the Gatling-gun dialogue of a Bogey-Bacall flick and — most importantly — Roberts’ first true lead role since 2003’s ‘Mona Lisa Smile.’

Moviefone sat down with Roberts and a small panel of journalists for a relaxed but revealing chat about the film — and ended up unearthing quite a few fun facts in the process. From why she and Clive have such great on-screen chemistry to what it takes to be invited into her kitchen to why she’d rather eat the world’s biggest, greasiest slab of meat than read a gossip magazine, here are eight things we learned about Julia Roberts. – By Tom DiChiara

1. Playing venomous lovers in ‘Closer’ actually did make Julia and Clive closer.

Roberts and Owen first met and became friends on the set of 2004’s ‘Closer,’ in which they played a husband and wife who lie, cheat and verbally abuse the hell out of one another — and yet Roberts insists they had a blast filming it. “‘Closer’… is pretty ferocious at times,” she says. “But the great thing about that is that we came from a piece led by ‘The Master,’ Mike Nichols, and he really forced us to get in there and play those scenes no matter how raw or ugly. And so I think that with that kind of acting you either become good friends and really have a trust for each other, or you never talk to each other again — you know, you just kind of always feel uncomfortable around that person. And, fortunately, we were the former.” The evidence of this friendship can be seen in every chemistry-fueled scene the two share in ‘Duplicity’ — a fact of which Roberts is keenly aware: “I think that idea of safety and trust with a person allows you to be more fun and playful, which a lot of these scenes called for — just that little bit of sparkle and subtext.”

2. Julia likes to lie … on-screen.

Roberts’ sexy corporate double-crosser Claire Stenwick isn’t exactly the most moral person she’s ever played, but it’s impossible not to fall head-over-heels for her — as Owen’s Ray Koval does. And Julia can certainly understand the character’s appeal. “Well, I think the thing about Claire as the movie unravels [is] that her armor starts to fall away, or her drive shifts a little,” she muses. “The great thing about her is, like her or not, or whatever her motivation is, she’s perfectly happy with who she is and what she’s doing and how she’s accomplishing it. She’s kind of ruthless that way, so as things go on and as this relationship unfolds with Ray, for better or worse, it really does change her focus. I just love that scene in the airport in the end, you know, playing that scene. It was just — it’s masterful. Tony is a really, really smart guy because to watch these two people try to put their cards on the table and nobody believes anybody, it’s just great! I mean how do you convince the best liar you know that you’re not lying! It’s kind of, really, a super idea.”

3. She wouldn’t call ‘Duplicity’ a comeback, but she hasn’t been neglecting her kids either.

Before ‘Duplicity,’ America’s Sweetheart hadn’t tackled a full-on leading role since 2003’s ‘Mona Lisa Smile,’ having appeared in mostly ensemble films or supporting roles since starting a family with cameraman Danny Moder (they have three children). But she insists this isn’t a comeback. Says Roberts: “Well, it doesn’t seem like that long ago that ‘Charlie Wilson’s War’ came out, and then I have a movie ['Fireflies in the Garden'] coming out on Father’s Day, so I mean I feel busy … I think somebody said that I made 13 movies in the past 6 years.” When a reporter points out that this includes her voiceover work in ‘Ant Bully’ and ‘Charlotte’s Web,’ Julia laughingly responds, “Well work is work. If I leave my house to go to work, it’s work.” And she recognizes that reporters can spin things the other way, too: “Listen, if somebody wanted to, [they could] say I’m not being attentive to my children and, ‘Look, she’s made all these movies in the past six years.’ So you can make whatever case you want.” But for her part, Roberts feels that she’s been “pretty methodical” in her work habits, pointing out that she doesn’t often do multiple movies in the same year. “Early on, I mean, I would take any job that was offered — not really. But, yeah, I never quite had that kind of momentum in work that some people do. I admire it; I think I’m lazier than that.”

4. If you make ‘Michael Clayton,’ Julia will invite you into her kitchen.

Say you’re a filmmaker and you want to get Roberts to commit to your film — what does it take? “It’s just really an instinct. I just kind of feel like, ‘Okay, yeah, I want to be a part of this,’” she says. As for why she chose to do ‘Duplicity’ specifically, the answer is simple: “It’s the whole package. I mean, it’s certainly a really well crafted script, this one, and Tony is so alluring, that brainiac. You know, he came over to my apartment and sat in my kitchen, and we had a long conversation. And I just remember saying to him: ‘If you tell me that you are going to be the guy who has been sitting in my kitchen for the past three hours on the set for the next six months, then I’m in! If you’re gonna be this guy.’ And he absolutely was the guy that sat in my kitchen. To this day, he is the same person.” And in case you were wondering, Roberts adds, “Not everybody gets to come into the kitchen.”

5. She’s not exactly Paparazzi Superfan No. 1.

Sorry, paps, but Julia just doesn’t find those sneaky snapshots of celebs taking their kids to school or picking up their dog’s poo all that fascinating. “It’s so insidious and pointless,” she says of the paparazzi’s relentless pursuit to capture the excruciating minutiae of stars’ lives. “I think that takes away from getting to have this special moment where you go and see someone in a movie. That magic gets diluted because you see these people every hour, every day in something that’s bound together and called a publication … If I could avoid it altogether I would, but I also love my job. And [in] a situation like this where there’s a movie I really enjoyed making, I am happy to talk about it. I just think it’d be nice if there were some clearer divisions of what people think is interesting.”

6. She refuses to read the gossip rags.

Julia may be a fixture on the pages of the tabloids, but they’re certainly not bathroom reading material in the Roberts-Moder household. “I’m not a consumer. I used to be. It got kind of so sickening.” How sickening? “It’s like eating a giant cheeseburger, and halfway through you’re like: ‘What the f*** am I doing?! This is gonna make me sick.’” That said, she’s all for a classy photo shoot in a respectable magazine. “I, like anyone, like to see a nice picture of Clive in a magazine, but I don’t need to see a picture of Clive in his boxer shorts taking out his garbage. I think that’s where people think they want so much coverage. They think they want those private moments stolen away. But they don’t really because it does make you sick and you do end up looking at it and thinking: ‘I really shouldn’t be seeing this. I really shouldn’t be voting on the popularity of who has the cutest baby. Doesn’t that make me kind of a small person?’ So, I think that we just need some relief and some re-programming.” And some pants to wear while taking out the garbage.

7. Julia isn’t (technically) done with romantic comedies.

While Roberts has moved easily and gracefully from genre to genre, some of her most memorable and beloved films have been romantic comedies: ‘Pretty Woman,’ ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding,’ ‘Notting Hill,’ and the list goes on. But she hasn’t zipped up her hooker boots or laced up a wedding dress for a rom-com in almost eight years. Still, the 41-year-old actress isn’t opposed to doing another one. “It’s not dead to me,” she says of the genre. “I’ve read a couple really funny romantic comedy scripts in the last year, which is unusual, but it hasn’t been something that I can apply myself to in the circumstances that were presented in the script. Because I think you kind of have to change the game a little bit for it to work the older you get … You kind of have to change the circumstances to accommodate that and sometimes it just, the map doesn’t work for me. But, you know, it’s certainly not dead, and I enjoy having the laugh reading it.”

8. Julia and niece Emma Roberts never talk shop.

Eighteen-year-old Emma Roberts is quickly climbing the Hollywood ranks, thanks to starring roles in ‘Aquamarine,’ ‘Nancy Drew’ and ‘Hotel for Dogs,’ but it doesn’t sound like she’s being coached by her Aunt Julia. “I don’t really give Emma any advice about show business,” Roberts confesses. “You know, our conversations tend to be on a more personal family level.” As for her own kids, Julia’s in no rush to have them join the family biz.: “My first instinct is that I would prefer if my children wanted to be artists that they wait, you know, that they just wait — as long as they can.”

Michelle Obama has nothing on Julia Roberts.

On the Monday after the Oscars, there was the elusive actress, in a fitted black blazer, jeans and rippling locks, with all the presence of a polished but approachable politician, pressing palms and personally greeting each member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. — that idiosyncratic group that bestows the Golden Globes — in a conference room of the Four Seasons Hotel. The line to speak with her was long, its denizens frequently shabby and odd and gushing, but Roberts did not flag, dutifully raining that glorious, improbable smile on every grateful scribe and posing for a memorializing photo.

She then disappeared, and returned with her hair upswept, sporting a green, summery linen top. She did a quick photo shoot (as the great “Slumdog Millionaire” actor Irrfan Khan, a hotel guest, stopped by and introduced himself) and retreated for this interview into an almost furniture-less meeting room. She perched on the only couch, eventually slinging one leg up in that idiosyncratic, long-legged recline, often seen in her movies and magazine spreads.

Unlike her married peers (Brangelina or TomKat), Roberts and husband Danny Moder have maintained a distinctly more selective media presence, and the Oscar-winning actress has emerged from her cocoon only to discuss her new film, “Duplicity” — the first movie she’s actually top-lined since 2003 — which opens Friday.

It’s a snarky romance-thriller about two former spies — looking to score really big — in the underhanded world of corporate espionage. She and Clive Owen — the two were last seen viciously battling on screen in 2004’s “Closer” — play charming scoundrels, madly in love but congenitally unable to trust. The film, written and directed by ” Michael Clayton’s” Tony Gilroy, is told through flashbacks and purposeful misdirects, leaving the viewer to puzzle out the extent of almost every character’s mendacious ways.

But that’s just work. What has preoccupied Roberts for the last few years has been motherhood, and the evidence of her other focus — Henry, 2, and Hazel and Phineas, 4 — were seen shortly before the interview, hanging out at the entrance of the hotel. “We move as this pack,” says Roberts. “This morning Danny got them ready while I got me ready. Load them up in the car, and here we come.”

These days, Roberts has the air less of a star who happens to be a mother and more that of a mother who occasionally dips her toe into the world of work. Even in a vaguely sterile hotel room, she emanates happiness, not the manufactured “I’m happy in this public situation” professional facade but that deep-in-your-bones calm that’s hard to fake.

At 41, she is almost (miraculously) wrinkle-free, as if age and gravity have decided just to skip this one person. The skin is tawny, the hair blondish for the moment, the only seeming minute flaw an infinitetesimally small mole under one eye — only really apparent on a 20-foot screen. Roberts insists it has always been there, and she and her minions are forever telling the magazines not to airbrush it out, because that “blands” out her face.

“Duplicity,” a kind of sultry kissing cousin to Steven Soderbergh’s jaunty “Ocean’s” series (which featured Roberts in the first two installments), keys off her knowing confidence. There’s a memorable scene when her character saunters languorously down the streets of Rome in a knockout, form-fitting dress evocative of 1960s Italian cinema. All the time, she’s watched by Owen’s spy, a man she once seduced and abandoned. “That dress took us the whole movie to find,” she says. “There was a look that Tony was going for. This movie has great style, just a real cool sense of itself. We as a country and culture have gotten sort of sloppy. I love the idea of cleaning it up and buttoning it up and having a point of view visually, wardrobe-wise.”

“Duplicity” evinces a kind of genteel cynicism that runs through many of her recent films — with the hipster heisters in “Ocean’s,” the brutal, adulterous lovers of “Closer” and most recently the carousing congressman in ” Charlie Wilson’s War.” These movies are nothing like her own life, which may be the (un)conscious point, says Roberts. “I think of my life as a pretty sunny existence.” Films are “how I explore what I don’t want out of my life in a safe place.”

The radiant grin, the signature of such films as “Pretty Woman,” “My Best Friend’s Wedding” and “Notting Hill,” exists off-screen for the moment. While contemporaries like Jennifer Aniston and Sarah Jessica Parker are still looking for love in movies, Roberts says: “I can’t play those parts anymore. . . . It just doesn’t work for me at 41, with three kids and happily married. It doesn’t hold the same interest that it did for me once upon a time.”

It takes two

One notable fact about the shooting of “Duplicity”: There were scheduled breaks for . . . breast-feeding. “It was like every 2.5 hours,” says Roberts with a laugh. “It was like being Swedish. You felt like the mother is so completely supported in her motherness.”

Gilroy wrote “Duplicity” almost eight years ago on assignment from Universal. The film became regenerated when Owen came to a party during the filming of “Michael Clayton” and George Clooney suggested casting Owen in “Duplicity.”

“I didn’t offer it to [Owen] that night,” says Gilroy, but “I did stick around and had a couple of drinks with him, and I saw something there I had never seen before. George was right.” Owen quickly became Gilroy’s “co-conspirator” on the project. They both wanted Roberts.

The reason: the chemistry between the leads.

It was Mike Nichols who initially paired Roberts with Owens in “Closer.” “She and Clive. . . . They pick up each other’s rhythms and set up a rhythm together,” he says. “They are made to play together.”

Or, as Owen says, “Working with her . . . the dialogue feels buoyant and alive.”

Getting Roberts to sign on for “Duplicity” wasn’t exactly easy. Although she loved the script’s “intrigue and humor,” she was pregnant. “I said to my husband, ‘I don’t know why I’m reading this. I’m going to have a baby.’ I respectfully passed and told them I’m not into working right now,” she says.

Time passed. The project recrystallized, and the duo asked again. There was no answer until Gilroy, who lives in New York, got a call seemingly out of the blue that Roberts “wants to see you tomorrow,” he recalls.