Filmsane

All right… Let’s start this post with some awesome announcement. It’s Julia Roberts’s birthday! Yeah, that’s right. The Academy Award winner today turns 50 and if you don’t mind me saying… she doesn’t’ look a day over 30.

She still has the illuminating smile and is obviously still talented, gorgeous and breathtaking as she was at the start of her career. Since hitting it big with Mystic Pizza in the late 80’s right until last year’s thriller Money Monster she’s been a steady presence in movies and in tabloids alike.

Before getting hitched and having children, her love life was constantly subject of much media attention. But now she’s more known for more selective body of work, and in honor of her 50th birthday let’s make a trip down memory lane and remind our self of Julia’s best movies. I’m a big fan of her rom com movies (Runaway Bride and Notting Hill are awesome), but i also like the little almost unknown movies that she starred in. I’m talking about Dying Young, I love Trouble for instance. Movies that didn’t made a lot of money but either stood the test of time or became un-discovered gems in her career as time progressed.

But speaking of time… Let’s look back at Julia’s best movie from the very beginning of her career right until now.

Shall we?

Mystic Pizza (1988)

Director: Donald Petrie
Stars: Annabeth Gish, Julia Roberts, Lili Taylor…
Fun fact about the movie: Actress Conchata Ferrell would work with Julia Roberts again for a second time when the pair would reunite on a cinema movie set for Erin Brockovich (2000) around twelve years after

Steel Magnolias (1989)

Director: Herbert Ross
Stars: Shirley MacLaine, Olympia Dukakis, Sally Field…
Fun fact about the movie: The producers thought no one would believe Sally Field as the mother of a 22-year-old, until she pointed out that her real-life son was almost 22.

Pretty Woman (1990)

Director: Garry Marshall
Stars: Richard Gere, Julia Roberts, Jason Alexander…
Fun fact about the movie: The opera Richard Gere takes Julia Roberts to is La Traviata, which is about a prostitute who falls in love with a wealthy man.

Flatliners (1990)

Director: Joel Schumacher
Stars: Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Bacon, Julia Roberts…
Fun fact about the movie: In later years, Joel Schumacher admitted that he felt he was the wrong director for Dying Young (1991). Schumacher said that he only did it as a personal favor to Julia Roberts, as he had loved working with her on Flatliners (1990).

Dying Young (1991)

Director: Joel Schumacher
Stars: Julia Roberts, Campbell Scott, Vincent D’Onofrio…
Fun fact about the movie: Julia Roberts”s long red hair was mostly extensions. Her real hair was relatively short during filming.

The Pelican Brief (1993)

Director: Alan J. Pakula
Stars: Julia Roberts, Denzel Washington, Sam Shepard…
Fun fact about the movie: Paul Rudd named his daughter after Julia Roberts character Darby.

I Love Trouble (1994)

Director: Charles Shyer
Stars: Nick Nolte, Julia Roberts, Saul Rubinek…
Fun fact about the movie: Julia Roberts and Nick Nolte reportedly did not get along throughout filming. Nolte would go on to say that this was the worst movie he had ever done while Roberts later said that Nolte was the worst actor she had ever worked with.

My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997)

Director: P.J. Hogan
Stars: Julia Roberts, Dermot Mulroney, Cameron Diaz…
Fun fact about the movie: Julia Roberts hand-picked both Dermot Mulroney and Cameron Diaz for this film.

Notting Hill (1999)

Director: Roger Michell
Stars: Hugh Grant, Julia Roberts, Richard McCabe…
Fun fact about the movie: Many of the shots of Julia Roberts used in the opening credits came from the show Entertainment Tonight (1981).

Runaway Bride (1999)

Director: Garry Marshall
Stars: Julia Roberts, Richard Gere, Joan Cusack…
Fun fact about the movie: In real life, Julia Roberts canceled her own wedding to Kiefer Sutherland only a few days before the ceremony in 1991.

Erin Brockovich (2000)

Director: Steven Soderbergh
Stars: Julia Roberts, Albert Finney, David Brisbin….
Fun fact about the movie: When Julia Roberts sent her then-boyfriend, Benjamin Bratt, pictures of her new décolletage, he responded, “You can’t go out like that!”

Ocean’s Eleven (2001)

Director: Steven Soderbergh
Stars: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts
Fun fact about the movie: George Clooney had a keg of Guinness installed in his dressing room.

Closer (2004)

Director: Mike Nichols
Stars: Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Clive Owen….
Fun fact about the movie: Anna’s exhibition is the only time all four characters are in the same room.

Duplicity (2009)

Director: Tony Gilroy
Stars: Julia Roberts, Clive Owen, Tom Wilkinson…
Fun fact about the movie: Despite all the plot twists Duplicity was shot in less than 80 days.

Eat Pray Love (2010)

Director: Ryan Murphy
Stars: Julia Roberts, Javier Bardem, Richard Jenkins…
Fun fact about the movie: Rome’s two professional soccer teams, SS Lazio and AS Roma, are fierce rivals. In Elizabeth Gilbert’s original novel, Mr Spaghetti was an SS Lazio fan. The filmmakers made him an AS Roma fan, enraging local SS Lazio fans.

August: Osage County (2013)

Director: John Wells
Stars: Meryl Streep, Dermot Mulroney, Julia Roberts…
Fun fact about the movie: The film cast includes three Oscar winners: Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts and Chris Cooper; and four Oscar nominees: Benedict Cumberbatch, Juliette Lewis, Abigail Breslin and Sam Shepard.

Money Monster (2016)

Director: Jodie Foster
Stars: George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Jack O’Connell…
Fun fact about the movie: George Clooney has become a fan of Jack O’Connell’s hometown football team, Derby County.