Julia Roberts is an astounding figure in the entertainment industry; she made an entrance into the industry in the ‘80s. Since then, she has landed lead roles in movies and has become one of America’s highest-paid actresses through the ‘90s and early ‘00s. Let’s trace Roberts’ career back to the first movie she starred in which allowed her to become such a big star today.
Roberts made her first on screen appearance in Satisfaction (1988), where she starred as a band member looking for a summer gig. Before Roberts’ landed her first movie role, she appeared on our television screens a year earlier, in a television series called Crime Stories.
Unbeknownst to Roberts back in the ‘80s, she was set to make it in Hollywood. The ‘90s would be the decade where she’d accumulate a lot of wealth and fame, and she would land a lead role in the 1990 film Pretty Woman. Stay tuned to discover more about Roberts’ career in the industry.
The Evolution of a Leading Lady
Julia Roberts (born October 28, 1967, in Smyrna, GA) is an American actress and producer, who was born to theatrical performers Betty Bredemus and Walter Roberts. Little did Betty and Walter know at the time of Roberts’ birth, they would later become the parents behind one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars. Sadly, Walter passed away in 1977, eleven years before Roberts would make her first film appearance.
Roberts attended Georgia State University; however, she didn’t end up graduating. Instead, Roberts moved to the bustling city of New York to pursue a lifelong career in acting. Once she had made the move to New York, Roberts undertook acting classes to improve her employability as an actress.
Her first acting stint in Satisfaction (1988) opened up the doors to Roberts’ acting career, but this wasn’t the film that led to her rise to fame. It was her lead role in worldwide hit film Pretty Woman (1990) that resulted in the accumulation of mass fame and upwards mobility in the entertainment industry. After this, Roberts’ was fast-tracked to stardom.
Roberts’ Breakthrough Role in Erin Brokovich (2000)
It wasn’t until a decade later that Roberts starred as the title role as Erin Brokovich – a well-known American clerk, consumer advocate, and environmental activist involved in the successful lawsuit against an American utility company named Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a film for which Roberts raked in $20 million.
Erin Brokovich would later become the film that earned Roberts her first Academy Award for Best Actress in her role. Even Owen Gleiberman, an American film critic who writes for Entertainment Weekly praised Roberts for the realistic representation of her character, noting that ‘in her most forceful dramatic performance, [Roberts] allows us to take in every moment through fresh, impassioned eyes.’
Another Famous Role: Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
Just a year after the release of Erin Brokovich came Ocean’s Eleven, a film that Roberts worked on with Steven Soderbergh (who was also the director of Erin Brokovich) starring as Tess Oceans. Ocean’s Eleven would later become the fifth highest-grossing film of 2001, grossing at $450 million worldwide.
From Moviestar To The World’s Most Beautiful Woman
Over her career in the industry, Roberts has gradually built up her fame by landing roles in movies such as Sleeping With The Enemy (1991), The Pelican Brief (1993), Runaway Bride (1999), and Wonder (2017).
By expanding her fame, in the process, she has attracted the attention of various magazines. People magazine has named Roberts as the world’s most beautiful woman, not one, but a record five times!
More recently, Roberts has been spotted making a political statement as she stepped out in LA wearing a face mask with Barack Obama’s face on it.