When Ticket to Paradise, starring Julia Roberts and George Clooney, hits theaters later this year, Roberts will be directing a romantic comedy for the first time in more than 20 years. The genre made Roberts a global superstar in the 1990s, from her Oscar-nominated performance in Pretty Women to the rom-com classics My Best Friend’s Wedding and Notting Hill. For the last traditional rom-com directed by Roberts, you’d have to go back as far as 2001’s America’s Sweethearts (she had small roles in the ensemble rom-coms Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, as well as romantic twists on dramas like ” Eat Pray Love” and romance novels like “Duplicity”).
Why wait the two decades for another Roberts rom-com? As the actress recently told the New York Times, she didn’t intentionally shun the genre that made her a superstar. But on the contrary. Roberts said her extended hiatus from the rom-com genre was not her choice, but the result of a lack of an adequate script or idea.
“People sometimes misinterpret the time that’s gone by when I haven’t done a romantic comedy as that I didn’t want to do one,” Roberts said. “If I had read something that I thought had the level of wacky fun of ‘Notting Hill’ or ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding,’ I would. They didn’t exist until this film, which I just made and which Ol Parker wrote and directed.”
Ol Parker’s film is Ticket to Paradise, which sees Roberts reunite with longtime friend and collaborator Clooney. The film almost became another of Roberts’ rejected rom-coms because she thought it would only work well with Clooney. That was before Clooney came on board.
“See, George felt like it only worked on me. Somehow we both managed to pull it off and off we went,” Roberts said of returning to the genre.
When asked by NYT if she stayed away from romantic comedy for 20 years because “there wasn’t a single good script, not one,” Roberts replied, “Yes.”
“Here’s the thing: If I thought something was good enough, I would have done it,” Roberts said. “But I’ve also had three children in the last 18 years. That raises the bar even higher, because then it’s not just about “Is the material good?”. It is also the mathematical equation of my husband’s work schedule and the children’s school schedule and summer vacations. It’s not just, ‘Oh, I think I want to do that.’ I am very proud to be at home with my family and consider myself a housewife.”
Roberts added, “As they get older, and especially with my daughter, I have a sense of responsibility to show my kids that I can be creative and that it matters to me – so meaningful that I’ve decided to choose a certain.” Time chooses me to focus almost more than my family, who I had a hard time reconciling with.”
One of the biggest rumors to emerge from Roberts’ tenure as a rom-com icon was that her signature smile was insured for $30 million. The Oscar winner ended that speculation in her interview with The New York Times, saying, “No. What do I insure it against? how would you do that … I mean, if my smile was insured, every night someone at my house would say, ‘You need to floss longer.'”
Ticket to Paradise is slated for release on October 21st on Universal Pictures.