CNN –
With her signature mega-smile and timeless style, Julia Roberts may be a beauty icon, but she doesn't take herself too seriously.
When asked in a new interview with British Vogue what keeps her looking so young at 56, the actress responded with wry humor.
“Pickling. I stuck my head in the glass for 18 hours every other Saturday. It works wonders,” she joked. “The smell is terrible.”
Roberts is on the cover of the February issue of British Vogue. In a related interview for the magazine with Notting Hill screenwriter Richard Curtis, she talks timeless beauty, the “feminist” choices she's made in her career and what it feels like to be one of Hollywood's most famous faces be.
All joking aside, Roberts says the key to youthfulness lies in the people and experiences that make up her life. Of course, genetics also help.
“Good genes, living a fulfilling life, and I've said this – and I usually say it in jest – but I believe in the love of a good man,” she told the publication. “I believe that my husband loves me and cares for me in a way that makes me deeply happy. And when you see someone happy, it doesn’t matter how old they are.”
The world largely knows Roberts as “America's Sweetheart,” a title that followed star-making roles in popular romantic comedies like “My Best Friend's Wedding,” “Pretty Woman” and, of course, the 2001 film “America's Sweethearts.” (Outside the genre, Roberts won a Best Actress Oscar in 2001 for her portrayal of the titular Erin Brockovich and a Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe for her role in Steel Magnolias in 1990, among other trophies.)
Roberts is aware that the audience finds her likeable, for better or worse. “I want to say that I think there's something in me that always makes people feel comfortable or like they're seeing something familiar,” she explained. “If someone sees me in a grocery store and says, 'Why did you cut your hair like that?' It's not because they're trying to be rude. Because they feel like they know me, I sit behind them in church every Sunday.”
“It's the feeling of understanding someone you don't know. I guess if I look somewhat like myself in most parts, I'll remove myself from the role of a character actor. But I never feel like I’m playing myself.”
At that point, Roberts reminded Curtis that she almost turned down the film's star Anna Scott's “unpleasant” part in Notting Hill, calling it “one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.”
“It just seemed so strange to me,” she said of the role. “I didn't even know how to play this person.” And in a meta twist, Roberts explained that she hated dressing up as a movie star so much that she chose to do so in the scene where she did “I'm just a girl who stands in the middle” in front of a boy and asks him to love her.”
Skipping the wardrobe provided on set, Roberts said she sent her driver back to her apartment with instructions to search her wardrobe. “It was my own flip-flops and my cute little blue velvet skirt and a T-shirt and my cardigan,” she said.
Roberts also spoke about how feminism is reflected in her work and gave a nod to her decision not to do nude scenes in films.
“Not criticizing other people's choices, but not getting naked or being physically vulnerable in a film is a choice I guess I make for myself,” she told the magazine. “In fact, I choose not to do something rather than choose to do something.”