Julia Roberts explains why she hasn’t starred in a romcom in 20 years

‘If I’d thought something was good enough, I would have done it’

Julia Roberts revealed that she hasn’t starred in a romcom in 20 years because she hasn’t found anything “good enough”.

During an interview with the New York Times Magazine, the 54-year-old actor said “people sometimes misconstrue the amount of time that’s gone by” as her “not wanting” to do a romantic comedy.

She said: “If I had read something that I thought was Notting Hill level of writing or My Best Friend’s Wedding level of madcap fun, I would do it.”

“They didn’t exist until this movie that I just did (Ticket to Paradise) that Ol Parker wrote and directed,” she told the magazine.

Roberts’s latest film, Ticket to Paradise with George Clooney is set to be released on 16 September.

The film follows the storyline of a divorced couple that teams up and travels to Bali to stop their daughter (Kaitlyn Dever) from making the same mistake they think they made 25 years ago.

Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant in ‘Notting Hill' (Moviestore/Shutterstock)

During the interview, Roberts also stated that her family is another reason she is picky.

“Here’s the thing: If I’d thought something was good enough, I would have done it,” she said. “But I also had three kids in the last 18 years. That raises the bar even more because then it’s not only ‘Is this material good?’ It’s also the math equation of my husband’s work schedule and the kids’ school schedule and summer vacation.”

“It’s not just, ‘Oh, I think I want to do this’. I have a sense of great pride in being home with my family and considering myself a homemaker,” she added.

Roberts said that she also has a “sense of responsibility” for “showing my children that I can be creative and that it’s meaningful to me – so meaningful that for periods of time I will choose to focus on that almost more than my family, which has been hard for me to come to terms with.”