Julia Roberts - Homecoming Queen

Life is pretty good for Julia Roberts right now.

Her Oscar-acclaimed career has afforded her the luxury of picking selective projects, and she’s successfully raising three children –with husband Danny Moder – away from Hollywood’s intrusive glare. Following her big-hearted performance in the emotional drama Ben Is Back, Roberts’ most recent role saw her embody a paranoid psychologist in the TV series Homecoming. marie claire sat down with Roberts to discuss her 30-year run as America’s queen of the screen.

marie claire: Your roles have become so iconic that to some you’ll always be Erin Brockovich or Vivian from Pretty Woman – yet you never even aspired to be an actress.

Julia Roberts: Both of my parents were actors, my brother [Eric], who is 11 years older than me, is an actor, and my older sister [Lisa] also left home to take classes to become an actress. So, after high school, I left as well, mainly because I missed my sister. I moved to New York with her and found a job in a shoe store. I was a completely ordinary teenager and I didn’t really know what I was going to do. It wasn’t a goal.

MC: And yet you became the American star. After three decades in Hollywood, what has been your strongest attribute?

JR: Staying focused. You have to know what you want, be clear about what you are doing and why you are doing it. The further I go in this industry, the more I appreciate how lucky I am to work with the people I’ve worked with. My last role [in Homecoming] is the most amazing and fulfilling one I’ve ever had. And it’s really extraordinary that after so many years, I can still say to myself: this is my best role!

MC: Have you always been confident?