CHASING TROUBLE

Julia Roberts talks about the benefits of ageing, being a role model for her children and her controversial new film

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Julia Roberts was 22 years old when she starred in Pretty Woman, the film that would catapult her to worldwide fame.

Since then, she has won the Best Actress Oscar for her role in the legal drama Erin Brockovich and featured in smash hits including Notting Hill and My Best Friend’s Wedding.

Now — 35 years after that life-changing appearance in Pretty Woman - Julia is starring in After the Hunt, a controversial movie already tipped for awards. It’s a sign, she says, that her roles are only getting better as she gets older.

“I see that a bonus of ageing [is] that you get to play more complex things, because you have a greater life of resources to excavate from,” she says.

After the Hunt, which had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, follows a student at Yale University who accuses a college professor of rape. Julia plays Alma, another professor at the university, who is caught between a star pupil played by The Bear star Ayo Edebiri and her colleague and friend, Hank, portrayed by Andrew Garfield.