Julia Roberts argues that audiences didn't appreciate the rom-com boom of the 90s enough. An actress since the late 1980s, Roberts quickly became one of the most bankable stars in the entertainment industry. In the years since, she has garnered many accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and three Golden Globe Awards.
While she'd already been acting for years, Roberts first rose to the level of international fame when she starred in the 1990 romantic comedy Pretty Woman, which saw the highest number of ticket sales in the U.S. ever for a film of the genre, and earned Roberts her second Oscar nomination and second Golden Globe Award win. She went on to dominate the rom-com genre in the 1990s with lead roles in notable films like Notting Hill and My Best Friend’s Wedding.
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Now, in an interview with The New York Times, Roberts is making the case that audiences didn't appreciate the romantic-comedy boom in the 1990s enough. She explains that, because people don't get to see the work that goes into producing rom-coms, the movies are often just dismissed as simply saccharine fun. Read Roberts' quotes below:
"I think we didn’t appreciate the bumper crop of romantic comedies that we had then. You don’t see all the effort and puppet strings because it’s fun and sweet and people are laughing and kissing and being mischievous."
"This is a genre that I love to participate in and watch, and I think they are hard to get right. There is a really simple math to it, but how do you make it special? How do you keep people interested when you can kind of predict what is coming?"
This isn't the first time the actress has been outspoken about the demise of the genre she rose to fame through. Earlier this year, Roberts revealed the reason she hasn't been in a rom-com in about 20 years is that the lack of good scripts has turned her away from the genre, saying, "If I had read something that I thought was that Notting Hill level of writing or My Best Friend’s Wedding level of madcap fun, I would do it." It wasn't until she happened upon the script for her upcoming film Ticket to Paradise that she felt inclined to finally make a return to the genre largely responsible for making her a household name.
In Ticket to Paradise, she stars opposite George Clooney, with whom she's collaborated previously. Set to release theatrically in October of this year, the film follows a divorced couple who reunite and head to Bali in order to stop their daughter from getting married. It should be interesting to see Roberts, arguably the queen of the 90s rom-com, return to the genre after so much time away from it. Hopefully, this time, audiences will have a better appreciation for all the work that goes into a Julia Roberts romantic comedy.