Eric Roberts Shades Sister Julia Roberts' Performance in 'Steel Magnolias'
Julia Roberts might be an A-list movie star, but her big brother, Eric Roberts, continues to try to keep her humble. “Julia was good in Mystic Pizza, great in Pretty Woman, but not so much in Steel Magnolias, in my opinion, even though it brought Julia her first Academy Award nomination,” Eric, 68, wrote in […]
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Julia Roberts might be an A-list movie star, but her big brother, Eric Roberts, continues to try to keep her humble.
“Julia was good in Mystic Pizza, great in Pretty Woman, but not so much in Steel Magnolias, in my opinion, even though it brought Julia her first Academy Award nomination,” Eric, 68, wrote in in his new memoir, Runaway Train: Or, the Story of My Life So Far, per Entertainment Weekly.
“I don’t want to sound like an actor talking, or a jealous sibling, but I don’t think her performance held up in that movie,” Eric continued. “When I saw her in Steel Magnolias, I thought, ‘OK, good, she’s almost a good actor, and one day she’s gonna be one.'”
Eric’s criticism of the 1989 comedy-drama — which also starred Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Shirley MacLaine, Daryl Hannah and Olympia Dukakis — didn’t end with Julia, 56.
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“Nobody’s great in that movie,” he wrote. “They all chewed a lot of scenery, and we know that if an actor cries on film, they go to the top of the class. They get the Oscar nod because crying gets a lot of credit. It’s the big joke in all acting classes, even in the great Lee Strasberg’s Actors Studio. Crying and dying bring home the bacon!”
Despite his harsh words about Steel Magnolias, in which Julia played Shelby Eatenton-Latcherie, Eric also apologizes to his sister in the book, which hit shelves on Tuesday, September 17, for once taking credit for her fame.
“One of the things I’d like to apologize for in this book is for publicly saying on more than one occasion, ‘If it wasn’t for me, there would be no Julia Roberts,’” the King of the Gypsies actor wrote, adding that it was an “asinine” thing to say. “That’s not only unfortunate, but it’s also untrue. … I was proud of her, but it was pride turned on its head, to my own advantage.”
Eric praised Julia’s “very driven” nature and guessed that “someone would have plucked her out of the crowd in a place like New York without my help.” Still, the Oscar nominee couldn’t help but take credit for Julia making her way to New York City in the first place.
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“If Julie had stayed in Atlanta, she’d probably have married a wealthy dude and lived a very different life,” he wrote. “So I will take credit … for telling my sisters [Julia and Lisa Roberts Gillan], ‘Come on up [to New York City], girls; the water’s fine.'”
Eric previously said during a 2018 interview with Vanity Fair that he was “very proud” of the role he played in launching the careers of Julia and his daughter, Emma Roberts.
“If it wasn’t for me, there would be no Julia Roberts and no Emma Roberts as celebrities, as actresses,” he claimed at the time.
Despite rumors of beef between Eric and Julia over the years, Eric said during a June 2022 appearance on the “Behind the Velvet Rope With David Yontef” podcast that the twosome “have always been fine.” He also shed some light on why people might have sensed tension between the siblings.
“I think years and years ago, I was doing a press tour for some movie … It was just when Pretty Woman [had been] released, and so they’re asking a bunch of questions about Julia. And I said, ‘Hey, excuse me. Can we talk about me?’” he recalled.
Eric has also admitted that his struggles with addiction put a strain on the pair’s relationship at times.
“I wouldn’t characterize it as a falling-out. I was crazy about my sisters,” he told Vanity Fair in 2018. “We all felt very protective of each other, but the hardest person to protect yourself from is yourself. … I was exhausting to be around: complainy, blamey, unable to enjoy enjoyment. Everyone in my world needed a break sometimes, and that must have included Julia.”
Eric opened up about his battle with cocaine addiction in Runaway Train, sharing that “the biggest consequence” of his drug use was losing custody of Emma, now 33, to ex-wife Kelly Cunningham. He noted that Julia agreeing with Kelly’s decision to pursue full custody created tension between the siblings at the time, but he now understands why she did it.
“I imagine I will remain as Julia’s brother and Emma Roberts’ dad for the rest of my life,” he wrote. “I’d like to make good on that, to move aside proudly and with grace. That’s part of the reason for writing the book.”
